§ 1. The pilum, the missile customary among the Romans, was four and one-half cubits long, or a little less than seven feet, as Lipsius teaches. The iron was equal in length to the wood, but half of it was inserted into or attached to the wood. The iron was sometimes square and sometimes three-edged, with the thickness of a finger. Vegetius says that it often pierced through shield-bearing infantrymen and cuirassed horsemen. Tibullus assigns so great a force to it that “with the pliant pilum he broke what stood in his way.” Virgil assigns it a broad iron point: “Brandishing shafts with broad iron.”
Florus compares enormous pila with swords. Around the point they were hooked so that they could not be extracted. Thus they lodged in shields and weighed them down. So that this impediment might be greater, Marius arranged for them to bend. Sometimes they pierced two shields and connected them.
The pila were different from the spears of the light-armed soldiers. The Greeks call the latter γρόσφους and the former ὑσσούς. They also called the light-armed soldiers γροσφομάχους. Polybius describes the weapon as follows: “The wood of the pilum has a length generally of two cubits and the thickness of a finger. Its point, one span—that is, a greater palm—in length, is thinned and sharpened to such an extent that immediately after the first cast it necessarily bends and becomes unsuitable for casting back; otherwise it would become a weapon common to both sides.”
Seven javelins, each four feet long, were given to each man. The wood was three feet long; the iron was a great palm, or three-quarters of a foot, a little less than one foot. It was therefore easy to carry seven little spears in the hand.
Partly like the pilum and partly like the light-armed soldier’s spear was the sibuna, or sybina, customary among Greeks and Illyrians. They employed it principally in hunting. Although the force of pila is sometimes exaggerated, it is nevertheless established that it was ordinarily weak. For most often, when cast from level or lower ground, they fell ineffectually.
Livy, book 7: “In addition to valor, the position too assisted them, so that all the pila and spears did not fall ineffectually, as if cast from level ground—as most often happens—but all, balanced by their weights, lodged fast.” But our weapons are effective from any position.
§ 2. Polybius describes for us the old and new spears of horsemen: “Their spears were also useless to them in two ways. They made them slender and pliant, and therefore they could neither aim them correctly nor strike the target; and before they fixed the point into anything, most were broken by the shaking caused by the very motion of the horses. I add that, being made without a point at the lower end, they delivered only the wound and blow of the forward part; when this was broken, the remainder was useless and ineffective for them. But they had a shield of oxhide, very similar to the bossed cakes which they are accustomed to place in sacrifices. It was not convenient to employ these in battle because they had no firmness; and when the leather was loosened or spoiled by rain, they became altogether useless, both then and now. Therefore, since their use was defective, they immediately adopted the Greek preparation of arms. In it, the blow of the spear’s forward point happens to be direct and powerful, since the shaft is stable and immovable; likewise, after the weapon is reversed, the use of the lower point is firm and violent. The same reasoning applies to the shields, for both in attack and resistance they remain stable and firmly stretched. When the Romans saw this, they immediately imitated it.”
Lipsius observes excellently that, when Brutus and Tarquinius fell after being wounded through their parmae, the spears were not strong but the parmae weak. The armor of the ancients was therefore not of great worth, since even the princes themselves were not safe when protected by it.
§ 3. It is established that horsemen had a long spear with which they charged, as do our lancers. Our men now secure them against their sides so that the blow may be carried through with their whole weight and impetus. Since the ancients also had an iron point at the rear, which they called the σαυρωτήρ, Lipsius thinks that they lacked such a support; if they did, the blow inflicted was much weaker. But I believe that there was a nail, hook, or something similar by which the spear was secured to the seated man’s body, while the οὐραχός, the butt end, remained free. For they could brace it upon their knees, as Silius says:
The weight of the Sarmatian pike, supported upon the knee,
Drove headlong across the field against the opposing enemy.
The other javelins, three or four of which they carried in a quiver, were weak and more suitable for one who cast them than for one fighting at close quarters.
Marcellinus also shows the use of cylinders and stones: “Some, while carrying ladders and preparing means of ascent on every side, were crushed beneath the very burdens, when stones, fragments of columns, and cylinders were driven down the slope.”
§ 4. The Romans were accustomed to scatter caltrops against the enemy. Herodian, book 4: “Whenever the Romans joined battle on foot, they readily overcame their adversaries. But afterward, when they were pressed by cavalry and a multitude of camels, they pretended flight and cast down caltrops and other sharpened iron devices. Hidden beneath the sand and visible to no one, these brought destruction upon horsemen and the riders of camels. For when they trod upon them, the horses—and especially the camels, because this kind has the softest hooves—fell down or became lame, throwing their riders from their backs.”