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Title: Observations on The Use of the Sling as a Warlike
Weapon Among the Ancients.
In a letter addressed to Sir Henry Ellis, K.H., F.R.S.,
&c., Secretary, London
Printed By J.B. Nichols and Son, 25, Parliament-Street,
Archaeologia, Vol. XXXII. pp. 96-107, 1847
Converted
to typed text by Mike Greenfield.
36, Finsbury Circus, 23rd November, 1846
My Dear Sir Henry,
As I believe that the collection of the Society of Antiquaries
of London does not include a specimen of the Leaden-pellet
or Sling-bullet of the Greeks, I do myself the honour
to forward to you one; of which, together with the accompanying
drawing I beg the Society's acceptance.
This specimen was found lodged in the Cyclopian walls
of Same' in Cephalonia. The determination of its date
must depend on the degree of probability which may be
attached to the supposition that it was deposited there
by one of the Achaean slingers from AEgium, Patrae,
and Dyme, of whom there were one hundred in the army
with which the Roman consul, M. Fulvius, reduced that
place, after a siege of four months, B. C. 198 (Livy,
xxxviii, 29.)
It will be observed that in shape it very nearly resembles
an almond. It appears to exhibit on the one side the
characters (in Greek) or (in Greek), commencing at the
smaller or taper end, and extending to the larger, where
they are slightly defaced in consequence of the forcible
compression of the pellet from the impact.
If the word be (in Greek), or in the Ionic dialect (in
greek), it will mean "Appear" or "Show
yourself." The other side seems to have been without
character or device. The superficial appearance which
it now presents is the natural result of a long exposure
to the atmosphere, which has produced an incrustation
of carbonate of lead or white lead.
In collecting materials for the accompanying paper on
the use of this species of missile among the ancients,
I have availed myself of the assistance of friends whose
attention has been especially directed to Greek history.
The importance of missiles in the military operations
of the ancients is not to be estimated by that to which
they have attained in modern warfare. The issue of a
battle in ordinary cases depended on the conflect between
the (in Greek) or heavy-armed soldiers; yet the (in
Greek) or light troops, whose office it was to discharge
stones, arrows, and darts, frequently rendered important
service, whether as skirmishers, in driving the enemy
from his battlements, in discomforting the wavering
phalanx, or in dealing death against the fugigives.
In this last capacity they constituted in some measure
a substitute for cavalry, a description of troops in
which the ancients were very deficient. But they afforded
most effectual aid in rugged and mountainous places,
where the regular troops, being unable to act, were
destroyed, without the means of retailiating, by the
slingers and archers on the surrounding heights. One
cause of the undue depreciation of missile warfare amongst
the Greeks, and of the disasters which its neglect entailed
upon some of the finest armies, may be recognised in
the pride of wealth or of valour which taught the citizen-soldier
to regard the rank of the heavy-armed as the more honourable,
whether on account of his more costly equipment, or
of his more perilous post. The low estimation in which
slingers were held is evinced by the fact that generals
who wished to degrade or deteriorate a conquered people
not unfrequently armed them with slings, and forbad
them the use of any other weapon. This policy was adopted
by Cyrus the Great (about B. C. 540) towards the Phrygians
and Lydians. And Xenophon remarks that Cyrus considered
the sling to be of all weapons the most dishonourable
and servile: "For," he proceeds, "although
slingers when combined with other forces are sometimes
of the greatest service, yet not even a large body,
if unsupported, could withstand the attack of a few
men armed for close combat." The truth of this
observation was evinced at the battle of Pharsalia,
B. C. 48. Pompey's bow-men and slingers, of which description
of troops there was a large number in his army, having
been left exposed by the flight of the cavalry, were
quickly cut to pieces by Caesar's reserve. Again, Quintus
Curtius represents Alexander, before the battle of the
Gaugamela or Arbela, B. C. 331, as endeavouring to inspire
his soldiers with contempt of their adversaries by reminding
them that while some of them are armed with a javelin,
others with a sling and stones, few are furnished with
a full accoutrement. But, though such was the relative
rank of slingers with respect to their comrades in arms,
there were periods in which their importance in warfare
was irresisitbly forced upon the attention of the Greek
generals and statesmen.
Our chief difficulty in tracing historically the use
of the sling arises from the circumstance that under
the name of "light troops' were comprehended several
distinct classes of soldiers; the slingers, the bow-men,
the javelin-men, and the stone-casters; and that the
Greek historians more frequently use the general term
than the specific denomination. We shall however, without
professing to supply a complete history of the sling,
be able to discover its chief epochs, and to collect
accounts of some of the most important campaigns in
which it was employed, together with some notices by
ancient historians of its peculiar excellencies and
deficiencies, as an engine of warfare.
The invention of the sling is attributed by Pliny to
the Phoenicians, by Vegetius to the Baleares, (who were
Phoenician colonists,) and by Strabo to the AEtolians.
It was called in Greek (in greek), and in Latin 'funda'.
It consisted of a thong of leather, a string of sinew,
or a cord of twisted wool, hair, or hemp, of greatest
width in the middle, where the stone or bullet rested;
sometimes, however, a kind of cup was attached for the
reception of the missle; of the two ends, the one which
was to be held firmly in the hand usually terminated
in a loop or handle. Slings varied in length according
to circumstances, the shorter ones being used in the
assault upon besieged towns, and the longer to gall
an enemy from a distant eminence; for the projection
of large stones they were constructed with two, three,
or more cords. Cheapness and compactness were advantages
offered by the sling over all other offensive weapons,
and it often could be employed when other arms were
unavailable (positis hatis). Virg. AEn. ix. 589. Stones
or bullets could be projected from a sling to greater
distance than either arrows from a bow, or javelins
with the aid of a thong. The projectiles used in slings
were in earlier times smooth pebbles, but afterwards
leaden bullets; they were carried either in a bag (in
Greek, 'marsupium') hung over the shoulder, or in the
folds of the outer dress.
Most of these particulars are admirably illustrated
by the representations of slingers upon the Egyptian
monuments (as engraved in Wilkinson's Egypt, vol.i.316)
and by those upon the columns of Trajan and Antonine.
(See Montfaucon and Bartoli.)
Many of the nations of antiquity are said to have attained
most wonderful skill in the use of this weapon. Thus,
the Benjamites, mentioned in the Book of Judges, could
"sling stones at a an hair-breadth and not miss."
But amongst the most celebrated were the inhabitants
of the Balearic isles (now Majorca and Minorca), whose
name is derived by Polybius from (in Greek), "to
cast." Of this people Diodorus Siculus says that
"they can hurl far larger stones than any others,
and with so great force that the missile might be supposed
to be projected from a catapult; and yet so accurate
is their aim that they rarely miss their mark. This
extraordinary skill is acquired by constant practice
in their boyhood; for a custom obtains among this people
of fastening pieces of bread upon poles, and compelling
their children to win their meal by striking it from
a distance with a sling-stone." They usually carried
with them three (in Greek) of different lengths, to
serve either as bands or as slings; one of these was
bound round the head, the second round the loins, and
the third was carried in the hand. Livy informs us that
at the time of the second Punic war (which was terminated
B. C. 201) the Baleares bore no other arms but the sling;
while in his own time, though it was still their chief
weapon, it was not used exclusively. We learn from classical
sources that the sling was in use amongst the Egyptians,
Indians, Persians, Carduchi, Ilerdes and Spaniards,
Cirtaei and Numidians, Belgae, Gauls, Greeks, and Romans.
Of all the Greeks the most noted slingers were the Archaeans,
Acarnanians, AEtolians, and Rhodians. The fame of the
Achaeans was perpetuated in the proverbial expression
(in Greek), "an Achaean hit." Livy relates
that the Achaean boys were wont to practise slinging
with smooth pebbles on the sea shore; "their sling,"
he says, "was made, not like the balearic, of a
single thong, but of three strengthened with stitching,
and thus they effectually provided against the slipping
of the bullet; they ply their slings with a longer range,
and with surer aim, and greater force than the Baleares;
they can hurl their missiles through small rings placed
at a considerable distance, and hit not only the heads
of the enemy, but any part of the face at which they
choose to aim."
On the other hand Thucydides, four hundred years earlier,
says, the Acarnanians had the reputation of being the
most expert of all nations in this species of warfare.
According to an ancient legend mentioned by Strabo,
the AEtolians won their land from the original inhabitants
through the issue in their favour of a single combat.
Their own champion was armed with a sling (the use of
which had been recently discovered among them), his
adversary with a bow, and the longer range of the former
weapon secured the victory to the AEtolian. The Athenians
were at most periods very deficient in this branch of
the military art, and suffered in the consequence several
severe checks and defeats. The chief application of
the sling among the Greeks was of course as a military
engine; it was however also used for the sake of exercise;
and Plato in his Laws advocates its adoption not by
men only but by women, as a means of invigorating the
body. The sling was assigned as an attribute to Nemesis,
by which was signified that Divine justice reaches the
guilty even from afar.
The earliest historical notice of the sling is about
the date B. C. 1406; it is found in the Book of Judges,
ch. xx. 16, where it is related that in the army of
the Benjamites were "seven hundred chosen men,
left-handed, every one of whom could sling stones at
an hair-breadth."
The next allusion is in the well-known account of the
death of the Philistine champion Goliath by the sling-stone
of David. Again, it is said of some of the warriors
who "came to David to Ziklag," B. C. 1058,
"they were armed with bows, and could use both
the right hand and the left in hurling stones, and shooting
arrows out of a bow, even of Sauls's brethern of Benjamin."
Amongst the weapons which King Uzziah provided for his
army, B. C. 810, were "bows and slings to cast
stones" (or as it is rendered in the margin, "stones
of slings.") See also II Kings, ch. iii. 25.
From these passages it appears that the slingers occupied
a far more honourable position in the Israelite armies
than in those of the Greeks and Romans; we also have
an intimation of a practice prevalent among this people
of accustoming themselves to the use of either hand
in slinging, and there is perhaps no need of attaching
any other meaning than this to the expression "left-handed,"
in the first passage. The value which the Israelites
assigned to the sling as an engine of destruction, may
also be estimated from the frequent use inthe prophecies
of the expression to "sling-out" a people,
as a synonym for total extermination.
Of the two Homeric passages which bear upon our present
subject, (Il. xiii. 599, and xiii. 716,) the word (in
Greek) (a sling) occurs only in the first. It is there
used in conjunction with the expression (in Greek) (a
cord of twisted wool), which is again employed in line
716, without any explanatory adjunct. In the former
passage Agenor is represented as bandaging the wounded
arm of Helenus with a woolen (in Greek); and the Scholiast
on this passage observes that the ancient slings were
made of woollen cords. From the second passage we learn
that Locrian slingers followed in the train of Ajax
Oileus, and rendered services at the time of the attack
on the ships by Hector and the Trojans. Their post in
battle was in the rear of the army, whence they projected
their missiles in security, and sorely galled the enemy's
phalanx. The supposed date of these events is about
B. C. 1184, three hundred years anterior to that of
the poem in which they are related. In later times,
the light troops were not unfrequently attached as servants
to the 'hoplites'; they commenced the battle by hurling
their missiles on the advancing foe, and then retreated
through the ranks to the rear of their own army. Thus,
in the first engagement of the Athenians before Syracuse,
B. C. 415, the stone-casters, slingers, and bow-men
on either side, made the first assault, and then the
trumpeters sounded the charge, and the 'hoplites' advanced
to the combat. Sometimes, however, at particular junctures,
the light troops were again brought forward to assail
the enemy with greater effect from a nearer position.
The conference between the Greek ambassadors and Gelo
of Syracuse, relative to their contemplated alliance
against Persia, B. C. 480, affords a good opportunity
of estimating the usual numerical proportion of slingers
to the rest of the army. The Syracusan auxiliary was
intended to be as complete in all its appointments as
the wealth of that potent tyrant could render it. The
proposed complements of the several departments are
thus given by Herodotus; 20,000 'hoplites, 2,000 horse,
2,000 bow-men, 2,000 slingers, and 2,000 light horsemen.
The policy of Cyrus, which we have described above,
rendered the proportion of slingers in his armies much
larger; thus, on his advance upon Babylon, he was accompanied,
says Xenophon, by a great multitude of horse and bow-men,
and javelin-men, and by slingers innumerable. Again,
in the disastrous expedition of the Athenians against
Sicily, B. C. 415, the proportion of bow-men and slingers
was made much larger than usual, in accordance with
the requirements of Nicias, who demanded that a large
body of these troops should be provided to form a counterpoise
against the enemy's superiority in cavalry. The armament,
therefore, was composed of 5,100 'hoplites', 480 bow-men,
700 Rhodian slingers, 120 Megarian light troops, and
30 horse.
Two years afterwards Demosthenes, when on his way to
join Nicias with the second armament, stopped to reinforce
his troops with slingers and javelin-men from the territory
of Acarnania. Reverting to a somewhat earlier period,
we read that in the year B. C. 429 the Lacedemonians,
having invaded Acarnania under the command of Cnemus,
were completely foiled and compelled to retreat before
the noted slingers of that country. The value of light
troops in mountainous localities is well illustrated
by the account of the reduction of Sphacteria, B. C.
425, when the redoubtable Spartans were cut off in detail
by the arrows, javelins, stones, and slings of the enemy,
without the opportunity of retaliating, or of reducing
the contest to a pitched battle. Thucydides in detailing
the circumstances of the calamitous expedition of Hippocrates
in Boeotia, B. C. 424, relates that the Athenians were
not at this period in the habit of including in their
army any organised body of light troops, and in consequence
were now totally unprovided with this description of
soldiery; while on the other hand the Boeotian force
was composed of 7,000 'hoplites', 1,000 horse, 500 peltasts,
and 10,000 light troops, which were stationed with the
cavalry on the wings. Yet, after the defeat of the Athenians,
and their retreat into Delium, the Boeotians sent for
a reinforcement of javelin-men and slingers from the
Malian Gulf, in the hope of speedily reducing the fortress
by their aid, so great appears to have been the importance
attached to missile warfare by this people.
Passing over other instances which might be alleged,
we arrive now at the expedition of the Greeks in support
of the pretensions of Cyrus the younger to the Persian
throne. The general and historian of the famous retreat
of the Ten Thousand, B. C. 401, relates that the Greeks
suffered severely from the slingers in the army of Mithridates,
while they themselves had no cavalry or slingers, and
were unable to reach the enemy with their arrows and
javelins. But Xenophon, having ascertained that there
were in his army some Rhodians who understood the use
of leaden sling-bullets, immediately organised a body
of 200 men armed with these weapons. The employment
of these Rhodians was attended with signal success;
and they were able, says Xenophon, to project their
missiles twice as far as the Persian slingers, who used
large stones. Darius Codomannus in making his dispositions
previous to the battle of Issus, B. C. 423, posted a
force of 20,000 slingers and bow-men, with his cavalry,
on the right wing, while in front of the whole army
he placed 8,000 javelin-men and slingers. Hence it would
seem that the policy of Cyrus was still pursued by the
Persian Court.
At the same period we find mention of Acarnanian slingers
in the army of Alexander. About B. C. 219, we read that
Philip III. of Macedonia was supported by an auxiliary
of 300 Achaean slingers; and we have already seen that
the Romans had need of 100 slingers of the same nation
to aid them in the reduction of Same' in Cephallenia,
B. C. 189. It appears, therefore, that the Acarnanians
and Achaeans retained down to a late period their ancient
celebrity as slingers.
The early notices of the sling which we have instanced
have been chosen, not so much for their historial sequence,
as for their importance in illustrating the mode in
which this weapon was gnerally employed.
Towards the close of the fifth century before Christ,
the use of sling-stones began to be superseded by that
of leaden bullets, and from this period downwards the
latter missiles are frequently mentioned both by Greek
and Roman historians. But before we proceed to describe
these bullets more minutely, we will adduce a few examples
of the use of the sling from Roman history. Livy informs
us that Hannibal, previously to his descent upon Italy,
B. C. 219, provided for the safety of Africa by sending
over 870 Balearic slingers; another body of light-armed
Baleares accompanied his own army, and 500 were left
with Hasdrubal in Spain. Again, in B. C. 206, when Mago
attempted to land upon the greater of the Balearic islands
(Majorca), the inhabitants hurled their sling-stones
in such numbers upon his ships that he was not able
even to enter the harbour. Caesar employed Balearic
slingers with eminent success in the Gallic war, and
on one occasion he routed the foe by the employment
of sling-stones of a pound weight, and of bullets. When
he invaded Britain, B. C. 55, he disposed his slingers
and other light troops on the decks of his ships-of-war
for the purpose of terrifying the Britons, and covering
the landing of his troops.
In the year A. D. 16, Germanicus, by a skilful disposition
of his slingers, obtained a victory over the Germans
in a rugged and woody country, where a hand-to-hand
engagement would probably have entailed a defeat. Again,
when Corbulo was attacking one of the fortresses of
Armenia, A. D. 59, he posted his slingers so as to gall
the enemy at different points, and thus prevented their
rendering succour to one another.
Slings were also used with remarkable success against
elephants, which, terrified as much by the whizzing
sound as by the actual blow, often turned upon their
masters and commmitted great havoc. We might easily
enlarge the number of our quotations, but enough have
been already adduced to illustrate this portion of our
subject.
We have before remarked, that towards the close of the
fifth century plummets or leaden bullets began to supersede
the ancient sling-stones. The name given to these missiles
by the Greeks was (in greek, in Greek), or (in Greek)
"leaden balls," and by the Romans 'glandes',
"acorns." This latter name was derived from
their shape, which very nearly resembles that of the
acorn, the olive, or the almond, and was calculated
to experience a comparatively slight resistance from
the atmosphere. Stores of these pellets of sling-bullets
were kept in the arsenals for future us: sometimes,
however, the metal was fused and bullets cast in the
camp when an engagement was already impending as was
the case in Caesar's African war, B. C. 46. The bullets
were generally ornamented with some device, such as
a thunderbolt, a star, or an arrow-head, or with characters,
as the word (in Greek), "Appear;" (in Greek),
"Take this; " (in Greek), "The King's;"
(in Greek), "Desist." Sometimes, also, we
find on bullets the names of the generals as for instance,
(in Greek), "Cleonicus'," (in Greek), "Calistratus";
and again, the names of Philip and Perdiccas, or those
again of the contending nations, or merely a monogram
or single letter, of which, after the lapse of so many
years, we cannot now hope to obtain a solution. The
characters appear generally to have been in relief,
and to have read from the smaller end to the larger,
where they are often defaced in consequence of the collision
of the bullet with some hard object.
Sling-bullets sometimes weighed as much as an Attic
pound, though the usual weights of the exitant specimens
are between 1-1/2 and 3-1/2 ounces. Specimens have been
found on the plains of Marathon, in Cephallenia, Ithaca,
and Corcyra, at Athens, and in the channel of the Ilissus.
There was another use to which these leaden projectiles
were applied (at any rate in later times), which we
have not yet mentioned; namely, the communication of
warning or of intelligence, as for instance by secret
friends in the enemy's camp. Thus, when Sylla laid siege
to Athens, and the city was at length reduced to the
last state of famine, a secret friend within the walls
informed the Roman general that on the following night
Archelaus (the General of Mithridates) intended to introduce
some provisions from the Piraeus. This information was
inscribed on a sling-bullet, which Appian calls (in
Greek), (an oval body, whether of stone or lead); and
Sylla was thus enabled to intercept both the supplies
and those who had charge of them. They were similarly
employed on several distinct occasions during Caesar's
war against Cnaeius Pompeius in Spain. At a subsequent
period these missiles, as well as the soldiers who projected
them, seem to have acquired the nic-name of "Martiobarbuli,"
a word which has been derived from 'barbus', "a
barbel," and said to mean the dainty fair of tit-bits
of Mars.
A favourite notion of the Roman poets, and one that
must be recorded not as a mere poetical extravagance,
but rather as a somehat hyperbolical expression of a
matured opinion, was that the bullet was heated and
almost liquified by its friction with the air. Thus
Virgil, in the 9th AEneid, line 589:
"Stridentem
fundam positis Mezentius armis,
Ipse ter adducta circum caput egit habena;
Et media adversi liquefacto tempora plumbo
Diffidit." |
Which
Dryden translates:
"Him
when he spy'd from far, the Tuscan King
Laid by the lance, and took him to the sling,
Thrice whirl'd the thong around his head, and threw
The heated lead, half-melted as it flew," &c. |
Again,
Lucretius instances the "melting" of the sling-bullet
in support of the assertion that all things are heated
by motion.--Book vi. 177.
"Ut
omnia motu
Percalefacta vides ardescere: flumbea vero
Blans etiam longo cursu volvunda liquescit." |
And
Ovid. Metam. ii. 727,
"Non
secus exarsit, quam cum Balearica plumbum
Funda jacet, volat illud, et incandescit eundo,
Et quos non habuit, sub nubibus invenit ignes." |
And
lastly Lucan, Phars. vii. 513,
"Saxa
volant spatioque solutae
Aeris, et calido liquefactae pondere glandes." |
Specimins
of sling-bullets with Roman characters are far more
scarce than those with the Greek letters. The largest
number have been found at Florence, where (as is conjectured)
there was formerly a Roman arsenal. Amongst the devices
in Roman characters may be mentioned the following:
'Feri', "Strike;" 'Fugitivi peritis', "Ye
perish in your flight;" 'Ital, et Gall', "The
Italians and the Gauls." And among the ruins of
Eryx, to the eastward of Trapani, (the ancient Drepanum,)
many leaden bullets for slings are found, some of which
are inscribed with imprecations. (See Captain Smyth's
"Sicily and its Islands," page 242.) We may
instance one of these inscriptions, which is translated:
"Your heart for Cerberus." Many of the ancient
sling-bullets which are still preserved are incrusted
with carbonate of lead, from the natural effects of
long exposure to the atmosphere, as appears by the specimen
presented, and sometimes with yellow oxide of lead or
litharge, where they have been submitted to the more
direct action of the sun's rays.
With the mention of a few peculiar applications of the
sling, we will conclude our historical sketch of the
use of the weapon amongst the ancients. Pellets of a
kind of porcelain or earthenware, and moulded like sling-bullets,
were sometimes used; they were discharged when red hot.
Quintus Cicero, Caesar's Lieutenant in Gaul, employed
these formidable missiles against the Nervii, B. C.
57. A new species of sling was employed by Perseus,
King of Macedonia, against the Romans, B. C. 171. It
is called 'cestrosphendone' by Polybius and Livy, and
was constructed to project a kind of dart ('cestrum')
of length of half an ell. It contributed much to the
discomfiture of the Romans at Sycurium in Thessaly.
Vegetius describes a species of sling in use in his
time (A. D. 3), which is more familiar to us as a weapon
of the middle ages; it is the 'fustibulus' or "staff-sling,"
and is described by that author as consisting of a staff
of four feet in length, to which was attached a sling
of leather. It was wielded with both hands. But stones
were hurled not only from slings, but also with the
naked hand. The armies of the ancients, especially those
of the Greeks, frequently included large numbers of
stone-throwers, (in Greek) or (in Greek). And in Homer
we constantly read of great execution being done by
the (in Greek) or large stones thus projected. Again,
as the advancement of the arts introduced new weapons,
engines were employed for the projection of stones and
darts. The slingers (in Greek, 'funditores') must be
distinguished from the stone-throwers on the one hand,
and on the other from the engine-men, ((in Greek), 'balistarii',)
who by aid of the balista (in Greek (in Greek)) threw
stones of half a hundred weight, a whole hundred weight,
and even three hundred weight.
We now pass to mediaeval and modern times.
The sling has often been assigned to the ancient Britons;
but there appears to be no adequate foundation for this
supposition. The Saxons, however, were celebrated for
their skill in the use of this weapon; and the Anglo-Norman
army seems always to have included an organised body
of slingers; but the use of the sling gradually became
obsolete, though it was retained for a long time as
a means of amusement and exercise. We have however evidence
of its employment in war as late as the end of the fourteenth
century, in the ballad entitled "A Tale of King
Edward and the Shepherd;" and at the commencement
of the fifteenth century, in the following passage from
a poem, called "Knyghthode and Batayle," quoted
by Strutt in his "Sports and Pastimes."
"Use
eek the cast of stone, with sling or honde
It falleth ofte, yf other shot there none is,
Men harneysed in steel may not withstonde
The multitude and mighty cast of stonys;
And stonys in effect are every where,
And slynges are not noyous for to bear." |
The box in which, for the sake of protection, the pellet
now submitted to the Society has been inclosed, is constructed
of the wood of the redoubtable Téméraire.
Some few particulars respecting this vessel have been
engraved, and a copy has been placed in the lid of the
box.
I have the honour to subscribe myself,
My dear Sir Henry,
With much respect, yours very sincerely,
Walter Hawkins.
|
