The sambuca was a ship-borne siege engine which was invented by Heraclides of Tarentum and were first used unsuccessfully by Marcus Claudius Marcellus during the Roman siege of Syracuse in 213 BC. Polybius describes usage of the machine: They were used again unsuccessfully during the siege of Chios. This may have been the siege conducted by Philip V in 201 BC, but neither source specified the date. A different design of machine, also called a sambuca, was used unsuccessfully by Mithridates VI of Pontus in his attack on Rhodes in 88 B.C.