found in abundance upon every Roman field of battle, strange to say, at the present time still continues to be amongst the most experienced archeologists a subject for discussion. Like the famous Trojan ancestor of the equally famous founder of Rome, the Roman pilum, the most renowned weapon of antiquity, remains enveloped in a cloud of uncertainty. In this condition of doubt, we turn to Polybius, and observe what he has recorded concerning the pilum. It was, according to him, a spear having a very large iron head or blade, and this was carried by a socket to receive the shaft. The socket itself in length about nineteen inches, which was almost onethird of the length of the entire weapon, was strengthened towards its base, until it became not less than three halffingers in thickness. The swelling which thus was caused by this formation of the socket, together with its extreme length, were peculiar to the pilum. It bore no resemblance to any other weapon of the same class, either lance, pike, or javelin. At present we have been able to discover no ancient example which in every particular corresponds with this description. The nearest approach to it is a kind of pike, which is represented borne in the hands of two Roman soldiers of the fifteenth legion (the primigenia) upon a funeral cippus at Mayence. These figures are in bas-relief. The striking

feature in the pike in this monument is, that at about threequarters of its height from its base it has a swelling which presents the appearance of a large knot, or a ball of thread pierced by a needle; and, besides this, theblade has the dimensions that are specified. It is probable that this was intended to represent a pilum of a later age than that of Polybius, if not a weapon of that class of his own age; and thus it may have experienced some modifications in its form and its peculiarities.

Concerning the use and management of this famous weapon we have not been left in any uncertainty. By the

soldiers of the legions, to whom the use of the pilum was restricted, this weapon was both hurled from the hand as a javelin, and grasped firmly, as well for the charge as to resist. and beat down hostile attacks. The weight of the pilum caused it to be regarded rather as a spear than as a dart; and, from this same circumstance, when it was to be used as a missile weapon, the pilum could be thrown with effect only from a comparatively short distance, and by strong and skilful hands. When in use as a spear or lance, the pilum not only discharged the duties performed by the modern bayonet, but it also was equally efficient to ward off sword-blows with the long and strong socket, which was made, indeed, for that very purpose. The blows of the Gallic sword, much more violent than dangerous, the Roman legionary received with cool steadiness upon his strong pilum; and in so doing he notched the hostile blades to such a degree that, as Polybius has said, he changed them into mere strigiles (skin-scrapers) such as they used in the baths.

If the pilum, in Roman hands, was really the instrument which wrought a change in the apparent destiny of the world, it must have acquired this great power, as it would seem, not from its own intrinsic excellence as an offensive weapon, but from the fact that its use implied careful drill and constant exercise and practice on the part of the soldier. Unlike the Greek hoplite, who stood or moved in his dense phalanx, an armed automaton rather than a living warrior, the Roman legionary with his pilum was a true soldier-brave, cool, self-reliant, well qualified alike for the skirmish and the close combat, able to act independently, and always ready to take a part with his comrades in displaying both the firm solidity and the steady movements of a highly disciplined force.*

*Note in the original French, by the author, M. Lacombe.-" At the moment in which I was writing these remarks upon the Roman bilum,”

31

The exact shape of the Roman sword earlier than the time of Scipio,31 is not known (about B.C. 150); but after his era, and we may thank him for the fact, the Roman sword is

says M. Lacombe, "I learned that the eminent professor of the school at Chartres, M. J. Quicherat, had discovered the lost form, or forms (for without any change in its essential and characteristic peculiarities, the pilum had more than one established and recognised form) of this celebrated weapon. I am indebted to his obliging communication for the following facts:-'For the future it may be accepted as certain, that the pike represented in the hands of the soldiers of the "legio primigenia," in the bas-relief at Mayence, of which mention has just been made, is the pilum; but the weapon shown on this monument belongs to a later age than that of Polybius, and it is not the pilum which that author has described. The true original pilum, however, is found to have been represented on the monument at St. Rémi, in Provence, which, after having long been considered to belong to the era of the lower Latinity, at length has been recognised as undoubtedly a genuine work of the age of the first Emperors.' It is this original figure of the pilum, now that its authenticity has been thoroughly established by M. Quicherat, which has enabled that judicious observer to follow the career of the weapon, to trace it through the various modifications and degradations which during the lapse of time it experienced, and to detect its presence here and there with positive certainty under a number of forms which till now had appeared to be strange, and capricious, and unintelligible. These fanciful and exceptional weapons at length have ceased to be perplexing, and now are capable of receiving a consistent classification. I had myself made a collection of these very examples," remarks M. Lacombe, "with the intention of adducing them as specimens of eccentric arms; but, instead of this, the discovery and researches of Professor Quicherat have determined their proper rank and place in the armoury of Rome.

"In order that we may be enabled clearly to understand the tenacity with which the one peculiar characteristic of this weapon, its massive iron socket-rim, was retained in every variety of form that the pilum assumed, it will be necessary for us to consider the special object which This the pilum itself was desired to accomplish in the act of conflict. object was that, after being thrust through the shield of an enemy, the pilum should bend by its own weight and drag along the ground, without permitting the enemy to shake it off or in any way to liberate himself from so distressing an embarrassment; the consequence would be

found to have been identical with the well-known Spanish or Iberian weapon of the same order. This sword was worn on the right side, a mode of

2

I

Fig. 14.

that the enemy would find his shield no longer of any service-it would paralyse his movements if he retained it, and it would leave him unprotected should he cast it away; and, in either case, with his shield pierced by a bent pilum, the enemy would be exposed to the assault of the terrible sword of the legionary. It was the thick heavy band of iron (bourrelet) which strengthened the socket of its head or blade not far from the centre of the shaft of the weapon, that aided in giving momentum to the blow of the pilum, and then both caused it to bend and prevented it from breaking. It was with precisely the same object in view, in later times, as hereafter we shall observe more particularly, the Franks made use of a lance having a boss at the base of the lance-head, and of the 'angon' -the barbed javelin, which was a favourite weapon amongst that people. In Fig. 14, are shown two examples of the 'pilum,' both of them of degenerate eras, and which give only an approximate idea of the original weapon. No. 1, however, approaches decidedly nearer than No. 2 to the original type."

The account given by Polybius of the pilum that was in use, in early times, in the armies of Rome, is too obscure to enable us to derive from his words any very clear ideas concerning that famous weapon of antiquity.

Vegetius, in his essay de re militari, says that the javelins, or missile spears, used by the soldiery in the Roman army of the Lower Empire, were called pila; and he adds one remarkable particular concerning the pila of that period, to the effect that they had slender iron heads of trilateral form-ferro subtili trigono præfixa are his words. The pilum, having a head such as this, measuring from 9 to 12 inches in length, also had its trilateral head barbed, in order to prevent its

TWO VARIETIES OF ready extraction from a hostile shield-so that in scuto fixa non possent abscindi (lib. i., c. 20). And, again,

THE PILUM.

adjustment possible only when the weapon, contrary to the prevailing character of its form, is short in the blade. Accordingly, all the monuments concur in giving evidence, that, at and abou the era of Cæsar, the Roman sword was remarkable in the highest degree for the shortness of its blade. Suspended from a baudrick, or scarf-like shoulderbelt, this sword reached from the hollow of the back to about the middle of the thigh; and thus we are enabled to compute its length at about twenty-two inches. The blade was straight, of uniform width, double-edged, and cut at an obtuse angle to form the point. In process of time this point-angle becomes more and more acute; and it is this formation of the sword-point which enables us to distinguish with certainty the relative antiquity of the various Roman swords, that at different times may be brought under our notice. A good and characteristic example is engraved in Fig. 15, No. 1.

Upon the column of Trajan, the ordinary Roman sword already appears considerably longer than it is in the statues of the earliest Emperors. Nevertheless, it still is very short when compared with the weapons of the same class that have been in use amongst other nations. Under the Flavian Emperors, when the decadence of the empire to which we have alluded had commenced its downward course, and the arms and armour had begun to degenerate, the Roman soldiers

subsequently (lib. iii., c. 15) the same writer states that there then were Roman pila of two kinds: the one just named, with a shaft 5 feet in length, which, when impelled by a strong arm, was able to transfix a foot-soldier through his shield, or a horseman through his breastplate -this weapon, "formerly called pilum, is now spiculum;" and a second kind, distinguished as verrutum, which was similar in character but smaller in size, the trilateral head being 5 inches long, and the shaft 3 feet.

Some small trilateral spear-heads have been found in the Roman encampment on Hod Hill, near Blandford, Dorset. (See Note 43). C. B.