It seems that somehow, Chinese crossbows found their way to Greece. This might have happened even before the establishment of the empire of Alexander the Great. Anyways, some type of crossbows called gastraphetes were widely used in 397 BC by ancient Carthaginians in Sicily. And during siege of Tyre in 332 BC by Alexander the Great, reliable sources describe the use of these weapons by the Greek besiegers.

Romans borrowed Greek crossbows and utilized it in their military campaigns to a certain degree. After the fall of Roman empire when the Dark Ages came, there is not much evidence related to crossbows. Obviously, they were used by medieval soldiers, because we have extensive evidence on fights with crossbows during the battle of Hastings.

Crossbow soldier had numerous advantages in comparison to longbow archer. It was one of the reasons why European armies used crossbows extensively till sixteen century. It was extremely easy to train anybody to use a crossbow within a week or so, while it took years of practice and for an archer to master shooting from a longbow.

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