# One pilum - or two?



## Brian G Turner (Aug 5, 2015)

Lloyd says that he's always been told that Roman legionaries also carried a light and heavy pilum. Now he suggests that there's no such evidence for that:






@The Ace - is this a surprise to you?


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## thaddeus6th (Aug 5, 2015)

Ha, knew what the video would be from the title. LindyBeige is a top chap.


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## The Ace (Aug 5, 2015)

It's one of those things that could go either way - the T-pole carried over the shoulder with various bits of kit lashed to it (they weren't called, "Marius Mules," for nothing) is certainly more stable with 2 pila.

Of course, throwing multiple pila in battle may also have merely being a case of the rear ranks feeding their pila forward, and there's nothing to say that there could've been a constant feed to the rear ranks by second-line troops.


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## farntfar (Aug 5, 2015)

It's not the length that counts, it's the hardness (cue Kenneth Connor voice-over), according to Asterix in Britain.

"My garden may be smaller than Rome, but my pilum is harder than your sternum", declares the Englishman who is refusing to allow the Romans spoil his perfectly mown front lawn by chasing Asterix across it.


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