You’ve heard of shooting an arrow, I suspect.
The Roman army had artillery, but it didn’t use gunpowder.
except it is a lot harder to accidentally shoot someone with an arrow.
. Historical references show artillery was first employed by the Roman legions at Syracuse in 399 BC,[citation needed] well before the Christian era. Until the introduction of gunpowder into western warfare, artillery was dependent upon mechanical energy which not only severely limited the kinetic energy of the projectiles, it also required the construction of very large engines to store sufficient energy. A 1st-century BC Roman catapult launching 6.55 kg (14.4 lb) stones achieved a kinetic energy of 16,000 joules, compared to a mid-19th-century 12-pounder gun, which fired a 4.1 kg (9.0 lb) round, with a kinetic energy of 240,000 joules, or a late 20th century US battleship that fired a 1,225 kg (2,701 lb) projectile from its main battery with an energy level surpassing 350,000,000 joules.