Returning spears

[Crispvs]

Whatever the truth of the account, strong winds can definitely have an effect on equipment. I have had great difficulty controlling my shield on a number of occasions when faced with strong, especially gusty, winds. I can also attest to having seen shields torn from men's hands by sudden strong gusts of wind. I have also seen arrows and catapult bolts skewed wildly off course in flight by strong winds. Obviously this does not happen very often but I would think that even the most experienced commander would have trouble controlling not just the preferred site of a battle but the weather as well. Given an extended battle line I could easily imagine lightweight projectiles such as arrows and light types of javelin being carried back by strong winds, not necessarily to the very men who actually threw or shot them but certainly it could sometimes be possible for them to be blown back onto men a little further along in the same line.
I have also experienced plumatae being carried off course by the wind. Only a few weeks ago I was demonstrating the throwing of plumatae when I experienced this. I was attempting to lob a plumbata at a roughly sixty degree angle to demonstrate how it would drop and then a moment after it had left my hand the wind blew it back and I was very lucky not to have been hit by it when it dropped only about a foot from me!

Crispvs