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Details

LOT 1465

Roman 'Consular' Lead Slingshot

1ST CENTURY B.C.

1 3/8 in. (38 grams, 36 mm).

Fusiform shot with casting nipple at each end, low-relief legend 'COS' to one face and traces of letters on the other. [No Reserve]

Provenance

From the collection of a London antiquarian, formed since the 1980s.

Literature

Cf. D'Amato, R. and Sumner, G., Arms and Armour of the Imperial Roman Soldier: From Marius to Commodus, 112 BC-AD 192, London, 2009, fig.32, p.45, for a similar glandes from Zaragoza Museum, from Munda battlefield.

Footnotes

The shot (Völling type 1C) is marked with the abbreviation COS, meaning CO(N)S(UL), the highest military magistrate of the Roman Res Publica. The projectiles were made of different materials: lead (glandes) or pottery or stone (lapides missiles).

CONDITION

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AUCTIONS:

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LOT 1465

Roman 'Consular' Lead Slingshot

Sold for (Inc. bp): £143

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