DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0458
OF THE JtiJ.ITARV AFFAIRS OF GREECE.
who inhabited yEgium, Dyma, and Patra^ : they were brought up to this
exercise from their infancy (i), and are thought by some to have excel-
led the Balearians : whence it became a custom to call any thing directly
levelled at the mark, A^aVxov /3iXo<r ;*2). This weapon was used for the
most part by the common and light armed soldiers : Cyrus is said to have
thought it very unbecoming an officer (3) ; and Alexander endeavouring
to render his enemies as contemptible to his own soldiers as he could, tells
them, ' they were a confused dud disorderly rabble, some of them having
no weapon, but a javelin : others were designed for no greater service,
than to cast sfoues out of a sling ; and very few were regularly armed, (4).
The forio of a sling we in:>y learn from Dionysius, by whom the earth
is said to resemble it, being not exactly spherical, but extended out
in length, and broad in the middle ; for slings resemble a plated rope,
somewhat broad in the middle, with an oval compass, and so by little
and little decreasing into two thongs, or reins. The geographer's words
are these (5) :
Its matter seems not to have been always the same ; in Homer we find
it composed of a sheep's fleece ; and therefore one of the heroes being
wounded in the hand, Agenur binds it with a sling (6) :
Avthv (sc. \up*) cTe ^i/vecT^ctsv fug-poQq) clos aural,
1 A sling's soft wool, snatch'd from a soldier's side,
At once the lent and ligature supplies. pope.
Out of it were cast arrows, stones, and plummets of lead, called juoXi;§~
SiSsg, or fjioXuSoVvou rf<pal^ai; some of which weighed no less than an Attic
pound, i. e. an hundred drachms. It was distinguished into several sorts ;
some were managed by one, others by two. some by three cords.
The manner of slinging was by whirling it twice or thrice about their
head, and so casting out the bullet. Thus Mezentius in Virgil (7) ;
Ipse ter adducta cirewn caput cgit habena.
Thrice round his head the loaded sling he whirl'd.
But Vegetius commends those as the greatest artists, that cast out the
bullet with one turn about the head. How far this weapon carried its
load is expressed in this verse :
Fundum Varro vocat, quernpossis mitterefunda.
Its force was so great, that neither head-piece, buckler, or any other ar-
mour, was a sufficient defence against it; and so vehement its motion,
that (as Seneca reports} the plummets were frequently melted.
Lastly we find mention of fireballs, or hand granadoes, called tfugoSoXoi
X$oj, &.c. One sort of them are called tfxur^Xia, or dxvrakiSsg, which
were composed of wood, and some of them a foot, others a cubit in length :
their heads were armed with spikes of iron, beneath which were placed
torches, hemp, pitch, or such like combustible matter, which being set
on fire, they were thrown with great force towards the enemy's first
(1) Livius, lib. xsxviii. (2) Suidas. (4) Curtius, lib. iv. (5) HejitNth, v. 5.
0) Xenopa. Cvrop. lib. vii. (6) Iliad, v', v. 599 (7) JEneid. ix. v. 587,
who inhabited yEgium, Dyma, and Patra^ : they were brought up to this
exercise from their infancy (i), and are thought by some to have excel-
led the Balearians : whence it became a custom to call any thing directly
levelled at the mark, A^aVxov /3iXo<r ;*2). This weapon was used for the
most part by the common and light armed soldiers : Cyrus is said to have
thought it very unbecoming an officer (3) ; and Alexander endeavouring
to render his enemies as contemptible to his own soldiers as he could, tells
them, ' they were a confused dud disorderly rabble, some of them having
no weapon, but a javelin : others were designed for no greater service,
than to cast sfoues out of a sling ; and very few were regularly armed, (4).
The forio of a sling we in:>y learn from Dionysius, by whom the earth
is said to resemble it, being not exactly spherical, but extended out
in length, and broad in the middle ; for slings resemble a plated rope,
somewhat broad in the middle, with an oval compass, and so by little
and little decreasing into two thongs, or reins. The geographer's words
are these (5) :
Its matter seems not to have been always the same ; in Homer we find
it composed of a sheep's fleece ; and therefore one of the heroes being
wounded in the hand, Agenur binds it with a sling (6) :
Avthv (sc. \up*) cTe ^i/vecT^ctsv fug-poQq) clos aural,
1 A sling's soft wool, snatch'd from a soldier's side,
At once the lent and ligature supplies. pope.
Out of it were cast arrows, stones, and plummets of lead, called juoXi;§~
SiSsg, or fjioXuSoVvou rf<pal^ai; some of which weighed no less than an Attic
pound, i. e. an hundred drachms. It was distinguished into several sorts ;
some were managed by one, others by two. some by three cords.
The manner of slinging was by whirling it twice or thrice about their
head, and so casting out the bullet. Thus Mezentius in Virgil (7) ;
Ipse ter adducta cirewn caput cgit habena.
Thrice round his head the loaded sling he whirl'd.
But Vegetius commends those as the greatest artists, that cast out the
bullet with one turn about the head. How far this weapon carried its
load is expressed in this verse :
Fundum Varro vocat, quernpossis mitterefunda.
Its force was so great, that neither head-piece, buckler, or any other ar-
mour, was a sufficient defence against it; and so vehement its motion,
that (as Seneca reports} the plummets were frequently melted.
Lastly we find mention of fireballs, or hand granadoes, called tfugoSoXoi
X$oj, &.c. One sort of them are called tfxur^Xia, or dxvrakiSsg, which
were composed of wood, and some of them a foot, others a cubit in length :
their heads were armed with spikes of iron, beneath which were placed
torches, hemp, pitch, or such like combustible matter, which being set
on fire, they were thrown with great force towards the enemy's first
(1) Livius, lib. xsxviii. (2) Suidas. (4) Curtius, lib. iv. (5) HejitNth, v. 5.
0) Xenopa. Cvrop. lib. vii. (6) Iliad, v', v. 599 (7) JEneid. ix. v. 587,