Hero of Byzantium

Hero of Byzantium (Greek: Ἥρων), also Heron of Byzantium or sometimes Hero the Younger, is a name used to refer to the anonymous Byzantine author of two treatises, commonly known as Parangelmata Poliorcetica and Geodesia, composed in the mid-10th century and found in an 11th-century manuscript in the Vatican Library (Vaticanus graecus 1605).

Following a seventh-century defeat by the Arabs in the east and the Germanic and Slavic powers in the west, the Byzantine Empire found itself gutted of much of its territory and needed to re-establish its military excellence.

"Recent research has suggested that the empire first survived, and later expanded, by retaining and adapting military theories and practices from late antiquity.

[3] The Parangelmata Poliorcetica was an adaptation of an earlier (c. 100 AD) poliorcetic manual of Apollodorus of Damascus, but in place of the static, two-dimensional diagrams of that work, the Byzantine author used a three-dimensional perspective and scaled human figures to clarify the passages.

Hero includes tortoises (Ancient Greek: χηλῶναι—mobile sheds used to protect troops from attack while approaching fortifications); a new Slavic style of tortoise called the laisa (Ancient Greek: λαῖσα), created from interwoven branches and vines; palisades; rams; ladders; nets; towers; bridges; and tools such as augers and bores.