The Battering Ram is the earliest, simplest, most effective device for destroying stone walls and the ordinary defenses of fortified towns. The primitive ram was a huge beam of seasoned and tough wood, hoisted on the shoulders of men. Running with it at full speed against a wall, gate, or palisade, they did what damage they could with one charge after another. Ancient armies used two different kinds of battering ram, one type was suspended and swinging, like a pendulum, and the other moved on rollers. Battering rams had an important effect on the evolution of defensive walls, which were constructed ever more ingeniously in a bid to nullify the effects of siege engines. Historical instances of the usage of battering rams in sieges of major cities include: destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, the Crusades,the fall of Rome and the siege of Constantinople.
