The Roman Pilum
The pilum was an iron spear or javelin, which was created by the Romans for war in 400 BC. This spear was designed to throw from a distance up to 33 yards (halshs.archives).
The pilum was made from an iron shank about 7 millimetres in diameter and roughly 60 centimetres long (Erutuon, 2016). One of the first versions of the pilum had one fault, however. When the spear was thrown, it travelled slowly, giving the enemy the advantage of dodging it, or catching the pilum and throwing it back. The newer versions were made of a softer iron, which aloud it to bend after impact, making it useless to the enemy who might use it as their own weapon (Caerleon.net, 2016). The shank sometimes hardened, however, making the pilum suitable to use if the opponent was close.
The total weight of the spear was two to five kilograms, but older versions of the pilum became heavier (Erutuon, 2016).
The pilum also had a pyramidal tip, that was much harder than the shank. Even if the shank would not bend, the pyramidal head was still difficult to pull out of a shield.
At that time, no other spears or javelins were able to go through a shield, but the pilum had an amazing new discovery.
The pyramidal tip of the pilum was wider than the rest of the shank, so when it collided into a shield, it left a larger hole, and could move through the shield with little resistance, stabbing the enemy (Erutuon 2016).
Due to the length of the shank, it's depth made it harder to pull out of the shield, even if it didn't bend, making the pilum, armour-piercing.
The common type of pilum has the head widen into a flat tang, the second type has a socketed head, and the third type, not as well known, has a spike tang (Hollis, 2016).
The main purpose of the pilum was to disrupt the defence of the opposite army. The enemy would get so distracted and worried about trying to protect themselves from the flying spears, they would lose concentration on the closer attacker.
The pilum had two aspects; to kill the enemy, and to disable shields.
The main use of the pilum was to disable shields, because the Romans were then heavily loaded and could kill any enemy that was in loose formation (Wikipedia, 2016). When the spear struck into the shield, the weight made it hard for the enemy to fight on, thus leaving them distracted, or without a shield, giving the Romans yet another advantage.
The pilum was a breakthrough discovery, it helped the Romans in their wars and encouraged them to find new ideas and weapons.
Thanks to their brilliant weapons, the Romans became a great empire, and were known for years to come.
by Lauren Mellor