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The pilum (plural pila) was a heavy javelin commonly used by the Roman army
Military history of ancient Rome

From its origin as a city-state in History of Italy during Roman times in 9th century BC, the rise as an Roman Empire covering much of Eurasia and North Africa and fall in the 5th century AD of Ancient Rome was often closely entwined with its military history....
 in ancient times.






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Pilum Lg
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The pilum (plural pila) was a heavy javelin commonly used by the Roman army
Military history of ancient Rome

From its origin as a city-state in History of Italy during Roman times in 9th century BC, the rise as an Roman Empire covering much of Eurasia and North Africa and fall in the 5th century AD of Ancient Rome was often closely entwined with its military history....
 in ancient times. It was generally about two meters long overall, consisting of an iron
Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
 shank about 7 mm in diameter and 60 cm long with pyramidal head. The iron shank may be socketed, but more usually widens to a flat tang; this was secured to a wooden shaft. A pilum usually weighed between two and five kilograms, with the versions produced during the Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 being a bit lighter. Pictorial evidence suggest that some versions of the weapon were weighted by a lead
Lead

Lead is a main-group Chemical element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal, also considered to be one of the heavy metal ....
 ball to increase penetrative power, but no archeological specimens have been found. Recent experiments have shown pila to have a range of approximately , although effective range is up to .

Legionaries
Legionary

The Ancient Rome legionary was a professional soldier of the Military history of ancient Rome after the Marian reforms of 107 BC. Legionaries had to be Roman citizenship under the age of 45....
 of the Late Republic
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
 and Early Empire often carried two pila, with one sometimes being lighter than the other. Standard tactics called for a Roman soldier to throw his pilum (both if there was time) at the enemy just before charging to engage with his gladius
Gladius

Gladius is a Latin word for sword. Early Ancient Rome swords were similar to those used by the Greeks. From the 3rd century BC, the Romans adopted swords similar to those used by the Celtiberians and others during the early part of the conquest of Hispania....
. They could also be used in hand to hand combat, or as a barrier against mounted charges. Some pila had small hand-guards, to protect the wielder if he intended to use it as a melee weapon, but it does not appear that this was common.

Vegetius' commentary

The late Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 writer Vegetius
Vegetius

Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus was a writer of the Western Roman Empire. Nothing is known of his life or station beyond what he tells us in his two surviving works: Epitoma rei militaris , and the lesser-known Digesta Artis Mulomedicinae, a guide to veterinary medicine....
, in his work De Re Militari
De Re Militari

De Re Militari is a treatise of Roman warfare and military principles written in the late Roman Empire, claiming to be a presentation of methods and practices in use during the height of Rome's power, and responsible for that power....
, wrote:

As to the missile weapons of the infantry, they were javelins headed with a triangular sharp iron, eleven inches (279 mm) or a foot long, and were called piles. When once fixed in the shield it was impossible to draw them out, and when thrown with force and skill, they penetrated the cuirass without difficulty.


And later in the same work:

They had likewise two other javelins, the largest of which was composed of a staff five feet and a half long and a triangular head of iron nine inches (229 mm) long. This was formerly called the pilum, but now it is known by the name of spiculum. The soldiers were particularly exercised in the use of this weapon, because when thrown with force and skill it often penetrated the shields of the foot and the cuirasses of the horse.


Results of experimental archaeology

Thanks in part to experimental archaeology
Experimental archaeology

Experimental archaeology employs a number of different methods, techniques, analyses, and approaches in order to generate and test hypotheses or an interpretation, based upon archaeological source material, like ancient structures or Artifact ....
, it is generally believed that the pilum's design evolved to be armour-piercing: the pyramidal head would punch a small hole through an enemy shield
Shield

A shield is a protective device, meant to intercept attacks. The term often refers to a device that is held in the hand, as opposed to armour or a bullet proof vest....
 allowing the thin shank to pass through and penetrate a distance sufficient to hit the target. The thick wooden shaft provided the weight behind the punch.

In one description, one of the two iron nails that held the iron shaft in place was replaced with a weak wooden pin that would break on impact causing the shaft to twist sideways. Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius was a Roman Republic general and politician elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic Marian Reforms of Roman legion, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens and reorganizing the structure of the legions into separate Cohort ....
 is sometimes given credit for this modification. Most later pila were constructed such that the iron shank would bend on impact; early pila do not seem to have had this characteristic. A pilum, having penetrated a shield through a small hole and its shank having bent would now be difficult to remove. It is likely that the shaft would hit the ground and thus stop the charging enemy in his tracks.

Further injury would occur if the enemy did not discard the shield quickly enough or if he was "bumped" into the head by collision from the rear. An enemy, if not killed by the pilum, would have little time before closing with the legionaries and would have to discard his now-unwieldy shield before going into combat. Additionally, bent pila would be less suitable for reuse by a resourceful opponent. Opinion among archaeologists used to be that the main function of the shank was to disable the pilum by bending, but it is now thought that the pilum was a weapon designed primarily to kill, the 'non-return' aspect being an added bonus.

Primary Sources

chichin and the empire

Secondary Sources

  • Connolly, Peter. Greece and Rome at War. Greenhill Books, 1998 ISBN 185367303X.


External links

  • , Caerleon's Roman Legion
  • , www.romanlegions.info
  • , Ecomuseum de Cap de Cavalleria.


See also


  • Pole weapon
    Pole weapon

    A pole weapon or polearm is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is placed on the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, thereby extending the user's effective range....
  • Javelin
    Javelin

    A Javelin is a throw weapon, used more commonly in the modern athletics discipline: Javelin throw.Javelin may also refer to:* Javelin , a DC Comics supervillain...
  • Verutum
    Verutum

    The verutum, or plural veruta was a short javelin used in the Roman army. This javelin was used by the velites for skirmishing unlike the heavier pilum used by the hastati and principes for softening the enemy before advancing into close combat....
  • Lancea
    Lancea

    The lancea was the Roman auxiliaries' short javelin. According to the OED, the word originally came from the Iberian Language....
  • Spiculum
    Spiculum

    A spiculum is a late Roman spear that replaced the pilum at around 250AD as the infantryman's main throwing javelin. Scholars suppose that it could have resulted from the gradual combination of the pilum and two German spears, the angon and the Bebra ....
  • Roman military personal equipment
  • Spear
    Spear

    A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a sharpened head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be of another material fastened to the shaft, such as obsidian, iron or bronze....
  • Projectile
    Projectile

    A projectile is any object propelled through space by the exertion of a force, which ceases after launch. In a general sense, even a Football or baseball may be considered a projectile....
  • Lance
    Lance

    The term lance has become a catchall for a variety of different pole weapons based on the spear. The name is derived from lancea, Ancient Rome auxiliaries' javelin, although according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word may be of Iberian language origin....