Profile of a mid 5th century Roman soldier.

[Robert Vermaat]

I appreciate that you have done a lot of work on the plumbata and that it is a nasty little weapon but can it really be said that it had the penetrating power of the pilum?

By no means! If I seemed to suggest that, let me explain myself! The pilum was a very heavy spear, the plumbata is a light missile. However the plumbata, with its barbs, is meant to penetrate and get stuck in the opponent, his armour, his shield, and that seems to be a quality shared with a pilum and not with other missiles. But the comparison ends there, the missiles are of a different caliber. :wink: