The light armed cohorts discussion and evidence

[Crispvs]

Ah, but have you actually thrown it? In twelve years I have only thrown my pilum five times, and each of those times only a short distance for safety's sake. On virtually every other occasion since August 1998, during displays we have exchanged our 'live' pila for blank poles before charging forward and throwing them.

I have held your pilum Byron and it is extremely heavy for a weapon which is intended to be thrown. I am certain it would drop much faster than an 'unweighted' pilum when thrown and to throw it a comparable distance would require a truly mighty throw. I am not convinced that this is necessary in any case, as a pilum has the pyramidal expansion and the long iron shank, both of which already make a typical pilum fairly 'blade heavy'. Also, don't forget that an object does not have to be particularly heavy in its stationary state to be capable of great damage when moving at speed. As someone currently sitting on board an oil rig wearing your particular hat, I am sure you understand the effect of mass times velocity, especially when the resultant impact weight is focussed on a small point.

It also occurs to me to wonder whether we are possibly misinterpreting some sculptures. For the third century AD stelae, are we seeing pila with added weights or are we possibly seeing pila whose shafts have been lathe turned to a shape which had become normal by that time? Without the original paint to give us some clues about how these stones were originally coloured, we simply do not know. Similarly, there is nothing to prove that the apparent weight on the pilum on the Cancelleria reliefs is not simply a lathe produced feature which has then been decorated with an eagle. Let's not make too many assumptions about what we are seeing.

Crispvs