Quote from Dan on Mar 24th, 2012, 9:28am:
The only use I could see using a horse with a sling is either dropping me off into battle where I would dismount the horse and sling at the oncoming force. Or if you had a Mule or wome kind of lad bearing animal, you could have them walk back and forth behind the battle lines carrrying extra ammo for the slingers sif they needed it.
Still slingers are best when being very very light infantry not heavy calvary.
Roman professional cavalrymen, at the hight of the empire's military might, practised slinging from horseback, as well as crossbow shooting and javelin work-- but not, note, horse archery. This is explicitly attested by two sources, one a speech by the emperor Hadrian, one a manual of military drill, both C2nd AD.
Was this a curiosum ? (i.e. showing off such level of proficiency that they could do tricks like horseback slinging). Or was this something tactically very serious ?
The way Roman cavalry works, in the imperial period, is a stage of javelin work from horseback (using the momentum of the horse), often with wheeling manoeuvers, and of course close in work with lance and sword and shield. You can see this e.g. in Tacitus narrative, or Josephus. It's well treated in the various books on Roman cavalry (Hyland, or Junkelmann, or Connolly...). It is possible that slinging from horseback (and also throwing stones from horseback) was something you did when prolonging the missile phrase, once you had used up your javelins and darts. I suppose that the disadvantage (not being able to put in full body torsion) is palliated by the momentum of the horse. The aim, then, is not long range engagements (like slingers on foot do-- perhaps extreme range, more likely tactically significant ranges like 80-100m), but being able to keep on wheeling back and forth by ranks, squadrons and individually to maintain a shower of missiles at ranged enemy troops, mounted or on foot. The range is not huge-- 40-50 m ?-- and hence well within the capacities of mounted slinging.
Did the Roman cavalrymen sling from horseback with a shield ? Probably, to keep themselves from return fire, especially if mounted slinging was meant to take place in the missile exchange.
No horse archery: this requires real training, whereas horse slingery is just an emergency special trick Roman cavalry do. Especially since some of them will have been legionaries, or have gone through legionary training (this is true of the elite legionary cavalry), where (if Vegetius is to be trusted) slinging and stone throwing was part of the basic training legionaries underwent.
Did the Romans invent this trick ? I'd rather say that it reflects the extreme versatility of their troops, included specialists like cavalry.
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Were there any mounted slingers??? (Read 1527 times)