The bending pilum

[caldrail]

I've just discovered that the bendy pilum was in fact the original model. The hinged pilum was a modification made by Marius that never got general acceptance.

 

Julius Caesar wrote of lucky or nimble gauls able to evade the slow pilum flight and even throw it back, despite the much vaunted 'one-shot' principle.

[Hadrian Caesar]

You mean the inadequate pilums to which Caesar's referring are the hinged models?

Edited April 18, 2007 by Hadrian Caesar

[caldrail]

No, caesar used the standard bendy type. It all depends on leverage. If the pilum pierces a shield and the end of the shaft drops immediately to the floor, then the shank is resting on the shield and no bending takes place. The pila used weren't inadequate, its just that in some cases the pila didn't hit something in such a manner as to allow the bend to take place. We know the bending did occur, as pila tips have been found on battlefield sites with exactly this sort of deformation.

[Gaius Octavius]

The legionary had two spears. One light, one heavy. The light one did not have the wooden pin. The heavy one did. Marius is credited with the wooden pin. Caesar is said to have introduced the spearhead with its rear untempered, i.e., the point at which the socketed head was attached to the shaft. In the former case, their would be a 'hinging' effect; in the latter, a 'bending' effect. The object of the spear was to disorganize the enemy formation in addition to killing or wounding the enemy. The heavy spear was certainly a throwing spear. (The Making of the Roman Army - From Republic to Empire; Lawrence Keppie.)

 

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The lighter spear, which was neither hinged nor untempered, might also have been a jabbing spear. A question comes to my mind in re the Marius heavy spear. Was the head socketed to receive the shaft or was the shaft beveled out to receive the head? To me, it would seem to have been the latter in order for the wooden pin to break.

[caldrail]

There is also evidence of a heavier pilum used in siegework, called a Pilum Mutatis (I think thats right, I will check). Apparently its a well heavy spear best used by defenders.

 

No, it was called a Pilum Muralia

Edited April 20, 2007 by caldrail