Slinging Insults

Lead bullets fired from slingshots in battles throughout the ancient Greek and Roman world were sometimes inscribed with acclamations such as NIKE, or “Victory!” (left), or with names of commanders such as the abbreviation CAES for Julius Caesar (right).

Battlefields throughout the ancient Greek and Roman world were littered with broken arrowheads, splintered chariots, and armor discarded in the chaos of combat. Among the most ubiquitous archaeological traces of these conflicts are sm

Benjamin Leonard is a senior editor at ARCHAEOLOGY.