What Leonardo da Vinci weapon combined a chariot with blades designed to cut enemy soldiers?

Leonardo da Vinci’s scythed chariot concept combined a vehicle with blades intended to cut enemy soldiers.

Leonardo studied and redesigned ancient military ideas, including the scythed chariot. His version placed rotating blades or scythes around the wheels or body of a horse-drawn vehicle. As the chariot moved through a formation, the blades were intended to create a dangerous sweeping zone.

Scythed chariots were not Leonardo’s original invention. Ancient Persian armies are especially associated with them, and Greek and Roman writers described their use. Leonardo’s contribution was a Renaissance reinterpretation of the concept in his military notebooks and drawings, with attention to mechanical arrangement and battlefield effect.

The design belongs to the category of weapons that were more dramatic on paper than reliable in combat. Chariots required suitable terrain and could become difficult to control once enemy lines disrupted their movement. Leonardo’s scythed chariot is therefore best understood as a military design study, not as a documented successful battlefield machine.