The Pilum

The pilum was a javelin used before closing the distance with an enemy force to pierce enemy shields and kill the soldiers behind them. Dropping the front rank of enemy formations caused confusion which would shift the advantage of organization to the Romans even before the armies closed to hand fighting distance. The soft iron shaft was fitted with a harder iron tip which was four-sided and pyramidal in shape for strength, and had a sharp edged back edge so it could not be pulled from an enemy shield after penetrating. The iron shaft was soft and would bend slightly after striking the enemy or the ground so that if thrown in return, it would not fly as straight and also lose a lot of its penetrating power. This function was second to the main purpose of the pilum, which was to pierce a shield and kill the man behind it. The thin iron shaft allowed the pilum to carry though and reach a shield bearing soldier with less resistance. The shank of the iron shaft was flattened and set into a slot of the wooden shaft and secured with two or three riveted pins. The iron could thus be removed and a new shaft made in the field if seriously damaged. A tapered collet of iron kept the wooden ends of the shaft's tapered block from spreading and splitting the shaft on impact. Two small thin wedges of iron were driven between the wood and the shank of the head on each side of the shank to hold the collet in place. The balance of the pilum is near the point behind the tapered block of the wooden shaft and the pilum throws very well and accurately with practice. It had an effective range of approximately twenty yards. The bottom end of the pilum had a butt cap whose function may have been simply to protect the end of the shaft from wear or water when thrust into the earth.