Means by which stones would be thrown by greater force than the hand, would naturally be resorted to; accordingly we find the sling ranks amongst the first of ancient offensive weapons. Numerous examples are mentioned in Scripture, as in Judges xx., 16, “Among all this people, there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; every one could sling stones at a hair breadth and not miss;” and also that of David and Goliath, &c. ~Siege of Troy between 800 and 900 B. C.~ ~Battle of the Granicus B. C. 334.~ ~First Punic war 241 to 263 B. C.~ At the siege of Troy, the masses were organized into two kinds of infantry: one light and irregular, carrying horn bows, short darts, and slings; the other regular and heavy, armed with spears. At the battle of the Granicus, B. C. 334, Alexander the Great had in his army light infantry, consisting of slingers, bow-men, and javelin-men. The Carthagenians had slingers in their pay before the first Punic War. ~Slings common in Greece.~ ~Slingers in Roman armies.~ The Sling was very common in Greece, and used by the light armed soldiers. Arrows, stones, and leaden plummets, were thrown from them, some of which weighed no less than an Attic pound. Seneca reports that its motion was so vehement that the leaden plummets were frequently melted!!! The Romans had slingers in their armies, for the most part inhabitants of the Islands of Majorca, Minorca and Ivica. ~Invention ascribed to Phœnicians and also to inhabitants of Balearic islands.~ Pliny ascribes the invention of slings to the Phœnicians, but Vegetius to the inhabitants of the Balearic Islands, who were famous in antiquity for using them. It is said, those people bore three kinds of slings, some longer and others shorter, to be used as their enemies were nearer or more remote; the first served them for a head band, the second for a girdle, and the third they always carried in their hands. In fight they threw large stones with such violence, that they seemed to be projected from some machine, and with such exactness, as rarely to miss their aim; being constantly exercised from their infancy, their mothers not allowing them to have any food, until they struck it down from the top of a pole with stones thrown from their slings. ~Materials of slings.~ ~Slings with cup.~ ~Staff-sling.~