Hi all,

I'm a history student hoping to write my undergrad thesis on the use of slings as a tool of psychological warfare in the late Republican / Early Imperial Roman period.

I've been collecting together all the evidence that I can find to suggest that slings were used for the purpose (or at least served the function) of creating fear, decreasing morale, slowing down the enemy, etc. This could even be expanded to include how slings and slingshot were used to increase morale / cohesion on the allied side. I currently have a fair list of ideas, but I wanted to ask if anyone had any ideas / evidence to contribute just in case I've missed anything blindingly obvious. This notion has already been discussed on the forum in passing a fair amount, but the last discussion targeted specifically on psychology (that I could find) was from 2007, and we do not appear to have gathered all of our thoughts on this in one place since. This is an ongoing project over the next 8 months or so, and I'm hoping to utilise the expertise on the forum to get the best results!

For the time being I think I shall leave my own thoughts off this post so that I don't influence the responses - please feel free to contribute any idea great or small so that we can build the fullest picture based on the evidence available! Your ideas do not necessarily have to conform to the period restrictions - I am aware of several examples outside of the Roman period which are certainly useful for our understanding of how slings may have been used for this purpose - any thoughts are welcome!

I will post my own full thoughts once the project has progressed further, and perhaps the finished product will be available to share at some point after completion.

I look forward to seeing what you all have to say on this!
Mark1

In this regard only the use of various inscriptions (insults etc) comes to mind. I might be able to dig up.an academic article I found on the topic.

There is also the idea that whistling bullets were used for psychological warfare.

https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1470995579/0#0

A lead bullet as an SMS is a very convincing reason for psychological influence  :)

quick volleys of hundreds of slingers with resounding cracks almost like gunshots combined with the whistling bullets would be terrifying. then moments later seeing your comrades fall or get struck one by one at ranges further than average bow shots would instill fear before you could even see whos firing at you.

people like Archaic Arms or Acroballistics (Sarosh) or others im sure would have much better historic knowledge than i do.

irgendeinekiwi wrote on Aug 19^th, 2026 at 3:34am:

In this regard only the use of various inscriptions (insults etc) comes to mind. I might be able to dig up.an academic article I found on the topic.

I imagine you're thinking of Lawrence Keppie's Slingers and Sling Bullets in the Roman Civil Wars of the Late Republic, 90-31 BC - well worth the read. Please do let me know if you have more on this!

FloatingFlint wrote on Aug 19^th, 2026 at 4:46am:

There is also the idea that whistling bullets were used for psychological warfare. https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1470995579/0#0

This is certainly one of my best points - the only issue with this is finding corroborating textual evidence. We have a reference in Caesar's De Bello Africo (83) to "whistling of the slingshot" which caused fear among elephants, but this doesn't necessarily confirm that the bullets used were designed to whistle. Other than the examples from Burnswark (and perhaps a handful of others elsewhere) we don't really have much by way of archaeological evidence either! I personally believe that the whistling function was purposeful but proof is quite limited which makes it a difficult point to argue with confidence. If anyone knows of anything else evidence-wise it would be most welcome.

Thank you for your input! :)