spear or pilum?

[M. CVRIVS ALEXANDER]

Robert,

Thank you for your response. I would appreciate if you could elaborate on some of your points.

A hasta is (in my opinion) designed as a stabbing weapon (when you look at balance etc as well as the hefty spear head etc.) but also usable as a throwing weapon. Both are heavy rather than light spears.

I am not sure that a larger spearhead could suggest the use of a spear as a primarily thrusting weapon. But even if yes, what is the evidence that the larger spearheads found belonged to infantry spears rather than calvary spears?

Also, I encountered the argument that the length of the spear - 7 feet or more - suggests its use as a primarily thrusting weapon. However - how do we know that hastae were that long? What archaeological evidence do we possess? The images suggest that hastae were about human height (about the hight of pila) - yes, they could have been shown shorter than they were due to the limitation of the image, but we do not know if they actually have.

Then there's what we might discern from the sources...
The hasta on the other hand seems mainly to be a synonym of a thrusting spear. True, the word itself could be used for any number of spears, but when a specific sort is mentioned, it's always the thrusting spear, whether a cavalry lance or an infantry spear. The word continues in use as a synonym until Byzantine times.

What texts showing that infantry hasta was a thrusting spear do you have in mind?

Thank you,