I 



96 INSCRIBED SLING-BULLETS. 



Mr. Eich, in his " Companion to the Latin Dictionary," under 

 glans, observes that ' the letters are for Jirmiter, " Throw steadily," 

 or Feri Boma (Inscript. ap. Orelli, 4932), " Strike, Eome !" ' 

 I much prefer Mommsen's suggestion, that MR* are the first three 

 letters of FIRMO, in the sense "thrown from Firmutn," and 

 that the allusion is to the siege of that town, whilst occupied by 

 Cn. Pompeius Strabo, during the Social war, in 90 B.C. 



The bullet bearing EAAENI, i.e. 'EWrjvoiv, or 'EXXtjvlkwv, is said to 

 have been found on the plains of Marathon, but its genuineness is 

 *justly doubted. flTAL, i.e. Italicorum, is on glandes which were 

 thrown on the side of the Socii Italici ; and those which are in- 

 scribed OPITERGIN belonged to the Opitergini, who were warm 

 allies of Csesar. 



(3) The names of deities are most probably of those gods and god- 

 desses, whose aid was specially invoked by the combatants on either 

 side, or to whom the missiles were consecrated, as MAR'VLT, 

 Marti XJltori. 



(4) The names of men in connection with " victory," of course 

 indicate the wish that those who are named may succeed. The 

 inscription A®HNIONOS NIKH, on /xoXv^SaLvai found in the campus 

 Leontinus, shows that such bullets were thrown by the slaves in the 

 Servile war in Sicily, 102-99 B.C., for Athenio was a leader in that in- 

 surrection. The glandes found near Perusia, which bear the words 

 C- JCAES ARTS "VICTORIA, were thrown by the besiegers, parti- 

 sans of Octavianus. 



(5) The inscriptions, in which the names of deities are used in con- 

 nection with "Victory," indicate the gods or goddesses who were 

 believed to be specially interested in favour of each side, or who had 

 been chosen as patrons. Thus AIOS NIKH may have been on the 

 Roman missiles, and NIKH MHTEPON (otherwise NIKH MATEPftN) 

 on the Sicilian. That the Bece Matres were worshipped in the island, 

 appears from the statements of Diodorus Siculus, iv. 79, 80, and 

 Posidonius, in Plutarch, Marcellus, c. 19, independently of the 

 evidence supplied by this inscription. Another of these Sicilian 

 bullets is inscribed with the words NIKH MATEPOS, from which 



• Some, however, have been found there, which seem to be unimpeachable. See Dodwell's 

 Tour, ii. 161. Those found at Athens were probably thrown during the siege by Sylla. 



+ Ritschl, PI. viii. nn. 20, 21. 



X In CcBsarus we have the archaic termination of the genitive of the third declension. 

 Thus Cererus, in n. 566, hominus, in n. 200, patrus, in n. 1469, &c. 



