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LiveScience
LiveScience
Kristina Killgrove

2,000-year-old bullet found with Julius Caesar's name on it was likely used in civil war

A photo of two angles of an inscribed sling bullet found in Spain in 2019.

An almond-shaped lead bullet — inscribed with the names of Julius Caesar and an unknown city and likely fired from a slingshot — hints that Indigenous people in Spain supported the cause of the would-be dictator during his ultimately successful civil war more than 2,000 years ago, a new study finds. 

As general, Caesar led the Roman army to victory in the Gallic Wars (58 to 50 B.C.). But unwilling to give up his newfound power, he famously crossed the Rubicon River on Jan. 10, 49 B.C., leading his chief political rival, Pompey the Great, to declare Caesar's action tantamount to a state of civil war.

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