beam, where it was placed aloft ; and when they arrived to be of age to serve in the wars, this was the principal of their offensive arms; it being customary for all of them to be furnished with three slings, which either hung about their necks, according to Eustathius ; or were carried, one on their necks, one in their hauds, a third about their loins. Hence the Balearian slings are famous in ancient writers. I shall observe only this one instance out of Ovid f;

Non secus exarsit, quam cum Balearica plumbum
Funda jacit; volat illud, et incandescit eundo,
Et quos non habuit, sub nubibus invenit ignes.
He burnt within,

Just like the lead the Balearian sling
Hurls out; you hear the bullet whistling fly,
And heat attends it all along the sky,

The fire it wants itself, the clouds above supply.

It was likewise common in Greece, especially among the Acarnanians, who were well skilled in managing it, and are by some thought to have invented it: others give that honour to the tolians". But none of the Grecians managed it with so great art and dexterity as the Achaians, who inhabited Ægium, Dyma, and Patræ they were brought up to this exercise from their infancy, and are thought by some to have excelled the Balearians: whence it became a custom to call any thing directly levelled at the mark, Αχαϊκον βέλος ). This weapon was used for the most part by the common and light armed soldiers: Cyrus is said to have thought it very unbecoming an officer; and Alexander endeavouring to render his enemies as contemptible to his own soldiers as he could, tells them, they were a confused and disorderly rabble, some of them having no weapon, but a javelin: others were designed for no greater service, than to cast stones out of a sling; and very few were regularly armed'.' The form of a sling we may learn from Dionysius, by whom the earth is said to resemble it, being not exactly spherical, but extended out in length, and broad in the middle; for slings resemble a platted rope, somewhat broad in the middle, with an oval compass, and so by little and little decreasing into two thongs, or reins. The geographer's words are thesem:

Its matter seems not to have been always the same; in Homer we find it composed of a sheep's fleece; and therefore one of the heroes being wounded in the hand, Agenor binds it with a sling":

Αὐτὴν (sc. χεῖρα) δὲ ξυνέδησεν εϋτρόφῳ οἰὸς ἀωτῷ,
Σφενδίνη, ἣν ἄρα οἱ θεράπων ἔχε ποιμένι λαῶν.

A sling's soft wool, snatch'd from a soldier's side,
At once the tent and ligature supplies.

POPE.

Out of it were cast arrows, stones, and plummets of lead, called μολύβδιδες, οι μολυβδίναι σφαῖραι ; some of which weighed no less than an Attic pound, i. e. an hundred drachms. It was distinguished into several sorts; some were managed by one, others by two, some by three cords.

The manner of slinging was by whirling it twice or thrice about their head, and so casting out the bullet. Thus Mezentius in Virgilo;

Ipse ter adducta circum caput egit habena.

Thrice round his head the loaded sling he whirl'd.

But Vegetius commends those as the greatest artists, that cast out the bullet with one turn about the head. How far this weapon carried its load is expressed in this verse:

Fundum Varro vocat, quem possis mittere funda.

Its force was so great, that neither head-piece, buckler, or any other armour, was a sufficient defence against it; and so vehement its motion, that (as Seneca reports) the plummets were frequently, melted.

Lastly, we find mention of fireballs, or hand-granadoes, called πυροβόλοι λίθοι, &c. One sort of them are called σκυτάλια, οι σκυτα aides, which were composed of wood, and some of them a foot, others a cubit in length: their heads were armed with spikes of iron, beneath which were placed torches, hemp, pitch, or such like combustible matter, which being set on fire, they were thrown with great force towards the enemy's first ranks, head foremost, whereby the iron spikes being fastened to whatever came in their way, they burned down all before them P: wherefore they seem to have been of the greatest use to leaguers, to demolish the enemy's works; though my author mentioned no such thing.

Concerning military apparel, nothing certain or constant can be related; only it may be observed, that Lycurgus ordered the Lacedæmonians to clothe their soldiers with scarlet: the reason

Iliad.,. v, 599.

o Eneid. ix. v. 587.

P Suidas.

of which institution seems either to have been, because that colour is both soonest imbibed by cloth, and most lasting and durable ¶; or on the account of its brightness and splendour, which that lawgiver thought conducive to raise men's spirits, and most suit able to minds animated with true valour; or, lastly, because it was most proper to conceal the stains of blood, a sight of which might either dispirit the raw and unexperienced soldiers of their own party, or inspire their enemies with fresh life and vigour : which Eustathius observes to have been well and wisely considered, when he comments on that passage of Homer, where the cowardly Trojans, upon seeing Ulysses's blood flow from his wound, receive new courage, and animating one another, rush with united force upon the hero :

It is farther remarkable of the Lacedæmonians, that they never engaged their enemies but with crowns and garlands upon, their heads", though at other times they were unaccustomed to such ornaments hereby ascertaining themselves of success, and, as it were, anticipating their victory, crowns being the ordinary rewards presented to conquerors in all the parts of Greece. So wonderful, indeed, were the old Lacedæmonian courage and fortune, that they encountered their enemies fearless and unconcerned, joining battle with assurance of victory; which was a thing so common to them, that for their greatest successes, they seldom sacrificed to the gods any more than a cock: nor were they much elevated when the happy news arrived, nor made presents of any value to the messengers thereof, as was usual in other cities: for after the famous battle of Mantinea, we find the person that carried the express of victory, rewarded only with a piece of powdered beef".

The soldiers usually carried their own provisions, which consisted, for the most part, of salt meat, chcese, olives, onions, &c. To which end every one had a vessel of wickers ", with a long,

Xenoph. de Rep. Laced.

Plutarch. Institut. Laconic,

Plut. loc. cit. Elianus, lib. vi. cap. 6. Valerius Maximus. lib. ii. cap. 6.

t Iliad a'. v. 459.

u Xenphon, item Plut. Lycurge.
V Plutarchus Agesilao,

w Aristophan. Schol. Acharnens.