Hasta or Pilum?

[John Maddox Roberts]

I recall one quote (maybe someone more learned can locate it) describing a Roman soldier blocking the slashes of a gallic longsword with the shank of his pilum until "the sword resembled a strigil" (the crooked bronze scraper used in bathing). This would suggest that at times the pilum was used as a spear rather than as a javelin. <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

Pila were certainly used as spears on many occasions - Arrian in his "Order of Battle against het Alans" I think says the first 2 ranks of legions should hold the pila as spears, while the rear ranks throw theirs overhad them lean against the front ranks to take the shock of impact of the charging cavalry.<br>
<br>
Caesar's use was at Pharsalus, and IIRC is mentioned in Plutarch's "life" of Pompey and not by Caesar himself. <p></p><i></i>

[Vincula]

Quote:</em></strong><hr>Arrian in his "Order of Battle against het Alans" I think says the first 2 ranks of legions should hold the pila as spears, while the rear ranks throw theirs overhad them lean against the front ranks to take the shock of impact of the charging cavalry.<hr><br>
Fantasy.<br>
Arrian simply says: "Let the first four ranks [be] kontos-bearers, whose kontoi end in long and tapering iron [points]. And the men standing in the front [rank] should hold these projecting, so that if the enemy approaches them they can put the iron [points] of the kontoi especially against the breasts of the horses; those standing in the second [rank], and those in the third and fourth ranks should hurl their kontoi in a shooting-of-missiles, hitting in some places, and wounding the horses and killing the rider and, with the kontos implanted in the shield or heavy breastplate and bent by the softness of the iron [point], making the mounted [man] useless." <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

"Sed eo quoque inrupere ferentarius gravisque miles, illi telis adsultantes, hi conferto gradu, turbatis contra Britannorum ordinibus, apud quos nulla loricarum galearumve tegmina; et si auxiliaribus resisterent, gladiis ac pilis legionariorum, si huc verterent, spathis et hastis auxiliarium sternebantur"----<br>
"Yet even there, both the lightly and heavily-armed soldiers rushed to the attack; the first harassed the foe with missiles, while the latter closed with them, and the opposing ranks of the Britons were broken, destitute as they were of the defence of breastplates or helmets. When they faced the auxiliaries, they were felled by the swords(gladii) and javelins(pila) of our legionaries; if they wheeled round, they were again met by the long swords(spathae) and spears(hastae) of the auxiliaries."<br>
<br>
This is Tacitus's description of the battle that ended in the capture of the British rebel chieftain Caractacus(50AD). Tacitus pretty clearly delineates the between the missile and melee weapons of both the Legionaries and auxiliaries. While we do have some exceptions(Arrian, some of Caesar's battles) it seems that there is no question that pila and hasta were intended for use as missile weapons. This coupled with the the weakness of the pila shaft and the fact that every source on the Army points to swordfighting as the decisive arm of battle lead me to believe that pila were never intended to be used as thrusting spears, though certainly clever commanders or battlefield neccessity could lead legionaries to do so.<br>
<br>
As Goldsworthy points out though, certainly some auxiliaries carried lancea, in addition to their hasta(or at least two hasta), and from Arrian we know of lancea armed legionaries(lochos-bearers)in the rear of formations even by the 2nd Century AD. We also know from Polybius that hastati in during the Punic wars carried two Pila(one heavy and one light). This fact, coupled with various reliefs and accounts of Roman troops launching streams of missile weapons during battles at the same time sword fighting is going on, seem to point to importance placed on involving Roman soldiers in a centuria who happen to be stationed away from the melee(whether in the rear ranks or in files opposite fighting on the flanks)in the combat action...something that would have given Roman armies a far greater kill ratio than their opponents. Whether or not troops carried two or more missile weapons into battle is another matter, but it seems that the Army had the ability to adapt its weapons systems not only to certain enemies or battlefields, but to the the needs of specific soldiers, conterburnia or (posterior?) centuries. Here is where the elusive "calones" or soldiers servants/weapons bearers/baggage handlers may have played a role on the battlefield, possibly relaying lighter or replacement missile weapons to posterior troops. Certainly the velites/roraii could have filled this fire support/weapons bearer role in the pre-Marian army, and the calones and auxiliary skirmishers could have done so in the army of the Principate.<br>
<br>
-Rufus <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showUserPublicProfile?gid=rufuscaius>RufusCaius</A> at: 4/21/04 5:55 am<br></i>

[Anonymous]

What fantasy?<br>
<br>
I certainly paraphrased, but to call my comment fantasy is a little over the top!! <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

It's interesting that Arrian uses the term "kontos." That's from the Greek, is it not, and it is the term normally used for a long, cavalry thrusting spear. Was that passage you mentioned in Arrian from the Latin or the Greek? Are any of you familiar with the range of usage for the term "kontos?" Was it a more general-purpose term, like "hasta" (or the English word "spear," for that matter), or was it a little more specialized, like, say, the English word "lance?"<br>
<br>
Aaron <p></p><i></i>

[Vincula]

Quote:</em></strong><hr>Arrian ... says the first 2 ranks of legions should hold the pila as spears, while the rear ranks throw theirs overhead then lean against the front ranks to take the shock of impact of the charging cavalry.<hr><br>
OK, point taken.<br>
But it's the front rank that holds the <em>kontoi</em> out, and evryone behind (Arrian says 2, 3 and 4) throws them (the verb is <em>proballô</em>).<br>
"The neighboring ranks should consist of spear-carriers [<em>lonchophoroi</em>]." These guys must be rows 5 thru 8, and are part of the general barrage of missiles too.<br>
But which are the <em>pila</em>? Are any of them <em>pila</em>? <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

Arrian says that the "kontoi" of the front-rankers have long thin iron shanks - "hois dè tois kontois makra kai epi lepton ta sidèria proèktai" - and that the points may bend when stuck into the enemy armour because of the softness of the iron, "dia malakotèta tou sidèrou". This has always seemed like a description of the pilum to me, though I know that some people - notably Wheeler in the "Legion as phalanx" article - do see this as a description of a conventional thrusting hasta.<br>
<br>
I think this is the only example I know of kontos being used for the pilum (unless anyone knows what the Greek is for the two weapons in Lucian's "Life of Alexander the False Prophet" - "I had brought, I may add, two soldiers with me, a pikeman and a spearman borrowed from the Governor of Cappadocia"), but the Greek usage for that weapon does seem to vary - "hyssos" in Polybios and Plutarch while Josephus 3.95 uses "xyston" when he apparently means the pilum, though other writers use that word for a cavalry spear. <p></p><i></i>

[Robert Vermaat]

Hi Duncan,<br>
<br>
I agree, the description sounds more like a throwing weapon (pilum) which is used only once, rather than a thrusting weapon (hasta) which is used again and again.<br>
<br>
Valete,<br>
Valerius/Robert <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

The ancient writers were very much in love with style, so more often than not they used different terms for the same things in order to achieve an stylistic effect. That complicates matters a lot. For examples if an author described legionaries using their pila, but it sounded better with the word "hastae", he wouldn't hesitate to use it. It's called poetic licence.<br>
Besides, the ancient authors write about soldiers throwing the pila, bu no one has ever said that it was exclusively used that way.<br>
Another thing to consider is the evolution of the pilum. It was developed round the 9th/8th Centuries BC. That is a very, very long time ago.<br>
The early republican models have a rather short metal point. During the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC the iron shank was generally between 25 and 35 centimeters in lenght. In late republican and imperial times it turned into the "classic" pilum, with the two well-known light and heavy types.<br>
Then it turned again into a short pointed weapon. Vegetius speaks of an iron head about 25 centimeters long. This is confirmed by several sculptures dating from the 3rd C.AD showing soldiers with short pointed pila, often fitten with one or two round or ovoïd weights and apparently bound with string or more probably a leather thong.<br>
Moreover, imperial pila shanks could be of greatly varying lenghts, between 60 and 90 centimeters, sometimes more.<br>
If you add a one meter wooden shaft to a one meter iron shank, you get a two meters weapon, equal to the lenght of a spear and definitely long enough to be used as a pike, as Arrian did against the Alans.<br>
I found another attested use of the pilum as a spear, I think on Sander's site, where there's an episode when a Gallic swordsman (I think), fights with a Roman armed with a pilum until his sword is bent like a strigil.<br>
Honestly I have a hard time reconstructing such a duel.. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p200.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showUserPublicProfile?gid=antoninuslucretius@romanarmytalk>Antoninus Lucretius</A> <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://lucretius.homestead.com/files/Cesar_triste.jpg" BORDER=0> at: 5/4/04 3:56 pm<br></i>

[Robert Vermaat]

Hi Duncan,<br>
<br>
I agree, the description sounds more like a throwing weapon (pilum) which is used only once, rather than a thrusting weapon (hasta) which is used again and again.<br>

Valete,
Valerius/Robert

I must take that back. Since Arrian IS describing a weapon that is used more than once, a pilum can't have been meant.