sling power/catapult power

[Johnny Shumate]

Diodorus mentioned that the Balearic slingers could hurl stones with as much power as a catapult. Which catapult would he be describing?
Johnny

[aitor iriarte]

Johnny,
I'm not complaining (far from my intention! :wink: ) but I'd like to have the exact quote by Diodorus to finf out the exact word he used for 'catapult'... :?
As far as we know, the smallest used stone-thrower of the period shot two-mina (ca. 1kg) stone balls. Even if 1 mina stone-throwers were used, that would be heavier than slingshot...
Probably Diodorus is talking in terms of range and (less probably!) of hitting power...

Aitor

[D B Campbell]

Like Aitor, I don't recall a passage like that either, Johnny.
Where did you see it?
(Diodorus doesn't mention slings much -- Xenophon's your man for the slings!)

I wonder if you're thinking of Diodorus' description of King Porus in battle against Alexander?
He says that Porus threw his javelins (saunia) with such force that they were similar to "catapult missiles" (katapeltikôn belôn): Diod. Sic. 17.88.5.

[Johnny Shumate]

From the Loeb books:

Diodorus of Sicily
Book V. 18. 2-19. I

"...and with such force that the missile seems to have been shot, as it were, from a catapult;..."

katapeltou ...is this Greek for catapult?

Johnny

[conon394]

Hmm I hate to take pot shots at Diodorus (he gets enough abuse) but the nearly identical phrase in your citation and D B Campbell’s make me think of for want of a better word a “Diodorus-ismâ€

[Gaius Honorius Felix]

Well, a sling can do some damage in the right hands. However, I believe that this is another “Diodorus-ismâ€

[conon394]

Well, a sling can do some damage in the right hands.

No doubt; and Diodorus’ use of a catapult seems entirely apt for particularly proficient slingers – no different really than sports commentators who always love to have “shots like a rocket/cannon etcâ€

[Johnny Shumate]

I've been slinging for several years and know the power of the sling. I've split 1 inch thick boards in half and destroyed plywood planks. A friend of mine sinks rocks into fence posts. Sometimes when I sling at my creek, inch thick tree branches get sheared in half. I'm no expert, but I can just imagine what an ancient "professional" slinger could do. I don't think big D is off on his discription. Most people have never seen a skilled slinger. Usually someone making a feable effort to get the stone out of the pouch....
Johnny

[Magnus]

I really doubt though that a sling bullet has the same amount of kinetic energy as a 1 kg catapult stone.

[Johnny Shumate]

This goes back to the original question: What does this catapult look like..?
Johnny

[aitor iriarte]

A wooden-framed, two-armed arrow-shooter? That was called a catapult during the period. Of couse Ancient authors tend to use the terms rather loosely and he could either be talking about a wooden-framed, two-armed stone-shooter... :?

Aitor

[Comerus Gallus]

I think Persians & Belearics etc slinger used lead proyectile wich would be fatal & worse than the rock... It could penetrate the helmets or the flesh if I'm not wrong.

I can't recall the pasage/article of the Iberian using this, but in Olyntos those proyectiles were found.


These are modern.

[Johnny Shumate]

I think it's the stone shooter...
Johnny

[Magnus]

I believe though we're talking about the amount of energy upon impact.

[Comerus Gallus]

I think it's the stone shooter...
Johnny

OK! but trough archeology the missiles of small and medium size were made of lead or ceramic material, but for heavier ones, they presume that any suitable stone picked up on the battlefield would had been used.

The lead sling bullets, ellipsoid in shape, were poured in moulds, six or eight together. It is commong to find a large numbers of these missiles at almost every discovered ancient battlefield besieged city or other archeological site in Spain, testimony to the widespread use of the weapon all over thePeninsula and not only in the Belearics....According to Osprey: Rome's Enemies 4 Spanish Armies....


I dont have the account of the conquest of the Belearic by Quinctus Caecilius Metellus 123 BC.

http://www.gilliscoins.com/special_offe ... g_shot.htm

Sling by Xenophon
http://www.classicsconference.org/downl ... slingshot'