2000-year-old ‘bullet’ found with Roman emperor’s name on it used as propaganda

Sign up for a full digest of all the very best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches e-mail

Sign as much as our free weekly Voices publication

A 2000-year-old “bullet” found with a Roman emperor’s name on it was seemingly used as propaganda, in accordance with archaeologists.

The lead projectile, inscribed with the name of Julius Caesar, was unearthed in Spain and will have been used with a slingshot by the emperors’ troops.

The artefact – identified to specialists as a “glans inscripta” – measures 4.5 by 2 centimeters and weighs 71 grams and would have been made utilizing a mould into which molten lead was poured.

On one aspect, an inscription reads “IPSCA” – seemingly Latin for an unknown Spanish city – whereas the opposite reads “CAES” for Ceasar.

Experts say the invention might show Indigenous Spaniards supported the reason for the dictator throughout his civil warfare in 49-45BC.

“In the 1st century BC, many inscribed glandes were made because they were very useful instruments for housing short, very specific messages,” research lead creator Javier Moralejo Ordax informed Live Science.

The message on the bullet was seemingly meant as political propaganda and encouragement for Caesar’s personal troops, he added.

Caesar’s civil warfare engulfed Greece Egypt, Africa, Spain and the Balkans. The closing offensive is understood as the Battle of Munda, which occurred in Andalusia, Spain.

Only one different bullet with Caesar’s name on it has been found in Spain earlier than. It reads “CAE / ACIPE” — the Latin equal of “Suck it, Caesar” — most probably a message from Pompey’s troops to their enemy.