Sling
An ancient projectile weapon hurling stones by centrifugal force
The sling is an ancient projectile weapon that hurls a stone or a lead bullet by centrifugal force from a small pouch made of leather or cloth. Two cords are fixed to the sides of the pouch, and as one whirls it overhead or to the side and lets go of one cord, the projectile flies off at a fearsome speed. The structure is utterly simple and costs almost nothing in materials, yet a stone cast by a skilled slinger reached a speed able to shatter a skull. The slingers of the Balearic Islands in particular, today's Spanish Mallorca and Menorca, were the finest elite slinging troops of the ancient world, serving as mercenaries in the armies of Carthage and Rome. It is widely known too as the weapon with which David felled the giant Goliath in the Hebrew Bible, and with lead bullets, the glandes, its range and power greatly increased.
Origin
The sling is among the oldest projectile weapons humankind ever made, thought to have been used since the Neolithic, about 10,000 BC. Being a simple thing needing only a pouch and cords, it cost virtually nothing in materials, so it spread widely as a tool of hunting and herding and was used in war just as it was. In the ancient Mediterranean the slingers of the Balearic Islands served as renowned mercenaries from around the 5th century BC, and the Roman army too formed auxiliary slingers called funditores. According to Xenophon, the Rhodian slingers of the Greek mercenary force, the Ten Thousand, could hurl stones farther than the Persian bow and so outmatched the enemy's shooting.
Features
- A structure of a leather or cloth pouch and two cords
- An utterly simple structure, costing almost nothing in materials
- A projectile speed able to shatter a skull
- The Balearic slingers, an elite force of antiquity
- Increased power when lead bullets, the glandes, are used
- An effective range of about 100 to 200 m
Stories
The use of the sling lay in harrying the enemy ceaselessly from a distance. Slingers rained stones or lead bullets on an enemy formation to cause wounds and confusion, and in a siege they harassed the defenders on the walls. Light and easy to carry, it suited the skirmishing of striking quickly and falling back, and at times it out-ranged the bow. A uniform lead bullet, meeting little air resistance, flew farther and truer, and in a siege the staff sling, a sling fixed to a pole, could throw a heavier shot. Being also the shepherd's hunting tool, it was a weapon familiar to the hands of an ordinary herdsman such as David.
Weakness
The weakness of the sling is the difficulty of mastering it. To aim and hit truly took years of training from childhood, harder to learn even than the bow. If the size and weight of the ammunition were uneven, moreover, accuracy fell off sharply, so having a uniform shot was important. The leather cords and pouch are awkward to handle when wet with rain, and above all, in close combat once an enemy has pressed in, the slinger is all but defenseless. The whirling motion of the throw also needs ample space, so it was ill-suited to a dense melee.
Cultural Significance
The sling is deeply engraved in human culture as the symbol of the tale in which the small overcomes the great. The story of the shepherd boy David, who felled the armored giant Goliath with a single stone in the Hebrew Bible, is told to this day as the archetypal scene of a humble-seeming weapon and a weaker party surpassing a vast foe. In the ancient Mediterranean, meanwhile, the Balearic slingers won fame for their accuracy, and the lead bullets of the Roman army were sometimes cast with taunts of the enemy or the names of a commander or unit, a message sent on a projectile.
In Popular Culture
The sling appears as the weapon of light infantry and skirmishers in works about ancient war. It appears as a slinger unit in strategy games such as Rome Total War, and as the symbolic weapon of the underdog in paintings and films of David and Goliath. In fantasy it is often drawn as the weapon of small folk, like the hobbits or halflings of The Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons. In fiction, though, it is often given little weight, overshadowed by the bow, so the historical fact that a skilled slinger could match or exceed the bow in range and power is little shown.
Trivia
- According to ancient authors, the boys of the Balearic Islands were not allowed to eat their bread until they had knocked it down from a height with a sling, and this training from childhood reared the finest slinging mercenaries of the ancient Mediterranean, who served in the armies of Carthage and Rome.
- The lead bullets, the glandes, of the Roman army were often cast with taunts of the enemy, the names of a commander or unit, or phrases like take this, and many survive as artifacts, an early case of a message sent on a projectile.
- The story of the shepherd boy David felling the giant Goliath with a single stone in the Hebrew Bible is the most famous appearance of the sling and became an eternal symbol of the small overcoming the great, and the sling was indeed in truth a shepherd's tool.