siguy
Interfector Viris Spurii
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si vis pacem para bellum
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connecticut
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sling bullets.
here:
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 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 use: 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, or merely a monogram or single letter. The characters appear generally 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.
-walter hawkins
(i edited the passage to take out the stuff that leaves a person wondering where the point of it is)
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