INSCRIBED SLING- BULLETS. 101 



!PVL for Fulvia, whilst ASIA indicates Marcus Antonius, who waa 

 at the time in Asia. The use of LV for Lucius, although a soloecismj. 

 may, he thinks, be excused " tali plebei hominis scriptione." There 

 are, I think, but few who will accept this view. And yet in this case, 

 as in many others, it is far easier to tell what interpretation should 

 be rejected than it is to propose one which should be adopted. 



Of the various expansions, that have presented themselves to my 

 mind, there is not one which I regard as sufficiently probable to in- 

 duce me to propose it. 



In addition to leaden glandes, there have also been found in Sicily* 

 objects of a similar form, made of clay, argilla. I have never seen 

 one, but they are described as being of the size of an egg of our 

 domestic fowl, and having on one side a figure, indistinct, but said 

 to resemble Hercules, a man with a sword, a man with a helmet 

 in one hand and a shield in the other, or a man binding shoes on 

 his feet. The inscriptions on them generally consist of the following 

 abbreviations: HPO $YA, i.e. Trpwra ^vXd ; AEY <I>YA, i.e. SevTcpo 

 (j>vXd; TPI <I>YA, i.e. TptVa <J3v\d, followed first by ^A, which seems 

 to stand for <^paTpta, tlien by IIAE, AAKYN, and other letters, 

 probably the commencement of the names of places, and finally by 

 names of men, supposed to be of magistrates, as ^lAOHENO^ 

 APKE2IAA, i.e. <l>6Ao^evos 'ApKemXa, Franz, n. 64G8, remarks: 

 " Cut Usui insei'Vierint non constat. Ratione habita figurarum. im- 

 pressarum haud scio an pertineant ad milites." 1 am inclined to 

 think that these objects* are similar to those described by Caesar, 

 Bell. Gall. v. 43 : ferventes fusili ex argilla glandes ^undis et ferve- 

 facta jacula in casas, quae more Gallico stramentis erant tectce, jacere 

 cceperunt. This use of cjivXy and tpparpla calls to mind the Homeric : 

 O? cfip-^rpr) cf)pi]Tpr](fiLv aprjyr], <f>vXa 8e cjivkots ; and the words appear 

 to denote divisions and sub-divisions of an army. 8ee Thucydides, 

 vi. 98. Hence we may conjecture that these missiles were made for 

 the bodies named thereon, and that the names of places and of men 

 are used in the senses already noticed in pages 95, 96. 



Inscribed sling-bullets were also used for the purpose of commu- 

 nicating information to the besieged or the besiegers ; and, iu addi- 

 tion to them, were similar, but apparently different objects, thrown 

 from slings, called by Appian, Mithridat, .31, irea-crol ck fxo\vj38ov. 



• See Franz, Corp- Grcec. Inscrip. iii, iin. 5468, 5567. 5620, 5686, 5743 ; also the authorities 

 cited by him :— Alessi, " ' Littera sulle ghiaude di piotnbo iscritte, trovate nell' aiitica citt^ 

 di Enna,' Palermo, 1815 ;" and Mommsen, Zeitschrift. f. Altreth. 1846, a. 98, p. 784. 



