Balearic slinger caught on film

[guy]

Funny video on the accuracy of a Balearic slinger:

 

 

 

 

Interesting quote by Vegetius of the Late Roman Empire about the sling as a weapon from De Re Militari:

 

THE SLING

 

Recruits are to be taught the art of throwing stones both with the hand and sling. The inhabitants of the Balearic Islands are said to have been the inventors of slings, and to have managed them with surprising dexterity, owing to the manner of bringing up their children. The children were not allowed to have their food by their mothers till they had first struck it with their sling. Soldiers, notwithstanding their defensive armor, are often more annoyed by the round stones from the sling than by all the arrows of the enemy. Stones kill without mangling the body, and the contusion is mortal without loss of blood. It is universally known the ancients employed slingers in all their engagements. There is the greater reason for instructing all troops, without exception, in this exercise, as the sling cannot be reckoned any incumbrance, and often is of the greatest service, especially when they are obliged to engage in stony places, to defend a mountain or an eminence, or to repulse an enemy at the attack of a castle or city.

 

http://www.digitalattic.org/home/war/vegetius/index.php#b114

Edited July 10, 2022 by guy

[Crispina]

Hee hee. Good one.

[parthianbow]

LOL!

[Kosmo]

I always thought that Balearic slingers spent their time in Ibiza nightclubs.

[Metella]

Har !

 

I don't get the physics of it - but I don't want the bruises it would take to teach me.

 

I'll just accept it was a weapon that never ran out of ammo.

[caldrail]

I have no idea if Vegetius was right about the balearics inveting slings (I suspect they didn't - the use was very widespread in very ancient times). I do however accept the balearics were pretty good at. However, the interesting thing is that 'recruits' (an undefined term here but one referring to Roman employment I presume) are taught to use them.

 

What we have in essence is troops employed by the Romans as slingers, and anyone seeking to join these allies who doesn't actually know how to use a sling is brought up to speed either by official command or by their colleagues - probably a bit of both. Although it's tempting to think of the Romans as using training techniques familiar to us as a matter of course, somehow that doesn't fit the general picture. vegetius was after trying to accentuate the idea that such training was necessary (it was, in his day, desperately) and thus exaggerates the point.