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Sling Spies in the Mithradaitic Wars (Read 7884 times)

Mithras

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Sling Spies in the Mithradaitic Wars
Apr 30^th, 2004 at 4:21pm

How about this use of the sling as an espionage tool in Appian's The Foreign Wars, recounting Rome's invasion of Greece (and here, the city of Athens) under Sulla:

[31] Two Athenian slaves in the Piræus -- either because they favored the Romans or were looking out for their own safety in an emergency -- wrote down everything that took place there, enclosed their writing in leaden balls, and threw them over to the Romans with slings. As this was done continually it came to the knowledge of Sulla, who gave his attention to the missives and found one which said, "To-morrow the infantry will make a sally in front upon your workers, and the cavalry will attack the Roman army on both flanks." Sulla placed an adequate force in ambush and when the enemy dashed out with the thought that their movement would completely surprise him he gave them a greater surprise with his concealed force, killing many and driving the rest into the sea. This was the end of that enterprise.

Is that cool - or what??

They shrink for fear, abated of their rage,&&Nor longer dare in a blind fight engage;&&Contented now to gall them from below&&With darts and slings, and with the distant bow.&&&&Aeneid 9.503&&

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Hobb Senior Member Offline Posts: 329 Denver, CO Gender:	Re: Sling Spies in the Mithradaitic Wars Reply #1 - Apr 30^th, 2004 at 5:58pm The sling as ancient spy-tech. Awesome! "And this, Mr. Bond, is a centipetal missive transference device. Don't swing it about, James, it's not a toy!"
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Johnny Funditor Offline Posts: 620 Goodlettsville,TN Gender:	Re: Sling Spies in the Mithradaitic Wars Reply #2 - Apr 30^th, 2004 at 6:47pm Mithras That is some great information! I'll have to look up Appian at my local library! Johnny
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Douglas Senior Member Offline Just give me a good stone and plenty of room! Posts: 260 Kalifornia Gender:	Re: Sling Spies in the Mithradaitic Wars Reply #3 - May 4^th, 2004 at 1:25pm Maybe it's just me, but finding a specific sling-stone after its been thrown has always been a chancy affair for me...
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Johnny Funditor Offline Posts: 620 Goodlettsville,TN Gender:	Re: Sling Spies in the Mithradaitic Wars Reply #4 - May 4^th, 2004 at 1:33pm Maybe they thought it was a fortune cookie with the little note thingy hanging out. Johnny
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Chris Slinging.org Administrator Offline Slinging Rocks! Posts: 1284 USA Gender:	Re: Sling Spies in the Mithradaitic Wars Reply #5 - May 4^th, 2004 at 4:17pm Another projectile type to add to the list: message. Chris
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siguy Interfector Viris Spurii Offline si vis pacem para bellum Posts: 1714 connecticut Gender:	Re: Sling Spies in the Mithradaitic Wars Reply #6 - May 8^th, 2006 at 7:45pm i think that this was disscussed in another topic somewhere pretty recently. we discussed clay balls which would break open on impact as another possible chamber.
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Willeke Interfector Viris Spurii Past Moderator Offline Give me some string and I know what to do. Posts: 2072 Netherlands Gender:	Re: Sling Spies in the Mithradaitic Wars Reply #7 - May 9^th, 2006 at 2:01am I know it was discussed recently, that is one of the reasons I did move this thread to this part of the forum. Willeke
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Leeds_Lobber Guest	Re: Sling Spies in the Mithradaitic Wars Reply #8 - May 10^th, 2006 at 5:30am yes, it was discussed. The spies must have been in contact with Lucius Cornelius Sulla before the siege bit, as like you say, who would be picking up sling bullets and reading the messages scratched in unless they knew to look for them? Pat Stoddart Mithridates Eupator Fanboy.
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lobohunter Interfector Viris Spurii Offline where be a rock and a string there be a sling Posts: 1945 Cottage Grove or Gender:	Re: Sling Spies in the Mithradaitic Wars Reply #9 - May 10^th, 2006 at 11:07am It seem to me that the spies would have a target zone. And receivers would know the pick up area. It still seem like there would be a fair chance of the messages following into the wrong hands
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slingbadger Interfector Viris Spurii Offline Don't Badger a Badger Posts: 3220 Akron NY Gender:	Re: Sling Spies in the Mithradaitic Wars Reply #10 - May 11^th, 2006 at 12:43pm Nahnahnah! Someone would simply catch it!
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CanDo

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Re: Sling Spies in the Mithradaitic Wars
Reply #11 - May 15^th, 2006 at 5:05pm

Quote:

It seem to me that the spies would have a target zone.
And receivers would know the pick up area. It still seem like there would be a fair chance of the messages following into the wrong hands

Encryption

I once spent about a week just thinking about making encryptions, and so came up with a system. It involved many changes with many shifting tables, randomly generated keys, many more randomly generated tables. The message cycled through hundreds of times. Even the file which was the 'key' needed to be processed over and over to become useful. All in all the whole thing was extraordinarily convuluted. My friend then made it in Java. Even though the TI-83 could only give "ERR: OVERFLOW", I don't suppose it would have taken more than 30 sec for the NSA Tongue

Well, that was fun.

For that time period, I'm sure that simple old "wrap around the broom handle" would have been adequate encryption.

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siguy Interfector Viris Spurii Offline si vis pacem para bellum Posts: 1714 connecticut Gender:	Re: Sling Spies in the Mithradaitic Wars Reply #12 - May 15^th, 2006 at 5:37pm wrap around the broom handle? i am unfamiliar with this type of encryption.
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CanDo

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Re: Sling Spies in the Mithradaitic Wars
Reply #13 - May 15^th, 2006 at 5:43pm

Alright so,
You have a long strip of paper or something else to write on. You then wrap it in a spiral around a cylinder and write your message across horizontally. When you take the paper off, there are gaps in between the letters. Fill those in with more letters.

If I seriously had to get a message to someone via sling though, I'd have pre established code words. It's very simple and effective.

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Taiki Interfector Viris Spurii Offline Don't tell my mom i'm here will you... Posts: 1255 belgium Gender:	Re: Sling Spies in the Mithradaitic Wars Reply #14 - May 15^th, 2006 at 6:34pm codes can be broken and words that are placed out of context are very suspicious the easyest way of doing this is make up a language with a friend and use it that way...
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