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General >> Project Goliath - The History of The Sling >> interesting use for sling
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Message started by slingbadger on Apr 4th, 2006 at 6:15pm

Title: interesting use for sling
Post by slingbadger on Apr 4th, 2006 at 6:15pm
Found this in the Greek author Appian of Alexandria.
(c.95-165 )  
 This is from the Mithridatic Wars, that happened in Turkey
 " Two Athenian slaves- either because they favored the Romans, or they were looking for their own safety in an emergency- wrote down everything that took place there,enclosed their writing in leaden balls, and threw them over to the Romans with slings."
 Messages by slings, smart thinking.

Title: Re: interesting use for sling
Post by TechStuf on Apr 4th, 2006 at 6:28pm
And by the time the Romans dug out the glans from the chest of their chief intelligence officer, it was too late and the secret 'died with him'.


Buddum bum.


Thanks folks,  I'll be here all week!





Maybe.



TS



Title: Re: interesting use for sling
Post by Gard on Apr 5th, 2006 at 10:38am
How could the Romans find the glandes? With the speed a sling stone have, it would probarbly go pretty deep into the ground.

Gard

Title: Re: interesting use for sling
Post by CanDo on Apr 5th, 2006 at 12:45pm
if they watched the glands come down, i don't think it would have been all that hard. I'd assume that there was more than one copy; sling the same message several times.

And really, they are the roman army :)

Title: Re: interesting use for sling
Post by bigkahuna on Apr 6th, 2006 at 6:28am
"Oh yeah the Roman Army", Snicker, snicker.....Aleric the Goth. ;)

Title: Re: interesting use for sling
Post by slingbadger on Apr 9th, 2006 at 11:43am
I can imagine ( only my theory) that they would wrap the messages in thin lead sheet. They probably had friends on the inside.
 Turns out that the commander, Lucius Cornelius, found out about this, and leaked false information to the slaves, who, in turn, leaked it to the Romans.
 Turned out the Romans had a big suprise waiting for them when they tried a sneak attack.

Title: Re: interesting use for sling
Post by Leeds_Lobber on Apr 10th, 2006 at 5:08am
Lucius Cornelius was on the Roman side - commander inside was a real creep named Aristion.

Mithridatic Wars are my speciality.... and like all the authors of the time Appian tended to recount events and not look so much at the motivation or background to those events. As plenty of other rpeople have spotted, how the hell would the Romans have known to break open the leaden balls? Them slaves must have been in communication with Sulla before the siege bit - early espionage agents.

"The name's Bondsman - James Bondsman"

Pat

Title: Re: interesting use for sling
Post by MammotHunter on Apr 10th, 2006 at 7:46am
That's pretty cool! never heard of this before.

Title: Re: interesting use for sling
Post by slingbadger on Apr 10th, 2006 at 6:08pm
Yeah, I can just see it. A soldier with a glandes in his chest.   " Message for you, Sir!"

Title: Re: interesting use for sling
Post by MammotHunter on Apr 11th, 2006 at 10:19pm
"Sir, I have an idea! We put this paper with a message on it in a lead ball and we throw it over this wall. It's like email, but LETHAL!"
"Brilliant! Uh, what's email?"
"It's like this, but less dangerous."
"Oh."

Title: Re: interesting use for sling
Post by english on Apr 12th, 2006 at 3:58am
lol!

Title: Re: interesting use for sling
Post by Gaius_Opius_Fugi on Apr 12th, 2006 at 7:03am
It makes more sense to put the message inside of a freshly made (aka wet/soft) clay round.  If it DOES hit someone, it will break up on impact.

Cheers,
Adam C.

Title: Re: interesting use for sling
Post by siguy on Apr 12th, 2006 at 4:38pm
or a dried(not baked) clay glande, as it would go up in a cloud of smoke on impact, leaving behind the message.

Title: Re: interesting use for sling
Post by person3 on Apr 12th, 2006 at 5:29pm
They could of made the glande hollow, and of course, dried clay.

Title: Re: interesting use for sling
Post by slingbadger on Apr 15th, 2006 at 11:49am
Found another reference that clears up some of the questions.
 This is from The Spanish War, XVI, of Ceasar.
 Pompey's 2nd Legion was preparing to attack the city of Corduba. Naturally, the Cordubans had a spy in the Legion.
 " A bullet was shot into the cit of Corduba. It was inscribed that he ( the spy) would make a certain shield was visible to the city when Pompey's legion  was going to storm the city."
 It was probably some kind of shorthand code. Thats been done for thousands of years.

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