RomanArmyTalk

Does anyone happen to know when darts were adopted by the Roman army. Everything I have seen indicates that they were not used until the around the 4th century (Jovians and Herculians?).

And then this comes up from Josephus

"till at length one Priscus, a centurion, shot a dart at him as he was leaping and playing the fool with himself, and thereby pierced him through; upon which a shout was set up both by the Jews and the Romans, though on different accounts."

I think the issue is that you have to look at the original language that passage was translated from to see exactly what 'dart' is being used for. Its a common problem, it may refer to a javelin, spear, arrow etc, not actually a dart.

As Adrian says, it's a problem with the translation - some older translators (and some newer ones) use very inexact language. Other versions have Priscus shooting an arrow, but you'd have to check to original Greek to be certain. I would think a javelin would be more probable!

And I have seen 'pilis' translated as 'pikes', which is quite wrong!

Adrian and Nathan are right. You should not be deceived by a translator's choice of words. The Penguin and Loeb translations have 'arrow' and this seems to be right. The word in the original Greek is τοξεύσας, which comes from τοξεύω, 'to shoot with a bow'.

Similarly Ammianus Marcellinus never uses the word 'plumbata' or martiobarbulus', but uses words like 'tela' or 'pilum' which are then translated into English as 'darts'.