Roman Pilla

[Anonymous]

Hmmm... I doubt my University has any copies in the library... not much going on in the classical studies department around here if you get my drift... damn business school.

Anybody care to give me a brief synapsis of what the article in question says? Or is it exactly what Crispvs said?

[Matt Lukes]

I've never read any actual metallurgical studies of pila heads, and I'd tend to doubt that unless one were recovered from the anaerobic mud of a lake or river, it'd even be possible to tell anything with any certainty. Certainly Matt's right that they'd be hot-forged- some of the artifact pila heads I've seen that are well-preserved show that they were at least sometimes quite well-made. The quenching, if done, would certainly add some surface-hardening. It must also be remembered that this is ancient iron- containing impurities, variable in composition and with varying amounts of carbon. Who can say how all this would have affected the 'bending' of the shank under stress? I would certainly expect that the roman weaponsmiths would have done what they could to make the weapons durable- the shank may be simple to make, but its length and small cross section means it would take a lot longer to make than a speartip, for example.

It is indeed Caesar's account of the Gallic Wars that is what I and likely everyone refers to when talking about bending pilum shanks upon piercing a shield, although I'm not sure where the whole 'can't be thrown back' theory came from- I have seen some artifact pila heads that have bent shanks, maybe that's it.

You know, the rather extremely long shank on some types of pilum seems excessive if its only intent was to pierce a shield and the man behind it- it almost seems like the length was intended to make it likely the shank would bend with force. I know some had rather short shanks- were those an early style or concurrent with the long ones? Anyway, it seems to me that there must be a good reason for the design...

[ambrosius]

What is this JRMES and where can I find it?

It's published by David Brown in the US or Oxbow in the UK.
There's a whole lot more in it than just this. Try these links:

www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic.php?t=6 ... ight=jrmes

www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic.php?t=6 ... ight=jrmes

Ambrosius :wink:

[Crispvs]

I don't have my copy of Caesar to hand right now, but Connolly has this to say on the matter of the pila against the Helvetii:

"Nor is it Caesar [the sourse of a description of a bendy pilum]; in his description of the battle against the Helvetii (B.G. I, 25) he describes individual pila piercing several Gallic shields and pinning them together. The Gauls were unable to pull them out as the iron became bent. Being unable to fight with their shields pinned together they were forced to discard their shields and fight without them. The main point here is that a single pilum is piercing not just one but two or even three shields. The bending is incidental."
(Peter Connolly, 'The Pilum from Marius to Nero', Exercitus, Spring 1995)

He also notes elsewhere in the article that the shanks of surviving pila are generally thicker than the shanks of modern reconstructions, and also notes several times a point that I have often made to members of the public: that the long iron shank allows the pilum to both penetrate the shield and hit the man behind it as well. This is something a spear would have much more trouble in achieving.

I hope that helps somewhat.

Crispvs

[Aluscladiusmaximus]

The pilum is an armour piecing spear. It is designed to go through a shield or armour and kill the man behind. The long shaft is to allow the point to reach the man behind the shield. The head is slightly larger than the shaft so it can slide through the hole it punches in the armour or shield.
all the other stuff about it bending or sticking in the ground is secondary to the purpose of the long shaft. Metal was expensive in roman times and if you wanted the spear to brake you could just use a thin wooden shaft instead of an iron one

My understanding was the Romans didn't know how to harden and temper Iron. Most Iron won't harden because it doesn't have enough Carbon in it. The outside of a piece of iron which has been heated and hammered can have enough carbon hammered into it to enable you to case harden the outside layer of metal. I have seen cross sections of Gladiuses showing a high carbon content in the cutting edges where they have been hammered to an edge. It would be natural to quench any Iron you have been working ( which would harden the outer layer ) as it reduces the chance of burning yourself by picking it up while still hot.

The Romans didn't know about steel as such but they did know that some Iron was better than others and a chisel has been found with an iron shaft and a steel cutting tip fire welded on. Some iron ores can produce iron which is almost steel. Iron and steel are very simular but have very different properties. Iron can't be hardened all the way through like high carbon steels and steel is very difficult to fire weld because the temperature required to fire weld steel is very close to the temperature at which steel catches fire. I have overheated steel in a forge and it is very annoying to see the thing you have spent ages shaping come out of the forge spitting sparks like a firework. Steel only became common quite recently after blast furnaces were invented in about 1860
I recomend you read "The art of Blacksmithing" by Alex W. Bealer
I have made pila and thrown them through metal dustbins and quite thick piece of wood. I agree with Peter Connolly on the use of pila and I have discussed it with him at shows where he has bought his reproductions of pila