Slinger

The Whirling Stone

The slinger was a skirmisher of the ancient world who whirled a simple leather sling to hurl stones and cast-lead bullets with astonishing force and range, able to crack a helmet or fell an armored man before he could close. The slingers of the Balearic Islands and Rhodes were so prized that armies recruited them as mercenaries. Cheap to arm yet deadly accurate, the humble slinger long outranged the spear and the bow.