Roman Army before and after the Marius' Reforms

[JaM]

no, im suggesting Hastati might have used it as well before Pilum was adopted.. therefore got the name off it.

Ennius was not ordinary poet.. he was a soldier, he would know first hand what Hastati are hurling.. even today, guys with military background would not usually use incorrect military terms just because of artistic license.. they would definitely use correct words they know.. its part of theirs military pride.. im also a member at tanknet.org, and can tell you, former military guys can be even quite touchy if you confuse some terms... call some tank with different nomenclature than it was, and they will get angry so yeah, i'm more inclined to believe what a former Legionarii wrote about his service, than some historian who lived hundreds of years back and wrote about stuff he only read somewhere else.. and there is a question of quality of a transcript, as many historical texts were "adjusted" by medieval monks that transcribed original texts, without actual knowledge of terms they are writing about.. (at least i've been told before of such thing)