how did the romans carry their spare pila? -- myArmoury.com

William P

i did some thinking about pila and carrying javelins, and a funny thought struck me..... how did the legionaires hold onto their pila? the common logic is that the romans carried 2 pila, however, normally carrying a spare javelin is easy, you carry it in your shield hand,.. but with the romans that introduces a few problems, namely that roman scuta had horizontal grips, and it would hae been impossibly awkward to grip the spare pila IN the hand

is it possible the pila were lashed to the shield, or clipped to the back like the later plumbata were? or is it possible that they didnt have a second pilum??? or was simply having it, in a half grip, or lightly gripped by the thumb only a sufficient grip?

Shahril Dzulkifli

As far as I know Roman legionaries generally carry one pilum. But I never heard of them carry a spare pilum during combat.

Legionary throwing pilum in the village of Caerleon, Wales

Lafayette C Curtis · Posted: Mon 01 Sep, 2014 3:43 am Post subject:

Polybius says two.

Anyway, Matthew Amt knows much more about this than I do, so I'd rather wait for him.

Matthew Amt · Posted: Mon 01 Sep, 2014 9:34 am Post subject:

Two pila were "standard" in the Republic, and there are depictions of legionaries with 2 pila from the first century AD as well (though the whole heavy/light idea seems to have dropped away).

Carrying 2 in combat is simple. Until you're about to throw, both can be in the right hand. At that point, slap one against the back of your shield, next to the grip, and hook your left thumb over the shaft. Throw the pilum in your right hand, grab the second one and throw it. Draw sword and charge. Easy peasy.

If the second pilum is the tanged type with the "joint block" at the top of the wood shaft, it hangs on the rim of the shield very nicely, so all the thumb has to do is stablize it.

Matthew

William P · Posted: Tue 02 Sep, 2014 6:26 am Post subject:

Matthew Amt · Posted: Tue 02 Sep, 2014 6:51 am Post subject:

Sean Flynt · Posted: Thu 04 Sep, 2014 7:34 am Post subject:

Slightly off-topic, but I thought y'all might appreciate this shot from Vindolanda (Northumberland, UK). The Ermine Street Guard had a small group there last month, and this veteran member demonstrated a marching load.

Raman A · Posted: Sat 06 Sep, 2014 11:45 am Post subject:

Matthew Amt · Posted: Sat 06 Sep, 2014 4:14 pm Post subject:

Only from brief modern experiments, there aren't any ancient sources that I've ever heard of. I seem to recall also looping my shield's carrying strap over the pilum shaft and gripping it against the shield handle with my hand. If you do it right, you just have to pop your fingers half open to release the pilum.

Matthew