Hail Caesar: Ballista with Hellenistic crew batteryBallista with Hellenistic crew battery Under Philip II and his son Alexander the Great, siege trains began to feature more prominently in hellenistic warfare. This trend continued among Alexander's successors, with their most famous proponent being Demetrius the Besieger and his famed, though unsuccessful Siege of Rhodes in 305 304 BC. Loaded with bolts or stone 'shot' the ballista was a highly accurate weapon (there are many accounts right from its