funda_iucunda wrote on Nov 29
th, 2008 at 11:52am:
Vegetius wrote that the size of 163 cm was the absolute minimum to be enrolled into the roman army. funda iucunda
See, this is where we get into trouble.... Vegtius did
not write "163 cm" The metric system wasn't invented, let alone adopted until the 1790s. Some historian/translator converted Vegetius' actual written words into something he/she could understand without any qualifiers (like the original words in parenthesis). Vegetius may have written that a person had to be "three cubits and a palm" tall or some such (I don't have the original Latin before me just now)...
There were no internationally recognized units of measure, really, until the 19th century. And then there were at least two - the English system and the metric system.
Any attempt to quantify distance, size, weight etc. based on ancient writings and local/regional units of measure,
has to be taken with a large grain of salt.
We here have so much more quantitative and qualitative information about ranges, impact energy, etc. of slings and sling shots than any of the so called scholarly writers (whose 'experienced slingers' or other expert testimony never seems to come from anyone we've heard of). We should be seriously questioning those "scholarly" writers when we see blatant falsehoods, improbable numbers, etc.