Wikipedia
Balista or Ballista (died c. 261), also known in the sources with the name of "Callistus", was one of the Thirty Tyrants of the controversial Historia Augusta, and supported the rebellion of the Macriani against Emperor Gallienus.
Balista was the praetorian prefect under Valerian. After Persians defeated and captured that emperor in the Battle of Edessa, a body of Roman troops was rallied by a fiscal officer, Macrianus, and Balista. Joined by Odaenathus, the Lord of Palmyra, they routed the Persian army that was returning from the ravaging of Cilicia. Then Macrianus proclaimed his sons, Macrinus and Quietus, as emperors.
He stayed with Quietus in the East, while Macrianus and his elder son moved with the army against the West. In the Balkans, Macriani were routed by the commander of Roman cavalry, Aureolus, a general loyal to Gallienus, and killed. Then Gallienus invited Odenathus to turn against his former allies, Ballista and Quietus. Neither the time nor manner of Balista's death can be ascertained with certainty, but it is believed to have happened about November 261, and to have been contrived by Odaenathus. Another suggestion is that they were killed by their own men at Emesa.
Ballista is the hero of the Warrior of Rome novels by Harry Sidebottom.
Usage examples of "balista".
Scopus obtained a balista, by which it was hurled through the air as if in the act of springing.
Then appeared the smaller fish, the balista, the leaping mackerel, wolf-thorn-tails, and a hundred others which striped the luminous atmosphere as they swam.
Their walls were so thick that even the balistas, casting huge stones, were unable to breach them except after a very long time.
The men in the canoes rushed their boats toward the river-wall, and were met by another shower of cloth-yard shafts and a volley from the small balistas mounted on towers on that side of the stockade.
His proposals were answered by a general discharge, and his only son, a beautiful and valiant youth, was pierced through the heart by a javelin, shot from one of the balistae.