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Slings at Alesia (Read 2017 times)
Thearos
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Slings at Alesia
Oct 11th, 2014 at 7:20pm
 
Slings appear periodically in Caesar's account of his campaigns in Gaul. In 52 BCE, in the final battle at the great siege of Alesia, he mentions how the sortie by the besieged Gauls led by Vercingetorix is driven away from the siegeworks (BG 7.81)

fundis librilibus sudibusque, quas in opere disposuerant, ac glandibus Gallos proterunt

"They (the Roman soldiers) drive off the Gauls with slings, one-pounders, and stakes which they had readied inside the works, and lead bullets"

But another translation could also read "with one-pounder slingstones, stakes and bullets"-- the word "funda" can mean "sling" but also "whatever you throw with a sling, sling projectile", and "fundis librilibus" would then mean "one-pound sling projectile" (taken together, since -que appears with "sudibus). It so happens that the Roman pound, at 300+ g, is not far off from the 400+ g which Diodoros tells us the Baleares could (did ?) sling, and Caesar did have Balearic slingers with him. Of course, the idea of throwing heavy stones and heavy javelins (the prepared stakes) need not be inspired by Balearic slingers, but the coincidence is interesting
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Rat Man
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Re: Slings at Alesia
Reply #1 - Oct 13th, 2014 at 10:32am
 
Great stuff, Thearos!  I've always found Vercingetorix to be one of history's more interesting characters.
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Thearos
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Re: Slings at Alesia
Reply #2 - Oct 19th, 2014 at 1:42pm
 
The reconstruction of the siegeworks at Alesia, in the open-air museum near Beaune, in Burgundy (Archéodrome):

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archéodrome_de_Beaune#mediaviewer/File:Archeodrome_...

Alas, wikipedia tells me that the site closed in 2004. Another ghost attraction park !

(pour l'ami Caldou)
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« Last Edit: Oct 19th, 2014 at 8:12pm by Thearos »  
 
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Thearos
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Re: Slings at Alesia
Reply #3 - Dec 23rd, 2014 at 9:00am
 
Here are some pictures of the archéodrome now-- a ghost park.

http://www.bienpublic.com/edition-de-beaune/2013/08/03/le-futur-musee-des-etangs
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