01-25-2006, 02:01 PM
Quote:Our plumbatas weigh around 300 grams. Most of them break on impact and we're start to wonder if that is not a more or less intended 'mishap' (A broken plumbata cannot be sent back... :wink: )That might in some cases explain why we find broken plumbatae, but never a sign of the shaft.
But then I read about the pilum, of which we also thought that it was designed to break.. Are the barbed heads not reason enough to assume they would not be easy to extract and hurl back?
I discussed this with Derk Groeneveld and he also had some doubts. Did such weapons (designed to be used once) ever exist?
This was a 'fire and forget' weapon, mass-made, mass-launched. It may have been designed thus, but because of it's easy and cheap design i would rather think that this was an unintended effect. maybe not uwelcome, but still unintended.
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)