Editing Sling (weapon) (section)

=== Written history ===
[[File:Sling bullets BM GR1842.7-28.550 GR1851.5-7.11.jpg|thumb|right|[[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greek]] lead sling bullets with a winged thunderbolt moulded on one side and the inscription "ΔΕΞΑΙ" (''Dexai'') meaning 'take that' or 'catch' on the other side, 4th century BCE, from [[Athens]], [[British Museum]].<ref name = dexai>{{cite web
 | url = https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=399876&partid=1&output=Terms%2F!!%2FOR%2F!!%2F1204%2F!%2F%2F!%2FClassical+Greek%2F!%2F%2F!!%2F%2F!!!%2F&orig=%2Fresearch%2Fsearch_the_collection_database%2Fadvanced_search.aspx&currentPage=7&numpages=10 | title = Lead sling bullet; almond shape; a winged thunderbolt on one side and on the other, in high relief, the inscription DEXAI "Catch!"
 | access-date = 30 April 2012 }}</ref>]]

Many European, Middle Eastern, Asian, and African peoples were users of slings.<ref name=Kend/> [[Thucydides]] and others authors talk about its usage by [[Ancient Greece|Greeks]] and [[Ancient Rome|Romans]], and [[Strabo]] also extends it to the [[Iberians]], [[Lusitanians]] and even some [[Gauls]] (which [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] describes further in his account of the siege of [[Bibrax]]). He also mentions [[Ancient Persia|Persians]] and [[Ancient Arabia|Arabs]] among those who used them. For his part, [[Diodorus]] includes [[Ancient Libya|Libyans]] and [[Phoenicians]].<ref name=Kend>{{cite book|last=Pritchett|first=W. Kendrick|title=The Greek State at War: Part V|date=1974|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520073746}}</ref> [[Celtic Britons|Britons]] were frequent users of slings too.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Swan |first=David |date=2014 |url=https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/reinvention/archive/volume7issue2/swan/ |title=Attitudes Towards and Use of the Sling in Late Iron Age Britain |journal=Reinvention: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research |volume=7 |issue=2 |access-date=31 December 2020 |archive-date=5 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105170513/https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/reinvention/archive/volume7issue2/swan/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Livy]] mentions some of the most famous of ancient sling experts: the people of the [[Balearic Islands]], who often worked as [[Mercenaries of the ancient Iberian Peninsula|mercenaries]]. Of [[Balearic slinger]]s Strabo writes: "And their training in the use of slings used to be such, from childhood up, that they would not so much as give bread to their children unless they first hit it with the sling."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/3E*.html |title=LacusCurtius • Strabo's Geography — Book III Chapter 5 |publisher=Penelope.uchicago.edu |access-date=2010-09-12}}</ref>

==== Classical accounts ====
The sling is mentioned as early as in the writings of [[Homer]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16452/16452-h/16452-h.htm |title=The Iliad of Homer, translated by Cowper |publisher=Gutenberg.org |date=2005-08-05 |access-date=2010-09-12}}</ref> where several characters kill enemies by hurling stones at them.<ref name=Kend/>

[[Balearic slinger]]s were amongst the specialist mercenaries extensively employed by [[Carthaginian Army|Carthage]] against the Romans and other enemies. These light troops used three sizes of sling, according to the distance of their opponents. The weapons were made of vegetable fibre and animal sinew, launching either stones or lead missiles with devastating impact.<ref>{{cite book|first=Andre|last=Salimbeti|page=41|title=The Carthaginians|date=22 April 2014|publisher=Bloomsbury USA |isbn=978-1-78200-776-0}}</ref>

[[Xenophon]] in his history of the retreat of the [[Ten Thousand (Greek)|Ten Thousand]], 401 BC, relates that the Greeks suffered severely from the slingers in the army of [[Artaxerxes II of Persia]], while they themselves had neither cavalry nor slingers, and were unable to reach the enemy with their arrows and javelins. This deficiency was rectified when a company of 200 [[Rhodians]], who understood the use of leaden sling-bullets, was formed. They were able, says [[Xenophon]], to project their missiles twice as far as the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian]] slingers, who used large stones.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/anbss10.txt |title=Xenophon, Anabasis, chapter III |publisher=Gutenberg.org |date=1998-01-01 |access-date=2010-09-12}}</ref>

Various Greeks enjoyed a reputation for skill with the sling. [[Thucydides]] mentions the [[Acarnanians]] and [[Livy]] refers to the inhabitants of three Greek cities on the northern coast of the [[Peloponnesus]] as expert slingers.

Greek armies would also use [[Cavalry|mounted]] slingers (ἀκροβολισταί).<ref>Thomas Dudley Fosbroke, ''A Treatise on the Arts, Manufactures, Manners, and Institutions of the Greek and Romans, Volumen 2'', 1835</ref>

[[Ancient Rome|Roman]] skirmishers armed with slings and javelins were established by [[Servius Tullius]].<ref name=Kend/><ref>{{cite web| url = http://lukeuedasarson.com/TullianDBM.html| title = DBM - Tullian Roman}}</ref> The late Roman writer [[Vegetius]], in his work ''[[De Re Militari]]'', wrote:

{{blockquote|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 armour, 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 encumbrance, 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~madsb/home/war/vegetius/dere03.php#14 |title=Digital &#124; Attic – Warfare: De Re Militari Book I: The Selection and Training of New Levies |publisher=Pvv.ntnu.no |access-date=2010-09-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716222726/http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~madsb/home/war/vegetius/dere03.php |archive-date=2012-07-16 }}</ref>}}

==== Biblical accounts ====
The sling is mentioned in the [[Bible]], which provides what is believed to be the oldest textual reference to a sling in the [[Book of Judges]], 20:16. This text was thought to have been written {{Circa|6th century BC}},<ref>Knoppers, Gary, "Is There a Future for the Deuteronomistic History?", In Thomas Romer, ''The Future of the Deuteronomistic History'', Leuven University Press, 2000 {{ISBN|978-90-429-0858-1}}, p. 119.</ref> but refers to events several centuries earlier.

The Bible provides a famous slinger account, the battle between [[David]] and [[Goliath]] from the [[Books of Samuel|First Book of Samuel]] 17:34–36, probably written in the 7th or 6th century BC, describing events that might have occurred {{Circa|10th century BC}}. The sling, easily produced, was the weapon of choice for shepherds fending off animals. Due to this, the sling was a commonly used weapon by the Israelite militia.<ref>Yigael Yadin, ''The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands'' (Jerusalem: International Publishing Company, 1963), 34–35</ref> Goliath was a tall, well equipped and experienced warrior. In this account, the shepherd David persuades [[Saul the King|Saul]] to let him fight Goliath on behalf of the Israelites. Unarmoured and equipped only with a sling, five smooth rocks, and his staff, David defeats the champion Goliath with a well-aimed shot to the head, followed by a decapitation with Goliath's own sword.

Use of the sling is also mentioned in Second Kings 3:25, First Chronicles 12:2, and Second Chronicles 26:14 to further illustrate Israelite use.