Editing Roman siege engines (section)

== Army engineering corps ==

[[File:Young Folks' History of Rome illus216.png|thumb|left|Roman [[springald]]]]

{{Main|Roman military engineering}}
To facilitate this organization and the army's self-sufficiency, an engineering corps was developed.  An officer of engineers, or ''praefectus fabrum'', is referenced in armies of the [[Roman Republic|late Republic]], but this post is not verifiable in all accounts and may have simply been a military advisor on the personal staff of a commanding officer.<ref name="Keppie 1984: 99"/>  There were legion architects (whose rank is yet unknown) who were responsible for the construction of war machines who would also assure that all artillery constructions in the field were level.  Ensuring that constructions were level was the job of the ''libratores'', who would also launch missiles and other projectiles (on occasion) during battle (Le Bohec 1994: 52).  The engineering corps was in charge of massive production, frequently prefabricating [[artillery]] and siege equipment to facilitate its transportation.<ref name="Goldsworthy 2000: 144"/>