Hi,

does anyone know when exactly the first plumbatae were used? For I have heard that they were actually developped by the Greeks and that the Romans adopted them afterwards. Others say that it was developped by the Romans in the 3rd - 4th century AD.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Patrick
Development in the fourth century.
The literary sources are scarce.
Talk about it, Vegetius, ( II, 15, 16, III, 14). In use by the light infantry
In De Rebus Bellicis (10.11) describes 2 types of Plumbata:
"Plumbata Mamillata" normal
"Plumbata tribolata", with three spikes protruding from leaden weight of which was equipped with the plumb.
The Plumbata was in use until the sixth century, yet, Maurizio mentions in Strategikon. (XII, II, 2)
Developed by the Greeks? From these sources is not.

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Vegetius reckons that it was developed late 3rd century. Alternate name is martiobarbuli. Some tetrarchic legions are noted for being skilled with this weapon.

This has some useful info
http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1689

How do I use those things? Do I toss it like a dart for a dart board, or is there some kind of launcher?

M.

ya, think lawn darts :)

they do serious damage to on coming horses

Ah yes, lawn darts. That was a -fantastic- idea for a child's toy, wasn't it :p

Thanks for the image though. Oddly had the notion that you tried to play darts with the enemy army as your target board. I'm assuming those spiked ones acted as long distance on-demand caltdrops too...pretty ingenious!

M.

An important point (hehehe) of this missile weapon is that it's parabolical. Combine them with a few archers in almost horizontal shooting (50-80 meters) and the enemy must choose what weapon will stop with his shield...and thus being vulnerable to the another ...

Of course, an organized enemy can solve this with a good array of shields.

In a recent book about roman army, written by Cascarino, there's a pretty good description of plumbatae, but i saw Maurizio have already posted a few images from the book. I think the effective range was probably 50m and it's almost sure Plumbatae didn't came from greek warfare.