The Classical Weekly /

JOURNAL ARTICLE
The Ancient Slinger

Edward C. Echols
The Classical Weekly
Vol. 43, No. 15 (Mar. 27, 1950). pp. 227-230

Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press

DOI: 10.2307/4342755
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4342755
Page Count: 4

Topics: Weapons, Bullets. Sieges, Missiles, Arrows.

Ships. Hair. Armies, Aviculture. Sea birds

Were these topics helpful? g^ Q

See something inaccurate? Let us know!
 THE CLASSICAL WEEKLY
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V O L . X L I I I , No. IS M A R C H 27. 1950 W H O L E No. 1117

THE ANCIENT SLINGER1 among Xenophon's Ten Thousand were recruited to plait
slings for the newly-organized corps (/1na. iii. 3. 17). Livy
I n modern limes, the ancient practice of d i n g i n g ha*
(xxxviii. 29. 6 ) describes the Achaean sling: "Moreover,
fallen on lowly and evil days. In fact, the sling now sur-
tlie sling is not composed of a single strap, like those of the
vives largely in slang, for the only slingers reasonably
Daleares and other peoples, but the bullet-carrier is triple,
active in contemporary society are the hash-slingers, the
strengthened with numerous seams.. . V e g c t i u s (iii. 14)
mud-stingers, and the inevitable bull-slingers. Before the
says that slings were fashioned f r o m linen (cf. Vcrg.
advent of explosive forces, however, in the days when
Ceorg. i. 309) or f r o m sartae. T h i s ancient use o f " t h i c k ,
guided missiles were without atomic warheads and were
bristly hair" for the sling is especially interesting in view
still largely propelled by muscular means, the sling was a
of a discovery made by Aurel Stein in the Tilnrtan fort o f
popular and effective weapon, and the slinger one of the
Miran. O n the ninth century A.D. level, he found .. a
more highly-skilled workmen in the endless industry o f
sling o f strong and carefully woven goat's h a i r . . . . " 5
war.
Tlie sling-missiles, usually carried in a fold of the cloak
The sling, the logical extension of the palaeolithic arm
behind the shield or in special pouches, include stones, balls
to increase the force and range o f the hand-thrower of
of fired clay, and bullets of lead. The size and shape of the
stones, must certainly be one of the oldest of man's formal
stones apparently had little effect upon accuracy, hut water-
weapons. "The chase was pursued [by Neanderthal) with
polished stones were undoubtedly superior. David, going
spears or darts fitted with flint points, also by means o f
out to meet Goliath ( I Sam. 17: 40) casually . . chose
'throwing stones,' which arc found in great numbers in
him five smooth stones out o f the brook. . . and the
the upper Mousterian levels o f L a Quina, in the W o l f
AchaeanS, according to Livy (xxxviii. 29. 4 ) , acquired
Cave o f Yonne, Les Cottes, and various places in Spain. M
their skill by . . . hurling with a sling at the open sea the
I f one imagines, as is quite possible, that the throwing stone
round stones which, mingled with the sand, generally
was placed in a leather sling . . one can readily see it
strew the coasts." Xenophon {Ana. iii. 3. 16 f.) reports
would prove a very effective weapon." 2 Obviously, hides
that the Persian slingers had only a short range, since they
for slings were not lacking to the embryonic Mousterian
loaded their slings with stones as big as one's fist, whereas
slinger of 40,000 years ago.
the Rhodians, skilled in the use of leaden bullets, had a
The ancient sling was commonly a single, pouchless much longer range.
strap of leather, but other types were used. Rhodians
These leaden bullets were almond-shaped, tapering to a
1 Translations from classical authors are taken from the "I-oeh
dull point at either end, and the action of the sling im-
Classical L i b r a r y " editions.
2 Henry F. Osbont, Men oj the Old Stone Age (New Y o r k : 3 M. Aurel Stein, Ruins of Desert Cathay (London: Mac-
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1915), p. 213. millan, 1912), I . 443.

227
 THE CLASSICAL WEEKLY 229
paried a whirling motion to the bullet, increasing its pene-
trating p o w e r ; the rifling o f the barrel in modern weapons
accomplishes the same purpose. The lead bullets were often
inscribed with the name of the commander, but those used
at Asculum against the besieging army of Pompeius
Strabo carried a fervent FERI POMP — " H i t P o m p c y ! " 4 —
a fact that reminds one o f the current military supersti-
tion that every bullet has a soldier's name on it, and that
the soldier can be harmed only by the bullet which carries
his name.
T h e technique o f hurling with the sling seems relatively
standardized. O n e end of the thong is wrapped securely
around the hand ; the other hand keeps the missile in place
until sufficient centrifugal force has been established. A f t e r
the missile lias been whirled horizontally over the head,
preferably, says Vegctius ii. 23, only once (in the interests
o f accuracy and at the expense o f range), the free end of
the thong is suddenly released, and the missile flies away
in the direction o f a tangent to the circle.
A s far as " . . . a Balearic sling can send its whizzing
bullet." O v i d writes (Met. iv. 709 f . ) ; the distance is ap-
parently as indeterminate as the modern "stone's t h r o w . "
Vegetius (ii. 23) says that archers and slingers set up
bundles of twigs and straw, and generally struck them
with arrows or stones from the fustibalus, or sling-staff,
at a distance o f six hundred feet. Xcnophon (Ana. iii. 3.
16, iii. 4. 16) asserts that the Rhodian sling-missiles could
reach twice as far as those from the Persian slings, and
even further than arrows from most of the Persian bows.
H e also states (iii. 3. 15) that the Persian archers had a
longer range than the Cretan archers, and (iii. 4. 17) that
the Cretans were able to make use of the Persian arrows
picked up on the field. It is possible, then, to compare the
range o f the Rhodian slinger with that o f the Cretan
archer, and to conclude tliat the sling normally outranged
the bow.'* I f the archers o f Vegetius practiced at the six
hundred foot mark, then the fundilar, as well as the justi-
balator, could make use o f the archer's targets, and some-
thing in excess o f six hundred feet is an acceptable figure
for effective sling range.
But whatever the effective range, the accuracy of the
ancient slinger was fabled. T h e left-handed slingers in the
Biblical army of Benjamin could sling . . stones at a
hair breadth, and not miss" (Judges 20: 16). According
t o Livy ( x x x v i i i . 29. 7 ) , the Achaeans. "having been
trained to shoot through rings of moderate circumference
from long distances, . . . would wound not merely the
heads o f their enemies but any part o f the face at which
they might have aimed." Achaean accuracy was equalled
by that o f David ( I S a m . 17: 49), who appears to have
struck Goliath on tl»e only part of the forehead not pro-
tected by the helmet.
Annaeus Florus ( i . 4 3 . 8 ) remarks: "They Ithe Baleares]
« C f . C . Zangemeister, Claudes Flnmbeae La tint Inicriftat
(Rome. 1885 [= Ephemeris Epigraph**, Vol. V I ] ) , PP- 22 24.
« CI. Dio »lix. 26. 2.
fight with three slings apiece; and who can wonder that
their aim is so accurate, seeing that this is their only kind
o f a r m y and its employment their sole pursuit from in-
fancy? A boy receives no food from his mother except
what he has struck down under her instruction." Vegetius
(i. 16) also records this information. However, Livy
(xxxviii. 29. 5) awards the palm for accuracy with the
sling to the Achacans: . . they use this weapon at longer
range, with greater accuracy, and with more powerful
effect than the Balearic slingers."
The mythology of another island people, the Irish, re-
cords astonishing accuracy with the sling. Cuchulain o f
Muirthcmne, the Irish Achilles, once ". . . saw two birds
coming over the sea. ( H e ] put a stone in his sling, and
made a cast at the birds, and hit one of them."* A g a i n :
" A n d it was on the same day that Cuchulain, with two
casts of a sling stone, killed the marten and the pet bird
that were sitting on Maeve's two shoulders." 7
T h e Irish were, in recent times, still very good slingers.
" I n the Claddagh of Galway a favourite amusement, turned
at times into its original use as a 'mode of warfare,' used
to be casting stones with slings. 'When a man was able to
strike a shilling as far away as it could be seen, he was
considered a good shoL' I t is obvious tlvat the modern
Irish "good shot" could have held his o w n with the best
o f the ancient slingers.
The slingers, as an integral part of the light-infantry
corps, were put to a wide variety o f military uses. T h e
formal ancient battle, according to Vegetius (ii. 17),
opened with the advancc o f the light-armed troops in front
o f the two lines of heavy-armed infantry. I f the enemy
gave ground, the light-armed infantry pursued t h e m ; but
i f the light-armed troops were repulsed, they retired
through the intervals o f the legion without occasioning
the least disorder in the line. F o r this reason, Vegetius
(i. 20) states, only the most active and best disciplined
men were chosen for service with this corps. (Contrast
this position with the status of the slingers in the Table
o f Organization o f Servius Tullius. 9 where they were
rated equal to the horn-blowers, and were only one step
removed from the non-coml»atants.) Thucydides (vi. 69)
describes such a "text-book" battle in Sicily.
In addition to this regular battle duty, the slingers were
often called upon to furnish protection for other troops.
Xcnophon (Ana. v. 2. 13-15) attacked the Drilae with a
rush of the heavy infantry at full speed, under cover of
a storm o f missiles, lances, arrows, and sling-stones.
Arrian (Ana. iv. 4. 5) describes a Scythian attack upon
the army o f Alexander as it was engaged in crossing the
river Tanais. Alexander " . . . disembarked first the archers
tt Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory (trans, am] e d . ) , Cuchulain
of Muirthemnc (London: J o h n Murray, 1919), p. 41.
7 Ibid., p. 197.
* E. Kst/n EVMM. Irish Heritage ( D u n d a l k , I r e l a n d : Dundalxtn
I'TCM, 194*), p. 174.
v Livy i. 43. 7 f.
 THE CLASSICAL WEEKLY
and slingcr5, and bade them sling and shoot at the Scy-
thians, to keep them from approaching the phalanx of the
infantry as it was disembarked. . . . "
Troops caught in topographically straitened circum-
stances were especially vulnerable to the sling. T h e Spar-
tan hoplites trapped on Pylos, finally exhausted by the
hit-and-run tactics of the Athenian archers and slingers,
surrendered for the first time in sizeable numbers. 1 0 The
situation was reversed in Sicily; there the defeated and
retreating Athenian armies were severely punished by the
Sicilian missile-men. 11
The sling was of value in both offensive and defensive
siege warfare. D u r i n g the Peloponnesian attack on Stratus,
Thucydides (ii. 81. 8 ) informs us, the men of Stratus did
not come to close quarters with the enemy, since the other
Acarnanians had not as yet arrived, but kept slinging at
them from a distance and distressing them greatly. A t the
siege o f Same, Livy ( x x x v i i i . 29. 3 ) reports, a device was
finally found to keep the sallying Samear.s in check: " A
hundred slingers were recruited from A e g i u m and Patrae
and D y m a e . . . [whosej slings prevented the Sameans
from making sallies so frequently or so boldly " A t the
siege of Uxellodunum, Caesar (BG viii. 40. S) used the
slingers to keep the townspeople away from the river, and
at the siege of Bibrax (ii. 7 . 1 ) he sent the Balearic slingers
to aid his beleaguered allies. I n Gaul, Caesar appears to
have made extensive use o f the slingers only in the Belgian
c a m p a i g n ; 1 5 on the other hand, slingers arc frequently
mentioned in the Bellum Civile and are employed to good
advantage both by Caesar and by P o m p e y . "
In addition to other such specialized assignments as en-
gaging war elephants 14 and serving as a rear guard for a
retreating army, 1 * the slingers were occasionally amphibi-
ous. Thucydides (vii. 70. 5) describes an Athenian-Syra-
cusan sea battle: " A n d as long as a ship was bearing down,
the men on the decks o f the opposing ship used against it
javelins and arrows and stones without stint." Florus
(i. 43. 8 ) describes a Balearic sea-borne attack: " Y o u may
wonder that savages w h o dwelt in the woods should ven-
ture even to look upon the sea f r o m their native rocks, but
they actually went on board roughly constructed ships, and
f r o m time to time terrified passing ships by attacking them
unexpectedly. W h e n they had espied the R o m a n licet ap-
proaching from the open sea, thinking it an easy prey, they
actually dared to assail it. and at the first onslaught cov-
ered it with a shower o f stones and rocks."
The slingers served the ancient a r m y as a mobile artil-
lery corps, versatile and adaptable, roughly analogous to
the modern weapons company, which supplies light artil-
lery support on the regimental level. They did, as indicated,
10 Thucydides iv. 32-37.
11 Thucydides vii. 8183.
H C u u r BG ii. 10. 19. 24.
u C u » i BC i. 27; iii. 4, 44. 46, W . 93, 94.
14 Vcgetios iii. 24.
18 Carta r BC i. 27.
229
make themselves useful in a respectable variety o f ways.
O n e o f the more interesting aspects of the ancient sling
is the somewhat localized distribution o f the competent
military slingers.
I n discussing the military accoutrements o f the Sume-
rians, Handcock notes that the discovery of clay balls and
stone missiles appears to afford evidence o f the Sumerian
use o f the sling at a very early date. 1 *
David bested the Philistine champion in the eleventh
century B.C. T h e O l d Testament slmgers of Benjamin have
already been noted. I n I I Chronicles 26. 14 we read: " A n d
Uzziah prepared for them throughout all the host shields,
and spears, and helmets, and habergeons, and bows, and
slings to cast stones," and in I I Kings 3 : 2S: . . only in
Kir-haraseth left they the stones thereof; howbeit the
slingers went about it, and smote it." The sling is f o u n d
in numerous speech figures in the Bible, and furnishes a
"folk"-saying in Proverbs 26: 8 : " A s he that bindeth a
stone in a sling, so is he that giveth honor to a fool." Both
the military and literary history of the Biblical sling defi-
nitely postulate a long tradition o f successful slinging
among the Near Eastern peoples.
Rawlinson observes that the Assyrian infantry was or-
ganized into bodies o f spearmen, archers, and slingers, 11
and representations of conventional slingers are fairly
common in Assyrian relief sculpture. A typical scene de-
picting the siege o f Lachish about 713 B.C. shows slingers
intermingled with the archers and spearmen."
L i v y ( x x x v i i . 40. 9-14) mentions a sizeable number of
Cyrtian slingers in the a r m y o f Antiochus. These Cyrtians
were a mountain tribe of Medea. T h e Medes, neighbors
o f the Assyrians, threw off the Assyrian yoke in the eighth
century B.c.
The earliest mention o f slingers in the Egyptian army
occurs on the Piankhi Stele, which describes the siege o f
Hermopolis about 720 B.C.1® I f , as has been asserted, 10 the
sling did not appear in the Egyptian panoply until the
eighth century B.C., the late date strongly suggests that
these slingers m a y have been foreign auxiliaries rather
than native troops.
W h i l e it is true that sling stones have been picked up in
Crete,* 1 and that slingers are depicted on the silver frag-
ment o f the "Siege Vase" from Mycenae. ; a yet the fact
1« Percy S. P. llandcock, Meiofotamion Artkmeotmpy (London:
Macmsllan, 1912), p. 341.
IT George Rawlinaon, Pkoenic** (New York: C. P. Tutnam t
Son.. IS98), p. 132.
i» Albert Ten Eyck Olmctead, History of Attyrio (New York:
Charles Scrihner's Sons, 1923), p. 30B and 127.
l * James II. lireasted. Amcient Records of ligyfi (Chicago:
t'niverartjr of Chicago Pre»». 1906-7), I V . 427. | W2.
JO Encycloffdi* Bnlomnico. 14th ed.. t.v. "Sling."
I I J. D. S. Pendkbury. The Archaeology .»/ Crete (London:
Methuer. and Co.. 1939). p. 272.
« H. N. Fowler and J . R . Wheeler. A Handbook of Creek
Archaeology (New York: American liook Company, 1909), p. 81,
(if- 41.
230 THE CLASSICAL W E E K L Y 229

that H o m e r makes n o mention o f the sling w o u l d imply
either that the sling was not a popular weapon in the
" H o m e r i c A g e , " or that it was not in c o m m o n military
use at the time when the poems were composed.
I n historical times, only t w o Greek pooples, the Acar-
n a n i a n s " and the Achaeans, 2 4 achieved a n y notable pro-
ficicncy with the slmg, and these operated in small numbers
associated with the Phoenicians in trade and colonization
f r o m a very early period. I t m a y be conjectured that the
sling, as a military weapon, originated in the N e a r East
and was dispersed t h r o u g h o u t the Mediterranean area,
a l o n g w i t h the alphabet, by the ubiquitous ships of the
Phoenicians.
EDWARD C . ECHOLS

and on a local level. T h a t the Greek a r m y depended on UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA

slingcrs f r o m the island of Rhodes is cogent evidence tliat
the sling was not an indigenous member o f the n o r m a l
Greek complement o f arms.

T h e Greek colonies in Sicily had numerous and compe- REVIEWS

tent slingcrs. Gclo, tyrant o f Syracuse, replies to Greek
overtures for assistance against the Persians: " I a m ready
Servianorum in Vergilii Carmina C o m m e n t a r i o r u m
to send to y o u r aid two hundred triremes, twenty thousand
Editionis Harvardianae Volumen I I . Edited by
men-at-arms, two thousand horse, t w o thousand archers,
E. K. RAND, J. J. SAVAGE, H. T. SMITH, G. B.
l a n d ) t w o thousand slingers L i v y ( x x i i . 37. 8 ) re-
WAI.DROP, J. P. ELDER, B. M. PEEBLES, and A. F.
cords that H i e r o sent against the R o m a n s u . . . a thousand
STOCKER. Lancaster, P a . : Lancaster Press, 1946.
archers a n d slingers, a force well adapted to cope with
Pp. x x i , 509. $5.00. ( A Special Publication o f the
M o o r s and Baleares and other tribes that fought w i t h
A m e r i c a n Philological Association. $4.00 to members
missiles."
o f the Association.)
I.ivy ( x x i . 21. 11) attests also the importance of slingers
in the P u n i c army. H a n n i b a l " . . . resolved to garrison that V o l u m e I I o f the eagerly awaited " H a r v a r d S e r v i u s "
country ( A f r i c a ] with a p o w e r f u l force. T o supply its is the first to appear in print, and should be welcome
place (in Spain] he requisitioned troops for himself from a n d satisfying to scholars o f the classical world, and in
A f r i c a —• light-armed slingcrs chicfly — so that A f r i c a n s most respects should equal their expectations. The
m i g h t serve in Spain and Spaniards in A f r i c a . . . genesis o f the idea o f a new Servius in the late Pro-
fessor Rand's V i r g i l seminar in 1915, and the history,
A l t h o u g h Servius Tullius established a class of slingers
aims, and scope o f this m o n u m e n t a l undertaking were
a m o n g the R o m a n citizens, the R o m a n s depended
told l>y M r . R a n d himself in 1938, in an address before
largely upon foreign auxiliaries for their slinging corps,
the French A c a d e m y {CRAl, 1938, pp. 311-24), a n d
notably the Balearic Islanders. Vcgctius (i. 16) notes
more recently by one of the younger editors, M r . Elder
the tradition that the sling was invented by tlte Baleares,
(Speculum. X X I [1946], 493-97). According to plans.
and the ancients derived the name o f the islands from
Vols. I I I - V will contain the rest o f the Commentaries
bollein, " t o hurl."* 7
on the Aentid, and Vol. I ( t o appear last) the scholia
A s we have seen, the Sumerians, w h o were d o m i n a n t in on the Hclotjufs and Georgia. In anticipation of the
the Tigris-Euphrates valley as early as 2600 B.C., were Prolegomena ( t o appear m Vol. I ? ) , the Preface ( i n
users o f the sling. According to Biblical evidence, it was I . a t i n ) of this present Vol. I I gives, in addition to the
a f a m i l i a r weapon a m o n g the Semitic peoples by 1000 B.C. customary acknowledgments, only the bare essentials
The Assyrians used it, as did their neighbors, the Medes. necessary for an intelligent use o f the Commentaries
I t was a Minoan-Myccnean weapon of some importance. on Aeneid f—11- Fortunately, m u c h o f the information
T h e sling was not a H o m e r i c weapon, nor was it favored
lielouging in the Prolegomena may now lie had from
by the M a i n l a n d Greeks. T h e R h o d i a n s were famous as
scattered articles o f the individual editors a n d o f others
slingers, and were to the Greek a r m y what the Baleares
o f the same " S c h o o l . " tlwugh naturally the views set
were to the R o m a n . T h e mention o f Cuchulain, the talented
forth in these articles need not, and sometimes ap-
Irish slinger, cannot fail to recall the tradition that tlie
parently do not. represent the final collective judgment
British Isles were visited by the Phoenicians in their search
o f the editors.
for tin. M o s t impressive, however, is the marked connec-
tion o f the sling w i t h the Phoenicians. Large corps of ex- Those w h o open this volume at any point beyond the
pert slingers were consistently recruited f r o m Sicily, N o r t h twenty-otic pages o f Preface will immediately be im-
A f r i c a , S p a m , and the Baleares. all territories intimately pressed by the unusual arrangement o f the text o f the
scholia, divided as it is into sections with lines o f vary-
23 Thucrdidcs ii. 81. ff. ing length. T h i s arrangement finds its explanation in
Livy xxsviii. 29. 8.
the fundamental purpose o f the new editors, viz. to
ts Herodotus vii. 1SS
I I Livy i. 43. 7.
present to the reader as t w o separate versions the Com-
8 t C f . K. Hubncr in HE. IV. " B a l i a r r i . " col. 2824. mentary of Servius (S) and the longer commentary