Strabo's Geography Book 3 Chapter 5
URL is
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/3E*.html On account of the same fertility of their islands, however, the inhabitants are ever the object of plots, albeit they are peaceable; still they are spoken of as the best of slingers. And this art they have practised assiduously, so it is said, ever since the Phoenicians took possession of the islands.
but the people used to go forth to their fights without a girdle on — with only a goat-skin, wrapped round the arm, or with a javelin that had been hardened in the fire (though in rare cases it was also pointed with a small iron tip), and with three slings worn round the head, of black-tufted rush (that is, a species of rope-rush, out of which the ropes are woven; and Philetas, too, in his "Hermeneia" says, "Sorry his tunic befouled with dirt; and round about him his slender waist is entwined with a strip of black-tufted rush," meaning a man girdled with a rush-rope), of black-tufted rush, I say, or of hair or of sinews: the sling with the long straps for the shots at short range, and the medium sling for the medium shots. And their training in the use of slings used to be such, from childhood up, that they would not so much as give bread to their children unless they first hit it with the sling. This is why Metellus, when he was approaching the islands from the sea, stretched hides above the decks as a protection against the slings. And he brought thither as colonists three thousand of the Romans who were in Iberia.
One of the footnotes for this is
Diodorus Siculus, who says (5.18): "Their equipment for fighting is three slings (so also Florus 3.8 = 1.43 in Rossbach's ed.); and, of these, they keep one round the head, another round the belly, and a third in the hands."
Florus----Epitome of Roman Wars
URL is :
http://www.answers.com/topic/epitome-of-roman-history-book-1 As the family of Metellus Macedonicus was accustomed to military surnames, it was not long, after one of his sons became Creticus, till the other was called Balearicus. The Balearic Isles, at that time, had infested the seas with piratic outrages. You would wonder that a savage people, living in the woods, should venture even to look upon the sea from the tops of their rocks. But they had the courage to go on board some ill-made boats, and, from time to time, surprised vessels sailing by with unexpected attacks. Seeing also a Roman fleet approaching from the sea, and looking upon it as a prize, they ventured to engage it, and, at the first onset, covered the shps with a vast shower of small and great stones. Every one of them fights with three slings; and who can wonder that their execution with these instruments is very sure, when they are the only weapons of the nation, and the use of them is their only exercise from their infancy? A child receives no food from his mother but what he has struck down with his sling at her bidding. But they did not long frighten the Romans with their stones; for, when they came to close combat, and felt the effects of our beaks, and the weapons that fell on them, they set up a bellowing like oxen, and fled to the shore, where, dispersing themselves among the nearest hills, they were to be found before they could be conquered.
Florus 3.8
Each one fights with three slings. Who would be surprised at their accurate strikes, since these are the only weapons of that people, this alone their pursuit from childhood on?
Virgil GEORGIC I
(
http://classics.mit.edu/Virgil/georgics.mb.txt)
Nathless then also time it is to strip
Acorns from oaks, and berries from the bay,
Olives, and bleeding myrtles, then to set
Snares for the crane, and meshes for the stag,
And hunt the long-eared hares, then pierce the doe
With whirl of hempen-thonged Balearic sling,
While snow lies deep, and streams are drifting ice.
Most of the other Authors mentioned above keep repeating the same information over and over again, namely that the Balearics used three slings and that they were extremely effective with it.
But this information is way out of period for the purposes of the SCA.In order to understand what was going on in the Balearics during the time period that the SCA covers we have to go to the written literture of the Balearics. As mentioned above the native language of the islands is Catalan, Not castilian Spanish. The study author does not speak Catalan and is way too rusty on his Spanish to make an attempt. There is however a book on slinging from the Balearics. And A very mechanical translation is available
( Url for actual Catalan Text
http://www.slinging.org/FBTFbook/Aprenentatge.htm.)
( The mechanical English translation is located at this URL:
http://www.slinging.org/FBTFbook/FonaENG.htm)
This book is released by the Balearic Goverment Ministry of Social Welfare .
In discussing the history the book describes some of the medieval history of the islands and the role that the sling played in it’s defense. All transcribing and interpretation errors are the sole responsibility are mine. Also for the actual Catalan text see appendix 1.
In all ways, in the Islands he|she|it did not stop making itself|himself|herself to go round the sling. Not in vain, the only attainable one in many cases, is a simple and cheap weapon. Between XV and XVII centuries, our coasts|shores suffered a series of pillage on the part of Moorish, Turkish, Genoese and French pirates; the victims, in many cases, were pagesos, that they were defended with well few arms: forks|gallows and slings. In the sidewalk of the sea of Menorca, above the crags, there are some hiding places from where a few foners could make go in cheesemongeries, or at least to delay, the desembarc of the pirates, while with the horn they warned the rest|subtraction of the region. The doctor Francesc d'Albranca, says that, in that of Binigaus, they fit towards twelve shooters, from where:
"... ten solved bassetgers made expensive to every a squadron of pirates." Fields, Folk Music. II 99.
Likewise, the farmers and the shepherds for the works of encorralar the livestock also used . it|him|her
And, how not, the ludic utilization, as a game|set, of children also turns up and seniors.
We see now a few texts that make reference to the utilization of the sling in the Islands during the medium and modern ages with different purposes.
In one of the paintings of the Palau Aguilar of Barcelona, dated in the 12th C. and that make reference to the conquest of Mallorca on the part of the king Jaume I, can be seen like a Saracen, above|up|upward a tower of him Almudaina, is defended with a sling of blunderbuss.
When, at the end of the 13th C., the admiral Roger de Llúria, in the service of the Crown of Aragó, the Dukedom of Athens conquered, among other troops an entry|game of Majorcan foners recruited. It is seen that its|his|her|their skills were still remembered.
"... to our far godfathers who trained us in the handling of the arch, crossbow and the sling..." Antoni Pons; History|Story of Mallorca, chapter devoted to the games|sets of XIV and XV centuries.
The edict dictated by the Il•lm one. Mr. D. Emanuel Sentmenat y of La Nuza, viceroy and general captain of the kingdom of Mallorca, on day 7 of October of 1684, he|she|it suggested|said:
-13
... we "sort y we command that any person of any degree or conditio sian who it|he will be seen to make battle to|in blows with a stone|throws of a stone ab bassetja...si will be of fourteen years an avant incorrega...en sentence|sorrow of serving as soldier in them exercised|exerted reyals for fear of two anys"..."Que any that will be found ab sling for the present incorregne City in the sentences|sorrows matexes, aso him if it will be of fourteen years in down in pene of twenty salaries y a month of prison, y if it will be of fourteen years in up, of serving as soldier in them exercised|exerted reyals for fear of two years"...
If the governor makes these prohibitions, it must be that the use of the sling was very usual
.. In the book there is mention of historical slinging competitions similar to what you would find with other missile weapons across Europe.
The first contest of shooting with sling of which we have knowledge is in the C. XV. One Hispano-Muslim, called Alcalayr, won 10 dukedoms of gold in a contest of this type. Ginés Pérez de Múrcia, in the 16th C., describes|portrays it like this:
"In the ciudad of Purchena, Aben Humeya, proclamado rey of Granada fear them Moriscos of weary Alpujarras, mientras reorganizaba sus huestes orders to call out, fear to gladden in sus gentes, unos courtship in them that him incluyen the arte y the deporte, among otros y of modo dcstacado, I throw it|him cone honda, that diez ducados cone will be rewarded of suit of the Spanish playing cards. Them honderos sleep them soldados homestead poor people, ya that not disponen of otra weapon. The target him a white rodela cone a rolde negro dentro, puesto in 200 pasos, y that at the end of the competición I come off des-trozada. Venció Alcalayr. I finish the cone espectàculo a sesión of tiros in seco."
In the island of Mallorca, during XV and XVI centuries, contests of shooting with sling were already celebrated, as it transpires from the two following texts:
It "is habit very ancient|antique in the main city, Sundays and parties of guarding, to make contests or fights among quarters: The Calatrava, Portella, that they do not have more reason for being than for to measure its|his|her|their aiming and destresa, even though with this they play the life, the pride and the honor; they make to finish its|his|her|their hostilities when deixen its|his|her|their arms, like any sport".
Joan Binimelis; History|Story of Mallorca. S. XVI.
Now that we have some documentation for the continued use of the sling on the islands up
BeltaneA_S1.jpg (404 KB | )
