Slinging.org Forum - Print Page

Slinging.org Forum
https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl General >> Project Goliath - The History of The Sling >> Germania! https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1248124617 Message started by Gullinbursti on Jul 20^th, 2009 at 5:16pm

Title: Germania!
Post by Gullinbursti on Jul 20^th, 2009 at 5:16pm

Hello All,

Being a total history geek as well as being pretty much exclusively of Germanic descent (German, Norwegian, Danish), I'm curious if anyone has any information on the slings used by Roman-era Germanic tribes. There was a show (Discovery Channel?) called 'Warriors' that had a short segment with ancient Germanic reenactors who used slings, claiming it was a popular weapon for guerrilla style warfare against the Romans. However, that aside I haven't been able to turn very much up. Anybody know anything?

Title: Re: Germania!
Post by David Morningstar on Jul 20^th, 2009 at 6:06pm

Sadly, no. However, this book claims there are Germanic slingers depicted on the Aurelian column:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9bIdOjvocwwC&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=germanic+slingers&source=bl&ots=U54LuaWBZG&sig=6wA8bgOepXsjEcd-UGSj7vBNRDk&hl=en&ei=QehkSoDfDuKRjAfV9OH0Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Column_of_Marcus_Aurelius

Not to be confused with the Trajan column....

Title: Re: Germania!
Post by paleoarts on Jul 21^st, 2009 at 12:24am

i saw that episode as well but haven't heard anything else. what i did glean from it was that "german" literally meant 'spear men', that being their primary weapon.

Title: Re: Germania!
Post by Caldou on Jan 12^th, 2012 at 4:44pm

There are slingers in the Aurelian column, they may be germans :

To see the whole column : here
And the Trajan one
(Here for the slinger)

didn't want to create a new topic so I used this old one to share ::)

Title: Re: Germania!
Post by Dan on Jan 13^th, 2012 at 1:50pm

I saw that episode too, and I beleived somone posted the video clip on here, we mocked the poor imitaion of slingers they used, and then went on to other discussion.

I beleive they showed the one piece leather sling, showed them slinging somkind of weak underhand at a sheild 30yards away, and then showed a few of a few stones hitting a sheild.

I believe CA's comment was "If those stones that hit the sheild came from those slings, I'll eat them" ;)
You could probably find the thread if you looked around a little.

The sling was pretty prevelent in almost any army without a lot of funding due to it's extremely affordable aspect plus it's incredible performance.