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4
INSCRIBED SLING-BULLETS.

recalled by Caius Cæsar, to take part in the siege. Eckhel, v. 299, notices a denarius having on one side the head of Cæsar, with the legend C·CÆSAR·III·VIR·R·P·C, i. e. Caius Cæsar Triumvir Reipublicæ Constituendæ: and on the other a winged thunderbolt, also found on this glans, with the legend Q·SALVIVS·IMP·COS·DESIG, i. e. Quintus Salvius Imperator Consul Designatus. The date is almost certainly determined to the year 41, for in the year following Quintus Salvius was killed, as we learn from Dio, xlviii. 33. On a glans, which is a memorial of Cæsar’s hostilities with the sons of Pompey in Spain, we have a similar inscription: CN·MAG IMP, i. e. Cneius Magnus Imperator, scil. Cneius the son of Pompey the Great. From Mommsen’s account of it, n. 681, it does not appear whether it was found at Munda, where the decisive battle was fought, or at Attegua, which was besieged during this war.

ΚΑΔΔΙΣΤΡΑΤΟΥ, on a bullet found in Corcyra, seems to be the name of the Prytanis eponymus, in whose year the missiles bearing the name were cast. See Boeckh, nn. 1865, 1866.

The last two inscriptions in (6) have the names of the centurions, who ordered the casting of the glandes, scil. Scæva and Lucius Mænius, of the 12th legion. Mommsen regards them both as primipili. Of the first there can be no doubt, as the letters PR·PIL prove his rank; but as the latter is designated merely by PR·, I am inclined to think that he was Princeps.

X·MILLIA , 10,000, of course, gives the number of bullets that were ordered.

In the Journal of the Archæological Institute, 1863, p. 198, we find another example of the primipilus, on a glans, (in the possession of Mr. Fortnum), which was also found at Perusia. It bears the inscription,—ATIDI·PR·PIL·LEG·VI, i. e. Atidii Primipili legionis sextæ.

2. The names of towns may have indicated the places where the bullets were made, or from which those who used them came, or in defence of which they were thrown; and the names of peoples were of those by whom or for whom they were thrown. FIR· in n. (2) is inscribed on a glans found[1] on the bank of the river Truentus.


  1. Mr. Rich states that this bullet was “found at the ancient Labicum.” This is a mistake, probably derived from Ficoroni, who makes the same statement. See Mommsen, n. 652.