Sling (weapon) in the context of "Javelin (weapon)"

Shot is a collective term for small spheres or pellets, often made of lead. These have been projected from slings since ancient times and were the original projectiles for shotguns and are still fired primarily from shotguns and grenade launchers, while they are less commonly used in riot guns. Shot shells are also available in many handgun calibers in a configuration known as "birdshot", "rat shot", or "snake shot".

Lead shot is also used for a variety of other purposes such as filling cavities with dense material for weight and/or balance. Some versions may be plated with other metals. Lead shot was originally made by pouring molten lead through screens into water, forming what was known as "swan shot", and, later, more economically mass-produced at higher quality using a shot tower. The Bliemeister method has supplanted the shot tower method since the early 1960s.

The throwing stick or throwing club is a wooden rod with either a pointed tip or a spearhead attached to one end, intended for use as a weapon. A throwing stick can be either straight or roughly boomerang-shaped, and is much shorter than the javelin. It became obsolete as slings and bows became more prevalent, except on the Australian continent, where the native people continued refining the basic design. Throwing sticks shaped like returning boomerangs are designed to fly straight to a target at long ranges, their surfaces acting as airfoils. When tuned correctly they do not exhibit curved flight, but rather they fly on an extended straight flight path. Straight flight ranges greater than 100 m (330 ft) have been reported by historical sources as well as in recent research.

A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon. Today, the javelin is predominantly used for sporting purposes such as the javelin throw. The javelin is nearly always thrown by hand, unlike the sling, bow, and crossbow, which launch projectiles with the aid of a hand-held mechanism. However, devices do exist to assist the javelin thrower in achieving greater distances, such as spear-throwers or the amentum.

A warrior or soldier armed primarily with one or more javelins is a javelineer.

In Ancient Greek armies, the psiloi (Ancient Greek ψιλοί, singular ψιλός, psilos, literally "bare, stripped") were light infantry who typically served as skirmishers and missile troops. They were distinguished from the armored hoplitai (heavy infantry) by their light weaponry and lack of armor.

In Classical Antiquity and Late Antiquity and throughout the existence of the Byzantine Empire, the lightest-armed troops, typically equipped with ranged weapons, and which fought irregularly in a loose formation, were deemed 'the psiloi'. Numbered among the psiloi were archers, the toxotai armed with a bow (toxa), and slingers, the (sphendonetai) who hurled stones or metal bullets with slings (sfendonai). Others, the akontistai, used the throwing javelin (akontia). Some psiloi simply threw stones at the enemy and were referred to as lithoboloi.

Goliath (/ɡə.ˈlaɪ.əθ/ gə-LY-əth) is a Philistine warrior of giant stature who plays a pivotal role in the origin myth of King David in the Book of Samuel. According to 1 Samuel, Goliath challenges the Israelites to best him in single combat. David, then a young shepherd, takes up the challenge and kills Goliath with a stone slung from a sling. The narrative signifies King Saul's unfitness to rule for not taking up the giant's challenge himself.

The phrase "David and Goliath" has taken on a more popular meaning denoting an underdog situation, a contest wherein a smaller, weaker opponent faces a much bigger, stronger adversary. Some modern scholars now believe that the original slayer of Goliath in the text may have been Elhanan, son of Jair, who features in 2 Samuel 21:19, in which Elhanan kills Goliath the Gittite, and that the authors of the Deuteronomistic history changed the original text to credit the victory to the more famous figure of David.

Triphylia (Greek: Τριφυλία, Trifylia, "the country of the three tribes") was an area of the ancient Peloponnese. Strabo and Pausanias both describe Triphylia as part of Elis, and it fell at times under the domination of the city of Elis, but Pausanias claims that the residents reckoned themselves Arcadian, not Elean. They fell under the rule of Elis in the 8th century BC, and remained under Elean rule until the Spartans asserted their control in 402 BC. When the Spartans were defeated by the Thebans at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, the Eleans attempted to reassert their control, but the Triphylians, in order to maintain their independence from Elis, joined the Arcadian League in 368 BC. In this period, their political fortunes were often shared by the areas on the border between Elis and Arcadia but to the north of the River Alpheus; Xenophon mentions the Amphidolians and Acrorians and the city-states of Lasion, Margana, and Letrini in this context. The Amphidolians, Marganians, and Letrinians are remarkable in Xenophon for fielding slingers for the Peloponnesian army.

The most important city in Triphylia was Lepreum, which maintained its self-government in the 5th century BC. In his accounts of wars between the Eleans and their enemies in Sparta and Arcadia in this period, Xenophon also mentions Scillus, Macistus, Epium, Phrixa, and Epitalium as cities in Triphylia.

A kestros (Greek: κέστρος) or kestrophendone (Greek: κεστροσφενδόνη), respectively Latinized as cestrus or cestrosphendone, is a specially designed sling that is used to throw a heavy dart.

The dart would typically consist of a heavy metal point approximately 23 cm (9.1 in) long, attached to a shaft of wood, typically 30 cm (12 in) long, and fletched with feathers or similar materials to provide stability of flight.