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Details
LOT 0307
Roman Praetorian Guard Terracotta Sling Shot with Scorpion
1ST CENTURY A.D.
1 3/4 in. (25.75 grams, 43 mm).
Lentoid section with a raised 'keel' to one end, depicting a stylised scorpion. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Ex Simmons Gallery, London E11, UK, in the 1990s.
From a North London collection.
Literature
Cf. Schinco, G., Small, A.M., 'A previously unknown siege of Botromagno/Silvium: the evidence of slingshots from Gravina in Puglia (Provincia di Bari, Puglia)' in Papers of the British School at Rome, 2019, pp.1-52, figs.38.
Footnotes
The sling (funda) with its lead (plumbea pondera) and stone missiles was used by special funditores, illustrated on Trajan’s Column where they are dressed in broad tunics with no armour, but carry a shield. Interestingly, this glans has the emblem usually associated with the Praetorian Guard - the scorpion. It was an emblem also used in Ptolemaic Egypt, and it is not impossible that this bullet could be Ptolemaic or Romano-Egyptian. We believe this bullet could be associated with the Praetorian regiments which means this could be one of the first pieces of evidence for their use.
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LOT 0307
Roman Praetorian Guard Terracotta Sling Shot with Scorpion
Sold for (Inc. bp): £286
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