Polybius, horse archers arrows, roman armour, oh my.

[marka]

OK ... different tack on the pilum bodkin point ... was the pilum intended to pierce mail or was it designed to defeat what it would hit first ... the shield, hence the long tang to reach the bearer behind it? Weren't the first ones around before mail was widespread?

Could the bodkin arrow head have be intended to take on shields rather than mail?

Why would the Romans design a weapon to overcome mail? Hardly anyone they faced would have worn it, whilst every man carried a shield. Any armour-piercing capacity the pilum might have had was incidental to its true purpose.

a few enemies would have worn it.
interestingly i read (i forget the reference)about numbers of late roman bodkins being found in rhine forts.while in britain the finds tend to be trilobites