![]() So our story here is less about the gladius – we can do a post another day on the gladius – and more about the pilum. ![]() The Romans haven’t replaced the spear with the gladius, they’ve replaced it with a pair of the unusual Roman heavy javelin, the pilum. And that’s not quite right – spear infantry the Mediterranean over carried swords too, often very similar swords to the Roman gladius. Now I do want to note something right off: this unusual Roman system is often framed as the Romans using a sword – the famed gladius Hispaniensis – over a spear. The sword figures into this system, but the sword is a backup weapon, for use if the spear breaks, not the primary weapon. Overwhelmingly, by far, in effectively all periods prior to the advent of gunpowder, the most common way agrarian infantry fight is with a shield and a one-handed thrusting spear. This week’s post is intended to answer a question which came up in response to the last post looking at the most common type of Mediterranean spear, which to put it simply is: what is up with the odd Roman heavy infantry kit built around a sword and two javelins (albeit two javelins of an unusually heavy type, the pilum)? How did that work and why did it work? How were the javelins, which evidently replaced the ubiquitous thrusting spear, used in combat and what did that mean for how the Romans fought?Īnd this is actually a pretty good question, because the Roman infantry set is, in fact, very unusual.
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