Introduction: Goliath
The scholarly literature on the battle
between David and Goliath is extensive.
Here is one source: John A. Beck,
“David and Goliath, a Story of Place:
The Narrative-Geographical Shaping of
1 Samuel 17,” Westminster Theological
Journal 68 (2006): 321–30.
Claudius Quadrigarius’s account of
single combat is from Ross Cowan, For
the Glory of Rome (Greenhill Books,
2007), 140. No one in ancient times
would have doubted David’s tactical
advantage once it was known that he
was an expert in slinging. Here is the
Roman military historian Vegetius