FVL for Fulvia, whilst ASIA indicates Marcus Antonius, who was at the time in Asia. The use of LV for Lucius, although a solœcism, may, he thinks, be excused “tali plebei hominis scriptione.” There are, I think, but few who will accept this view. And yet in this case, as in many others, it is far easier to tell what interpretation should be rejected than it is to propose one which should be adopted.
Of the various expansions, that have presented themselves to my mind, there is not one which I regard as sufficiently probable to induce me to propose it.
In addition to leaden glandes, there have also been found in Sicily[1] objects of a similar form, made of clay, argilla. I have never seen one, but they are described as being of the size of an egg of our domestic fowl, and having on one side a figure, indistinct, but said to resemble Hercules, a man with a sword, a man with a helmet in one hand and a shield in the other, or a man binding shoes on his feet. The inscriptions on them generally consist of the following abbreviations: ΠΡΩ ΦΥΛ, i. e. πρώτα φυλά; ΔΕΥ ΦΥΛ, i. e. δευτέρα φυλά; ΤΡΙ ΦΥΑ, i. e. τρίτα φυλά, followed first by ΦΑ, which seems to stand for φρατρία, then by ΠΑΕ, ΛΑΚΥΝ, and other letters, probably the commencement of the names of places, and finally by names of men, supposed to be of magistrates, as ΦΙΛΟΞΕΝΟΣ ΑΡΚΕΣΙΛΑ, i. e. Φιλόξενος Ἀρκεσίλα. Franz, n. 5468, remarks: “Cui usui inservierint non constat. Ratione habita figurarum impressarum haud scio an pertineant ad milites.” I am inclined to think that these objects are similar to those described by Cæsar, Bell. Gall. v. 43: ferventes fusili ex argilla glandes fundis et fervefacta jacula in casas, quæ more Gallico stramentis erant tectæ, jacere cœperunt. This use of φυλή and φρατρία calls to mind the Homeric: Ὢς φρήτρῃφιν ἀρίήγῃ, φῦλα δὲ φύλοις; and the words appear to denote divisions and sub-divisions of an army. See Thucydides, vi. 98. Hence we may conjecture that these missiles were made for the bodies named thereon, and that the names of places and of men are used in the senses already noticed in pages 4, 5.
Inscribed sling-bullets were also used for the purpose of communicating information to the besieged or the besiegers; and, in addition to them, were similar, but apparently different objects, thrown from slings, called by Appian, Mithridat, 31, πεσσοὶ ἒκ μολύβδου.
- ↑ See Franz, Corp. Græc. Inscrip. iii. nn. 5468, 5587, 5820, 5686, 5743; also the authorities cited by him:—Alessi, “‘Littera sulle ghiande di piombo iscritte, trovate nell’ antica citta di Enna,’ Palermo, 1815;” and Mommsen, Zeitschrift. f. Altreth. 1846, n. 98, p. 784.
