Autour des balles de fronde «camiréennes»

Abstract

The starting point is provided by a sling bullet found at Kocadümen Tepe in the Teian hinterland. The inscription and type are the same as on bullets found at Kameiros. The types and find-spots on the «Kameiran» sling bullets are here reviewed. Once the hypothesis of local manufacture is dismissed: the context must be the siege of Rhodes in 305 BC. The presence of inscribed sling bullets of the same type at Teos and Miletos reflects the activities of Antigonos Monophthalmos and Demetrios Poliorketes at the end of the fourth century. Finally, this study looks at the function of inscriptions on sling bullets: insults addressed at the enemy are rare, but the demonstration of practical procedures of military administration amount to an agressive perlocutionary speech-act.