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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012
The Roman Pilum is a quæstio vexata, which has been, for ages, an embarrassment to all thinking men given to the study of classical literature.
page 327 note a Pitisci Lexicon Anliq. Rom. Leovardiæ, under the head Pilum.
page 327 note b Die Alterthümer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit, 4to. Mayence.
page 327 note c Lecture on the Pilum, in the Verhandlungen der xxi. Philologen-Versammlung. Heidelberg, 1863.
page 328 note a Les Armes d'Alise, par M. Verchère de Reffye, in the Revue Archéologique, x. 337.
page 328 note b Examen des Armes trouvées à Alise-Sainte-Reine, par M. Quicherat, in the Revue Arch. xi. 81. Also, the able reply of Dr. Lindenschmit in the same volume, p. 387.
page 328 note c Georg. lib. ii. 168.
page 328 note d Æn. vii. 665.
page 328 note e Lib. viii. 373. “Pila volunt, brevibusque habiles mucronibus enses.”
page 328 note f Festus (De Verb. Sign.) Veruta pila dicuntur, quod ……. habent prafixa.” Also Livy, lib. i. c. 43. “Arma mutata, nihil præter hastam, et verutum datur.”
page 328 note g Æn. ix. 705.
page 328 note h Liv. lib. xxi. 18. “Falarica erat Saguntinis, missile telum hastili oblongo, et cetera tereti præterquam ad extremum. unde ferrum exstabat: id, sicut in pilo, quadratum, stuppa circumligabant linebantque pice. Ferrum autem tres longum habebat pedes, ut cum armis transfigere corpus posset. Sed id maxime, etiam si hæsisset in scuto, nec penetrasset in corpus, pavorem faciebat, quod cum medium accensum mitteretur, conceptumque ipso motu multo majorem ignem ferret, arma omitti cogebat, nudumque militem ad insequentes ictus præbebat.”
The passage is a valuable illustration also of the usual tactic of depriving the enemy of his shield.
page 329 note a Enn. Annul. ii. 25.
page 329 note b Propert. lib. iii. 3.
page 330 note a Liv. lib. i. c. 26. “Spolia Curiatiorum fixa eo loco qui nunc Pila Horatia appellatur, ostentans.”
page 330 note b P. Victor, De Regionibus Urbis Romæ, places the Horatia pila in the viiith Regio.
page 330 note c Lib. iii. 22.
page 330 note d Lib. v. c. 46. “Ἔστι δέ ταῦτα βέλη Ῥωμαίων, ἃ συνιόντες εἰς χεῖρας ἐξακοτίζουσι, ξύλα προ μήχη τε καὶ χειροπληθῆ, τριῶν οὐχ ὗττον ποδῶν, σιδηροῦς ὀβελίσκους ἔχοντα προὔχοντας κατ' εὐτεῖαν ἐκ θατέρου τῶν ἄκπων, μετρίοισ ἀκοντίοισ ἴσα σὺν τῷ σιδήρῳ.”
page 330 note e Polybius, vi. 23. Πρὸς δὲ τούτοις ὑσσοὶ δυὸ, καέ περικεφαλαία χαλκῦ, καὶ προκνημίσ. τῶν δ' ὑσσῶν εἰσὶν οἱ μὲν πάχεισ, οἱ δὲ λεπτοί. τῶν δὲ στερεωτέρων οἱ μὲν στρογγύλοι παλαιστιαίαν ἔχουσι τὴν διαμέτρον οἱ δὲ τετράγωνοι, τὴν πλευράν. οἵ γε μὴν λεπτοὶ σιβυνίοισ ἐοίκασι συμμέτροις, οὕς φοροῦσι μετὰ τῶν προειρημένων. ἁπάντων σὲ τούτων τοῦ ξύλου τὸ μῆκόσ ἐστιν ὡς τρεῖς πήχεις. προσήρμοσται δ' ἑκάστοις βέλος σιδηροῦν ἀγκιστρωτὸν, ἴσον ἔχον τὸ μῆκος τοῖς ξύλοις οὗ τὴν ἔνδεσιν κατὰ τὴν χρείαν οὅτως ἀσφαλίζονται βεβαίως, ἕως μέσου τῶν ξύλων ἐνδέοντες, καὶ πυχναῖς ταῖς λαβίσι καταπερονῶντες, ὥστε μὴ πρότερον τὸν δεσμὸν ἐν ταῖς χρείαις ἀνακαλασθῆναι ἤ τὸν σίδηρον θραύεσθαι, καίπερ ὄντα τὸ πάχος ἐν τῷ πυθμένι καὶ τῇ πρὸς τὸ ξύλον συναφῇ τριῶν ἡμιδακτυλίων. ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον καὶ τοσαύτην πρόνοιαν ποιοῦνται τῆς ἐνδέσεως.”
page 331 note a Revue Archéologique, loc. cit.
page 331 note b Livy, lib. ix. c. 19. “Pilum haud paulo quam hasta vehementius ictu missuque telum.” Cf. Plutarch in Camill., 40, 41.
page 331 note c Ennii Ann. viii. 46. “Hastati spargunt hastas ; fit ferreus imber.”
page 332 note a Les Armes d'Alise
page 332 note b Lindenschmit, Alter thümer, vol. i. heft, viii taf. vi.
page 333 note a Lib. vi. c. 25. “Ομοίως δὲ καὶ τὴν ἐκ μεταλήψεως τοῦ σαυρωτῆρος χρεῖαν, μονίμον καὶ βίαιον.”
page 333 note b Loc. cit.
page 333 note c Hesych. i. “Σιβύνη, ὁλοσίδηρον ἀκόντιον ἤ λόγχη.” Idem. ii. ““Σιβύνη, ὅπλον δόρατι παραπλήσιον.” Arrian. “Οἷς δὴ κοντοῖς, μακρά καὶ ἐπιλεπτὰ τὰ σιδήρια προῆπται.”
page 333 note d De Bell. Gall. v. 40; vii. 82.
page 333 note e Curcul. v. 3, 689. “Ego ex te hodie faciam pilum catapultarvim.”
page 334 note a Plutarch in Camill. c. 40, 41.
page 334 note b Suidas quotes: “ὲξακοντίσας ὑσσὸν, διήλασεν αὐτοῦ τόν τε θυρεὸν καὶ τὸν θώρακα.” Arrian, “ἵππους τρώσοντες καὶ ἱππὸτην κατακανοῦντες, καὶ θυρεῶ καὶ καταφράκτῳ θώρακι ἐμπαγέντος τοῦ κόντου.” Vegetius, de Re Mil. lib. i. c. 20.
page 335 note a Ælius Spartianus in Adriano Imperatore: “Armisque et pilo se semper exercuit.” Vopiscus in Aureliano: “Nullum unquam diem prætermisit, quamvis festum, quamvis vacantem, quo non se pilo et sagittis, ceterisque armorum exerceret officiis.”
page 336 note a It may here be mentioned that, among other objects of this Capena find, preserved in the Convent museum of St. Paolo, is an iron dagger in an iron sheath, to which is attached a strong iron chain for suspension to the side. The dagger hilt is broken, but the sheath measures 16 inches by 2 inches in breadth. It had been wrapt, with an engraved Etruscan mirror and other objects, in a linen cloth, the impression of which is very visible on the oxydised metals.
page 336 note b Vol. i. heft viii. taf. 6.
page 337 note a Now deposited in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, together with the cast of the gladius, figured at the end of this paper.
page 337 note b Id. heft xi. taf. v.
page 338 note a Revue Archéologique, x. 337.
page 338 note b These conical points are but the reproduction of a very archaic Oscan form of lance. Compare a bronze group, formerly in the Fejérvary collection, figured in the Monumenti del Instit. Arch. Rom. v. 50. The very large conical head of a Roman missile, but too short for a pilum, exists in the Mayence collection.
page 339 note a Polyæni Strategemata. Berolini, 1756, lib. viii. Camillus. In the note on this passage the editor remarks, “Plutarchus, unde hic noster sua hausit, habet ὕσσοις.
page 339 note b Lib. v. c. 46, vide supra.
page 340 note a Loc. cit.
page 340 note b Lib. iv. De reb. Gall. c. 1.
page 340 note c Vegetius De Re Mil. ii. 23 de exercitatione militum.
page 340 note d Id. i. 20. “Sed cum campestris exercitatio, interveniente negligentiâ desidiâque, cessaret, gravia videri arma cœperunt, quæ raro utique milites induebant.”
page 340 note e Vegetius, i. 20. “Instruendos igitur, ac protegendos omni arte pugnandi quocunque genere antiquorum armorum constat esse tirones.”
page 340 note f Vegetius. loc. cit. “Missilibus autem, quibus utebatur pedestris exercitus, pila vocabantur, ferro subtili trigono præfixa, unciarum novem, sive pedali, quæ in scuto fixa non possent abscindi, et loricam scienter et fortiter directa facile perrumpunt: cujus generis apud nos jam rara sunt tela.” Idem, lib. ii. c. xv. “Item bina missilia, unum majus, ferro triangulo unciarum novem, hastili pedum quinque semis, quod pilum vocabant, nunc spiculum dicitur; ad cujus jactum exercebantur præcipere milites; quod arte et virtute directum, et scutatós pedites, et loricatos equites sæpe transverberabat.”
page 341 note a Idem. loc. cit. “Aliud minus, ferro triangulo unciarum quinque, hastili trium pedum semis, quod tune vericulum, nune verutum dicitur.”
page 341 note b Archæologia, xxxvi. 81.
page 341 note c Appian, lib. iv. De reb. Gall. c. 1. “Τὰ δὲ δόρατα ἦν οὐκ ἐοικότα ἀκοντίοις, ἀλλ' ἃ Ρωμαῖοι κάλουσιν ὑσσοὺς, ξυλου τεραγώνου τὸ ἥμισυ, καὶ τὸ ἄλλο σιδήρου, τετραγώνου καὶ τοῦδε, καὶ μαλακοῦ, χωρίς γε τῆς αἰχμῆς.”
page 342 note a Polyb. i. 40. “Προσπεσόντων δὲ τῶν θηρίων, καὶ τιτρωσκομένων μὲν ὐπὸ τῶν ἐκ τοῦ τείχους τοξευόντων, συνακοντιζομένων δ' ἐνεργοῖς καὶ πυχνοῖς τοῖς ὑσσοῖς, καὶ τοῖς γρόσφοις”—κ.τ.λ.
page 342 note b Flor. Epit. ii. 7. “Cum tamen nihil terribilius Macedonibus fuit ipso vulnerum adspectu, quæ non spiculis, nec sagittis, nec ullo Græculo ferro, sed ingentibus pilis, nec minoribus adacta gladiis, ultra mortem patebant.”
page 342 note c Plutarch. Marius, c. 25. “Λέγεται δὲ, εἰς ἐκείνην μάχην πρῶτον ὑπὸ Μαρίου καινοτομηθῆναι ὸ περὶ τοῦς ὑσσούς. τὸ γὰρ εἰς τὸν σίδηρον ἔμβλημα τοῦ ξύλου, πρότερον μὲν ἦν δυσὶ περόναις κατειλημένου σιδηραῖς. τότε δὲ ὁ Μάριος τὴν μέν ὥσπερ εἶχεν εἴασε, τὴν δ' ἑτέραν ἐξελῶν, ξύλινον ἧλον εὔθρανστον ἀντ' αὐτῆς ἐνέβαλε. τεχνάζων προσπεσόντα τὸν ὑσσόν τῷ θυρεῷ τοῦ πολεμίου μὴ μένειν ὀρθὸν ἀλλὰ τοῦ ξυλίνου κλασθέντος ἥλου καμπὴν γίνεσθαι περὶ τὸν σίδηρον καὶ παρέλκεσθαι τὸ δόρυ διὰ τὴν στπρεβλότητα τῆς αἰχμῆς ἐνεχόμενον.”
When Plutarch wrote in the first century of our era the tradition of this stratagem of Marius must have been still fresh.
page 343 note a Agathias, Hist. xi. 5.
page 344 note a Loc. cit. Compare also the Orlen pilum, now in the Wiesbaden museum, figured in Lindenschmit's Alterthümer (band i. heft 8, tav. 6), with the plate of angons in Archæologia, vol. xxxvi.
page 345 note a Cæsar, De Bell. Gall. i. 52. “Reperti sunt complures nostri milites, qui in phalangas insilirent, et scuta manibus revellerent, et desuper vulnerarent.”
page 342 note b Archæologia, xxv. plate v.
page 343 note a Examples of the pilum might reasonably have been expected in England, but I only know of one possible instance, figured in Roach Smith's Collectanea Antiqua, vol. vi. pl. 2, fig. 4. This was found in a Roman castrum on Hod Hill, near Blandford, Dorset, with other Roman reliques. It has a pyramidal cusp, and measures 22 inches, though broken.
page 343 note b Alterthümer, vol. i. heft viii. taf. 6.
page 343 note c Revue Archéologique, vol. x. Armes d Alise.