08-12-2016, 05:55 PM
Are you suggesting that the velite's javelin wasn't called a hastae velitares? What about Pliny? Was he wrong too? If hasta refers to more than just a spear meant for fighting, and since poets are well known to use "poetic license", then hastati throwing hastae during the 2nd Punic War might also just refer to them throwing javelins, or pila (book VIII covers the 2nd Punic War, its well established that by that point the Hastati had pila).
