Monday, January 09, 2006

Peculiar and Proclus and I have a history of--well, of a number of things, but the one I'm thinking about right now is going up on the mountain and slinging rocks at trees. Given our skill, it is remarkable that we have six eyes between us still. But I don't believe we ever considered inscribing our stones:
Many sling bullets survive from antiquity, some with inscriptions scratched on them. The Greek for one of these leaden projectiles is molybdis, and in Latin they are called glandes plumbeae (literally leaden acorns). Here are a couple of inscriptions, from Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, I:

650: Feri Pomp(eium) = Strike Pompey.

682: Pet(e) culum Octavia[ni] = Attack Octavian's arsehole.
(The implication is that Octavianus (the future Augustus) would have turned tail in flight.)

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