In his discourse on the "Arts of War," Machiavelli seems to mention some sort of polearms in his description of the Roman soldiers, mostly in the effort to refute the idea of the Romans carrying them since he supposed the weapon wouldn't have been effective if used in only one hand. I can't help wondering what weapon he could have meant by this--is it the hasta, therefore making it a possible misinterpretation of the description of the triarii, or an altogether more halberd-like weapon, or even the ordinary securis utility axe?
| Lafayette C Curtis wrote: |
| In his discourse on the "Arts of War," Machiavelli seems to mention some sort of polearms in his description of the Roman soldiers, mostly in the effort to refute the idea of the Romans carrying them since he supposed the weapon wouldn't have been effective if used in only one hand. I can't help wondering what weapon he could have meant by this--is it the hasta, therefore making it a possible misinterpretation of the description of the triarii, or an altogether more halberd-like weapon, or even the ordinary securis utility axe? |
In the second book of "Dell'arte della guerra" he talks about "spiede" and "asta grave". Both terms are referred to a sort of heavy, long spear, that some acient authors mentioned as part of roman equipment. Machiavelli says they were wrong because the large scutum made impossible to handle such a two handed spear. In the period i underlined below he says "fighting in close ranks with polearms is useless".
" E benché alcuni di questi antichi scrittori dieno loro, oltre alle predette armi, una asta in mano in modo che uno spiede, io non so come una asta grave si possa da chi tiene lo scudo adoperare; perché, a maneggiarla con due mani, lo scudo lo impedisce, con una, non può fare cosa buona per la gravezza sua. Oltre a questo, combattere nelle frotte e negli ordini con l'arme in asta è inutile, eccetto che nella prima fronte dove si ha lo spazio libero a potere spiegare tutta l'asta; il che negli ordini dentro non si può fare, perché la natura delle battaglie, come nello ordine di quelle vi dirò, è continuamente ristringersi; perché si teme meno questo, ancora che sia inconveniente, che il rallargarsi, dove è il pericolo evidentissimo."
Ah! Thanks for the Italian. Now it clearly looks like the passage is a misinterpretation of the hasta and the pila and their methods of use.
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