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What kind of sling did Romans use? (Read 558 times)
Giantslayer916
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What kind of sling did Romans use?
May 5th, 2025 at 1:48pm
 
I recently got some 45g and 75g lead glande that are similar in size and shape to old Roman glande that had been found. The slings I have have bigger pouches (balearic, leather pouch, smiling slim sling) and I would love to get my hands on  a sling that the Romans would have used that this type of ammo was made for.
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« Last Edit: May 6th, 2025 at 8:40am by Rat Man »  

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joe_meadmaker
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Re: What kind of sling did Romans use?
Reply #1 - May 6th, 2025 at 8:16pm
 
Unfortunately I don't know if that information still exists.  There aren't any sling examples from that far back.  We know slings were there, because we have glandes from ancient Roman times.  But the sling itself won't hold up for that amount of time unless someone is doing something to make sure it does.  We also know that Rome use slingers from other cultures.  So I don't know if there would be one type of sling that could be labeled "Roman".

This isn't Roman, but here's an example.  In this topic we were looking at images of Greek slings on vases and coins: https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1698105090.  You can see the images don't have much of any detail to go on.  If we had something from ancient Rome, it would likely be of a similar level of detail.
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Re: What kind of sling did Romans use?
Reply #2 - May 7th, 2025 at 11:45pm
 
Joe summed it up really well. I would however like to highlight the point he made about the Roman military taking on slingers of many cultures - we are never, to the best of my limited knowledge, told about a standardized sling being a part of Roman soldier kit. We know so much about the standard ancient Roman soldier kit, but a sling is never mentioned except as being a weapon useful to soldiers. And look at all of us here - we're a weird mismatched bunch of slingers, each with our own preferences. I love short and chunky Balearic style slings to lob stones of about a libra in weight, but there are slingers that use long noodly slings and quail egg sized stones. I'm no better or worse for using such a sling, and I'm sure we'd be formidable if all of us were put together - at least one of us would be bound to hit an enemy  Grin

So much of slinging boils down to preference, and I'm sure that's been the case for millennia. Different fibers, different styles, different grips, different weights, and even different stone/bullet size preferences. I don't doubt that the slings used to throw the ~45g lead bullets of antiquity would be very different from the slings used to lob stones weighing a libra. And even then, I would say that in whatever Roman-occupied region the soldiers were recruited from, they would likely use the slings they were familiar with, and modify them or otherwise to make them work with the ubiquitous sling bullets of that era. So, in summary: a Roman soldier could perhaps have seen and/or used styles of slings like yours  Wink
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xud9a - call me zud 👍
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Re: What kind of sling did Romans use?
Reply #3 - May 8th, 2025 at 4:54am
 
All that Joe and Caspian say is sense.
However, there is one artifact excavated at the Vindolanda site on Hadrians wall which is (arguably) a roman sling.
Make of it what you will.
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Sarosh
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Re: What kind of sling did Romans use?
Reply #4 - May 8th, 2025 at 3:40pm
 
there are also the egyptian slings but I would say they were made for close range or for rapid use on chariot. I don't think the romans would prefer woven pouch over leather pouch or split pouch

I haven't used rawhide but the earliest modern range record is with big rocks and rawhide lacings 29"
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19720419&id=XsdYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9H0...
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Re: What kind of sling did Romans use?
Reply #5 - May 9th, 2025 at 12:38am
 
@Giantslayer Are those glands from "siliconesword' ?
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joe_meadmaker
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Re: What kind of sling did Romans use?
Reply #6 - May 9th, 2025 at 1:22am
 
xud9a - call me zud 👍 wrote on May 8th, 2025 at 4:54am:
However, there is one artifact excavated at the Vindolanda site on Hadrians wall which is (arguably) a roman sling.

Good call out.  I don't think I've seen that before.  I found some discussion on here about that from a while back: https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1252088442.
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Giantslayer916
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Re: What kind of sling did Romans use?
Reply #7 - May 9th, 2025 at 9:53pm
 
@IronGoober, Yes they are from SilconeSword. I guess my real question iiw, what kind of sling would be best for this type of ammo?
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Re: What kind of sling did Romans use?
Reply #8 - May 10th, 2025 at 7:14am
 
https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1361973151/0
I was inspired from this to make leather pouches when I started messing with leather years ago.
check the pouch dimensions, these would be for small stones or for lead.
Although I havent done a lot of lead slinging I think split pouch with sewn leather pouch might be better than a split pouch or a plain leather pouch
PS: dates aren't bad either
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Re: What kind of sling did Romans use?
Reply #9 - May 10th, 2025 at 10:25am
 
New info I just found out this week.

Slingers from Rhodes were the first slingers to adopt lead ammo as their primary ammo. Rhodian slingers were primarily mercenaries. So they could be part of the Roman armies.

Some historical references state that Rhodian slingers used "plaited" slings and sinew. This suggests that they used primarily animal slings instead of natural fiber slings. So, probably a leather pouch with sinew cords. Also, the smaller ammo would work better with a lighter sling of this material and style, unlike the Balearic slingers, who continued to use rocks and heavier slings.
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Giantslayer916
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Re: What kind of sling did Romans use?
Reply #10 - May 20th, 2025 at 5:17am
 
After alot of studying I think the best sling for this type of ammo (Lead Glande) would be what people call an "Apache sling" I've made my own with hemp and kangaroo leather. But I my next experiment will be to make it out of sinew and kangaroo leather.
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Re: What kind of sling did Romans use?
Reply #11 - May 20th, 2025 at 10:16am
 
That looks really good! Thumbs Up
We needed that picture in the other topic about stitching a leather pouch on to a sling. Grin


Giantslayer916 wrote on May 20th, 2025 at 5:17am:
I think the best sling for this type of ammo (Lead Glande) would be what people call an "Apache sling"

Can you elaborate on that at all?  You could be right.  Just curious what led to that conclusion.
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Re: What kind of sling did Romans use?
Reply #12 - May 20th, 2025 at 7:36pm
 
The Romans had a 5 tier system for their army. Slingers, along with archers and javelins, were the lowest. This is because they did not face their enemy directly
  They were  called Numerii, or auxiliary. Informal companies, mad mostly of volunteers and prisoners who decided to join. They had no armor other than a small buckler.
They would act as a unit, all using the same underhand launch and all launching at the same time. Presumably the slings would all be the same as well.They would be used in an opening volley, then retreat to the sidelines and pick people off, sniper style.
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Re: What kind of sling did Romans use?
Reply #13 - May 21st, 2025 at 12:35am
 
Why's it called an Apache sling? It seems like a pretty simple design to me, wouldn't it be likely that it would have been used elsewhere too?
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Re: What kind of sling did Romans use?
Reply #14 - May 21st, 2025 at 5:35am
 
What you're saying isn't correct. If slingers were at the lowest level, why do they bear legionary stamps? A Roman battlefield was excavated in Switzerland. It had many glanders. They bear different legionary stamps. Arte did a good documentary on this. The fulminata was an elite unit and very feared. Your underhand theory is also untenable. The battlefield in Switzerland clearly proves this. There was very targeted shooting. In very mountainous terrain. Not possible with underhand. I was there and shot there.
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