Means by which stones would be thrown by greater force than the hand, would naturally be resorted to; accordingly we find the sling ranks amongst the first of ancient offensive weapons. Slings mentioned in Judges. B. C. 1406.Numerous examples are mentioned in Scripture, as in Judges xx., 16, Slings used B. C. 1406.“Among all this people, there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; every one could sling stones at a hair breadth and not miss;” and also that of David and Goliath, &c.
Siege of Troy between 800 and 900 B. C.
At the siege of Troy, the masses were organized into two kinds of infantry: one light and irregular, carrying horn bows, short darts, and slings; the other regular and heavy, armed with spears. Battle of the Granicus B. C. 334.At the battle of the Granicus, B. C. 334, Alexander the Great had in his army light infantry, consisting of slingers, bow-men, and javelin-men. First Punic war 241 to 263 B. C.The Carthagenians had slingers in their pay before the first Punic War.
Slings common in Greece.
The Sling was very common in Greece, and used by the light armed soldiers. Arrows, stones, and leaden plummets, were thrown from them, some of which weighed no less than an Attic pound. Seneca reports that its motion was so vehement that the leaden plummets were frequently melted!!! Slingers in Roman armies.The Romans had slingers in their armies, for the most part inhabitants of the Islands of Majorca, Minorca and Ivica.
Invention ascribed to Phœnicians and also to inhabitants of Balearic islands.
Pliny ascribes the invention of slings to the Phœnicians, but Vegetius to the inhabitants of the Balearic Islands, who were famous in antiquity for using them. It is said, those people bore three kinds of slings, some longer and others shorter, to be used as their enemies were nearer or more remote; the first served them for a head band, the second for a girdle, and the third they always carried in their hands. In fight they threw large stones with such violence, that they seemed to be projected from some machine, and with such exactness, as rarely to miss their aim; being constantly exercised from their infancy, their mothers not allowing them to have any food, until they struck it down from the top of a pole with stones thrown from their slings.
The Latin for our English word farm is fundus, which originally signifies a “stone’s-throw of land,” or as much land as could be included within the range of a stone thrown from a sling. Materials of slings.The materials of which slings were composed, were either flax, hair or leather, woven into bands or cut into thongs, broad in the centre to receive the load, and tapering off to the extremities. Slings with cup.Slings have been made with three strings, with a cup let into the leather to hold the bullet or stone, and were called “Fronde à culôt.” In [plate xiii], fig. 3, there is a representation of a slinger of the early part of the thirteenth century, whose weapon differs from that of the Anglo-Saxon or common sling, in having a cup for the reception of the projectile. Slings were sometimes attached to sticks to increase their power, as, besides the ancient cord sling, there appears in the manuscripts of the thirteenth century a variety of this arm; the Staff-sling.“Staff Sling.” ([plate xiii], fig. 2.) It seems to have been in vogue for naval warfare, or in the conflicts of siege operations.
Force of slings.
The slings projected their missiles with such force that no armour could resist their stroke. Slings never appear to have been much used by the English, Used for the English, A. D. 1342.although Froissart mentions an instance of their having been used for them by the people of Brittany, in a battle fought in that province during the reign of Philip de Valois, between the troops of Walter de Manin, an English knight, and Louis d’Espagne, who commanded six thousand men on behalf of Charles de Blois, then competitor with the Earl of Montford for the Duchy of Brittany. Froissart says, that what made Louis lose the battle was, Bullets out of slings.that during the engagement the country people came unexpectedly and assaulted his army with bullets and slings.