Service and Supply in the Achaemenid Army

[Sean Manning]

It is only a technological detail but did you also treat the subject of the lead slingers in the Greek corps? AFAIK, Xenophon's Anabasis contains the oldest literary reference to lead bullets being used. And, IIRC, he made a point that the Greeks had a military advantage by using them. I wonder if they ever unearthed older examples or if the Anabasis still constitutes the terminus ante quem for their introduction.

That is controversial. Clive Foss (“A Bullet of Tissaphernes,” Jnl of Hellenic Studies Vol. 95 (1975) pp. 25-30) suggests based on the find of a sling bullet labeled “Tissaphernes,” and Xenophon's claim that Rhodian slingers could out-range Persian ones because the Rhodians used lead shot and the Persian large stone shot, that soldiers from western Anatolia did not use lead shot in 401 BCE. But Briant (note to chapter 17/3 p. 1037/1038 of the English translation) points out that the stockpile of gut for bowstrings and lead for shot of An. 3.4.17 was probably meant for soldiers, and I think this view is correct. One of the problems with Achaemenid army studies is that people are too ready to see Greek influence on the Persians, and too reluctant to see Persian influence on the Greeks.

Foss cites Minoan lead bullets from a known stratigraphic context, ones "said to have been found on the battlefield at Marathon," and ones of unknown date at Olympia. Briant notes that many lead bullets have been found at Dascylium, and until they are published we will not know their date.