Gladius Hispaniensis Posted November 8, 2008 Report Share Posted November 8, 2008 Ave Does anyone know at what point in time legionaries switched from carrying two pila to just one pilum? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ingsoc Posted November 8, 2008 Report Share Posted November 8, 2008 According to Adrian Goldsworthy (The Complete Roman Army, pp. 133) while it's possible that the legionaries carried two pila on a campaign to the battle itself they carry only one pilum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maty Posted November 12, 2008 Report Share Posted November 12, 2008 According to Adrian Goldsworthy (The Complete Roman Army, pp. 133) while it's possible that the legionaries carried two pila on a campaign to the battle itself they carry only one pilum. Polybius seems to be our only source for the two-pila legionary. When researching this recently I was assured that those re-enactors who had tried it found that one was plenty to handle along with the rest of battle gear. The problem is that no-one explicitly refers to the number of pila later. There's just comments like 'The legionaries discharged their pila ...'. However, it seems probable that the legionaries of 100 AD had just one pilum apiece, so I've gone with that. However, given that pila are rather fragile, it would make sense for spares to be available on a campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASCLEPIADES Posted November 12, 2008 Report Share Posted November 12, 2008 After reading some of this Roman military stuff, I was left with the idea that if any Roman soldier carried more than one pilum, he ought to get another name for them; spicula or whatever you like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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