Pilum

ROMAN PILUM
1st - 2nd century AD

Price: $175
Authenticity Rating: 10

The Romans were well known for adopting the armor and weaponry of their conquered enemies and adapting them for their own benefit. Examples of this are the lorica hamata (chainmail), the Gladius Hispaniensis (Spanish Sword) and the many types of helmets drawn from Celtic designs. The pilum, the Roman heavy javelin, appears to have been a truly native design, owing its origination to native Italic, perhaps Etruscan, sources. The Romans, throughout their many centuries of warfare in the Mediterranean adapted these early designs to suit their needs and perfected this weapon to be the front line of offense against enemies otherwise thought invincible. It was the pilum which many scholars credit for contributing to the Roman defeat of the Macedonian phalanx, being able to penetrate and weaken the line’s formidable defenses while still at a distance. The design of the pilum incorporates a wooden haft, approximately 4 feet long, connected sturdily to a metal shaft, approximately 2 ½ to 3 feet long. In earlier times, the metal shaft was either socketed or tanged, being connected to the wooden haft by either of these methods. In the Imperial period, most were of the tanged type, being connected to the haft by three cross-drilled pins. The metal shaft (pilum head) incorporated a hardened pyramidal “bodkin” tip that was able to pierce metal armor, and a shaft that was long enough to allow the pilum to reach past an outstretched arm after it had penetrated a shield and body armor. If the pilum did not kill the target, it certainly maimed or hobbled him, pinning his shield to him and creating an encumbrance that was not easily overcome. The nature of the pilum’s metal shaft was that it would also bend slightly after contact with its target, due to the weight of the wooden shaft producing torsion against the pointed end nested in a target or the ground. This would render it temporarily unusable as it could not be thrown back at the Romans without being straightened first. It has also been the experience of many reenactor / historians that the union where the metal fits into the wood was somewhat weakened due to its shape and would crack or dislodge after being thrown, also rendering it useless to the enemy. Recent studies have also shown (Peter Connolly, “The pilum from Marius to Nero - a reconsideration of its development and function.” Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies 12/13 (2001/2), pp. 1-8) that the pilum did not bend as easily as was previously thought by scholars, reinforcing the notion that the nature of the weapon was that of a device not merely used to encumber a foe, but rather to disable or kill him.

Our pilum is produced of a hand hewed ash wood haft, as the Romans used, and a fully forged mild steel pilum head. The total length of the pilum may vary slightly, and may also be made to order. The overall length is usually in the range of 6 ½ feet. The metal shaft (pilum head) is approximately 30 inches from tang to tip, rounded along its length, with a pyramidal point that is approximately 3/8 inch wide and 1 ½ to 2 inches long. Ours is not merely made to look hand crafted, but is completely forged from scratch, as the ancient Romans did. The pilum comes fully assembled, using three pins at the junction of the wood and metal, as was common in the Imperial period.