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<p>[QUOTE="Orielensis, post: 3174254, member: 96898"][USER=96864]@Plumbata[/USER] , thank you for the nice words and for the great bullet/stater-picture! I had not known that there is a coin depicting a slinger, and now I will definitely keep my eyes open for one.</p><p><br /></p><p>As for your question whether the inscription might be a derisive comment, I guess that might be a possibility. In order to explain why, I need to get a bit grammatical, but I promise to keep it short (and use Latin characters):</p><p><br /></p><p>The Grek word <i>dromas </i>can be dissected into two parts carrying independent meaning (linguists call these "morphemes"):<i> drom-</i> and <i>-as</i>. The first part, <i>drom-</i>, is what is called a root, that is a meaningful, standalone morpheme which cannot be reduced into smaller units. <i>Drom</i>- can be translated into English as <i>run- </i>(as in <i>run-ner</i>, <i>run-ning</i>, <i>she run-s</i>, etc.).</p><p><br /></p><p>With the second part, <i>-as</i>, it gets slightly complicated: <i>-as</i> is not a root, but a grammatical suffix, that is a bound morpheme indicating, in this case, the type of word, grammatical case and number of <i>drom-</i>. I will no go into detail here, but to imagine it in English, think of the word <i>run-ning:</i> the <i>-as</i> works a bit like the <i>-ing</i>. Since a stylistic device called ellipsis (omission of words) is abundantly common in Greek, <i>dromas </i>can also mean "something or somebody who is running" or, in free translation, "runner." To make it even more fun, the word <i>dromas </i>can also be two different cases: nominative singular (like in <i>he/she/it is running</i>) and vocative singular (like in <i>you are somebody who is running away/a runner!</i>).</p><p><br /></p><p>Therefore, the inscription <i>dromas </i>it might be read in three ways: first, the slinger could read it as "This bullet is racing/swift/fast". Secondly, the enemy could understand <i>dromas</i> as an insult in the sense of "You are a runner" or "You coward!". Finally, it can also just mean "dromedary," as you supposed. Likely, the inscription is a wordplay with these possibilities – the ancient Greeks loved this type of intentional ambiguity.</p><p><br /></p><p>(Full disclaimer: I have some philological training but absolutely no expertise in either ancient military technology, epigraphy, or archeology. If someone chimes in who knows more about these things, they are probably right.)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Orielensis, post: 3174254, member: 96898"][USER=96864]@Plumbata[/USER] , thank you for the nice words and for the great bullet/stater-picture! I had not known that there is a coin depicting a slinger, and now I will definitely keep my eyes open for one. As for your question whether the inscription might be a derisive comment, I guess that might be a possibility. In order to explain why, I need to get a bit grammatical, but I promise to keep it short (and use Latin characters): The Grek word [I]dromas [/I]can be dissected into two parts carrying independent meaning (linguists call these "morphemes"):[I] drom-[/I] and [I]-as[/I]. The first part, [I]drom-[/I], is what is called a root, that is a meaningful, standalone morpheme which cannot be reduced into smaller units. [I]Drom[/I]- can be translated into English as [I]run- [/I](as in [I]run-ner[/I], [I]run-ning[/I], [I]she run-s[/I], etc.). With the second part, [I]-as[/I], it gets slightly complicated: [I]-as[/I] is not a root, but a grammatical suffix, that is a bound morpheme indicating, in this case, the type of word, grammatical case and number of [I]drom-[/I]. I will no go into detail here, but to imagine it in English, think of the word [I]run-ning:[/I] the [I]-as[/I] works a bit like the [I]-ing[/I]. Since a stylistic device called ellipsis (omission of words) is abundantly common in Greek, [I]dromas [/I]can also mean "something or somebody who is running" or, in free translation, "runner." To make it even more fun, the word [I]dromas [/I]can also be two different cases: nominative singular (like in [I]he/she/it is running[/I]) and vocative singular (like in [I]you are somebody who is running away/a runner![/I]). Therefore, the inscription [I]dromas [/I]it might be read in three ways: first, the slinger could read it as "This bullet is racing/swift/fast". Secondly, the enemy could understand [I]dromas[/I] as an insult in the sense of "You are a runner" or "You coward!". Finally, it can also just mean "dromedary," as you supposed. Likely, the inscription is a wordplay with these possibilities – the ancient Greeks loved this type of intentional ambiguity. (Full disclaimer: I have some philological training but absolutely no expertise in either ancient military technology, epigraphy, or archeology. If someone chimes in who knows more about these things, they are probably right.)[/QUOTE]
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