07-13-2007, 11:52 PM
What makes you think the weighted pilum had a ball made of lead, Robert ? AFIK none has been found, so this is presumably an assumption, based on 'plumbata' ( which were smaller, and did use lead weights - see surviving specimens ).
It seems to me that a lead weight the size of a tennis ball or larger would weigh too much ( even with a shaft through the middle ) and that a likelier candidate might be bronze.
Has anybody out there experimented with a weighted pila, of any sort ??
On the subject of wood selection, many roman soldiers went years or even a whole career without fighting a battle and their gear was as rich, decorated, and good quality as they could get. It is likely therefore that the same criteria applied to Pila witness, for example the Pila carried on thw well known Domitianic Praetorian relief, where the shafts are bound with whipping and the ball-weight bears an 'eagle' decoration,( yes, I realise Praetorian in Rome is not Legionary on the Rhine frontier) and the timber would have been the best quality available.
Obviously, need would be the exception, as Robert has pointed out.
It seems to me that a lead weight the size of a tennis ball or larger would weigh too much ( even with a shaft through the middle ) and that a likelier candidate might be bronze.
Has anybody out there experimented with a weighted pila, of any sort ??
On the subject of wood selection, many roman soldiers went years or even a whole career without fighting a battle and their gear was as rich, decorated, and good quality as they could get. It is likely therefore that the same criteria applied to Pila witness, for example the Pila carried on thw well known Domitianic Praetorian relief, where the shafts are bound with whipping and the ball-weight bears an 'eagle' decoration,( yes, I realise Praetorian in Rome is not Legionary on the Rhine frontier) and the timber would have been the best quality available.
Obviously, need would be the exception, as Robert has pointed out.
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
