"Obsolescence of the Pila" Topic

I am a Wargamer, and much of my Historical Knowledge is of the Wargamer variety.

One 'Historical factoid' Wargaming has taught me is that the Pilum/Gladius/semi-cylindrical Scutum combo went out of use in the Roman army to be replaced by the Spear/Spatha/flat shield combo because they were better suited to fighting Barbarians, and against Cavalry.

I have never ridden a horse, never fought as part of a warband, but my head tells me if I was charging a line of men armed with Pila my horse would make a mighty fine target, likewise a Pila in the head is going to work whatever century your Barbarian Tribe is from. (see note)

Have I picked up the wrong sort of wargame-history, or am I missing something?

Pat

(Note – I have three daughters, and they often watch TV at the same time as me, and if a TV Presenter mentions the Pilum, we always have a sweepstake on how long it will take for him to talk about it getting stuck in the barbarian's shield so he has to throw it away. While not a fan of the manky Scots Git Neil Oliver, he did an amusing recreation on the subject in which he hurled a pilum at a target of a ‘barbarian-with -shield' dummy and it went straight through the target's face and two feet out the back , at which he commented something like 'That's gonna make him drop his shield, isn't it?')

Pila were designed for throwing an infantry.

once you get to charging cavalry – such as the late roman period, you need a solid spear to keep them at a distance, and the Pila does not do that well enough.

hence the change.

possibly also, pila were more expensive to make, certainly also, the roman legionaries of the time were largely germanic types who would be more comfortable with using spears.

the thing about throwing the pila at a horseman is, you only have an effective range of around 15-20 metres, and if he is coming at you on a horse and you miss, ir only deflect off his armour, you have nothing left and no time to get ready to use it.

the thing about throwing the pila at a horseman is, you only have an effective range of around 15-20 metres, and if he is coming at you on a horse and you miss, or only deflect off his armour, you have nothing left and no time to get ready to use it.

Yes, but you are not alone, and there are always far more of you than there are cavalry. If I was the commander of a unit of cavalry, I would not order my lads to advance toward a unit of Pila-equipped legionaries.

Pat

Was the dart adopted when the pila was abandoned or was there a gap betwen the two ?

There was a name change, Pila became Angon or Gaesum – hence Gaestati. They have dug up a fair number from the Germanic Barbaricum – places like Nydam, Sutton Hoo and Illerup Adal.

In most excavations a decayed, late style socketed 'pila' type head is just going to look like a candle/torch holder and be chucked in the box maked 'Misc. iron bits'.

The other change is that the 'pila' type weapons were now used by Auxiliaries or Symachrii (tribally recruited, lesser benefits) rather than the Legionaries, but there is a healthy debate about how much real difference there really was between Legionaries & Auxillia too.

Gaesati

Really?

Pat

I thought the Gaesum had a wood shaft with a leaf blade attached – no metal 'spike'?

Main use of the word would be 'Mori Gaesum' (Sea of Spears) but I could be wrong – I also cannot find the book I picked in Scotland a couple of months ago with these pictured…

Would love to meet these Gasatae gaesatae.org/home.htm

Maybe, maybe not Gaesati should mean something like spearmen. CuChulainn's deadly spear was the Gaebolga and it was heavy and barbed. Take your pick.

The gae bolga (stomach spear or possibly bad/evil spear) was alledgedly unique to him, and was thrown with the foot….

so I wouldnt put any historical weight on anything from the Tain.

More information on the gaesum may be found here:
link
link

Cheers,
Scott

"the thing about throwing the pila at a horseman is, you only have an effective range of around 15-20 metres, and if he is coming at you on a horse and you miss, ir only deflect off his armour, you have nothing left and no time to get ready to use it."

Other than your other pila or the gladius.

You're also ranked up with the other dudes in your century in a shield wall too. Unlike people, horses are sensible enough NOT to try to plow through a phalanx of scary men.

I was somehow under the impression that the Pilum was eventually phased out in favour of the darts.

A common anti-cavalry tactic of the Marian and Principate legionaries was to use the pila as a spear to keep the cavalry at arms length from the legionary. Maybe as cavalry became a more common opponent as spear was a cheaper and better alternative to a pila.

Mike B

The plumbata or darts as TK said were used to break up infantry attacks. Weighted lawn jarts have that effect on unarmored infantry :). Though they should still have their spears to poke yer eyes out at closer range.

Combat changed to vey tight shieldwalls. Round shields and spears are better suited than swords which need more room to use.

The Roman shieldwall still had an impressive firepower aspect however, archers in the back shooting overhead and then weighted darts (which according to reconstructions are pretty nasty and can break shields).

And a tight shieldwall of spearmen is better suited for resisting cavalry.

Assuming that historical pila-wielders were not like their in-game counterparts, i.e. that they did not instantly rearm, spears would have been reuseable against multiple cavalry charges (or feints), unlike pila.

Multiple cavalry charges (or feints) may have been more likely than multiple infantry charges, since it may have been slightly more feasible for cavalry to pull back from the Roman infantry and then come back for more later.

I think the one thing that needs to be kept in mind here is that the decline of the pila coincided with the decline of the quality of the typical Roman soldier.

The pila will create a rather severe disruption in an enemy formation, but this needs to be seized upon by a tenacious yet disciplined legionnaire. If your typical Roman soldier is lacking both tenacity and discipline it is far better to just give them a longer spear and have them point it generally towards the enemy.

Perhaps, was it Gibbon? who claimed that as the Roman army was 'diluted' with Germans and such, they were disinclined to be encumbered with armor and heavy weapons (like a pila) and preferred their ancestral equipment (shield and spear).

A pilum is not any longer that a bayonet on a musket… if properly formed infantry can hold off cavalry even with short puny muskets with bayonets--- even if it is raining…
so I don't see the issue as being a matter of spear length, but more of training and discipline.

JJ

i'd just note that
1. the centre of balance for a Pila is about 2 feet from the tip, so as a projection spear, its no better than a sword
2. you need about a 6 foot gap to the man behind to throw it, or you stick him with the butt as you pull back
3. the roman formation for throwing was with about a 6 foot wide space to the side as well – and you need a bit of a run up to get any momentum on it, which breaks all formation
4. at the speed a charging cavalryman is going, he is going to cover 25 m far faster than you can 'rearm' with a second pila – even if one existed (and they only carried one under the empire)

all of which makes for a lot of space for a charging cavalryman to ride you down with

while an 8-9 foot thrusting spear can be held in a defensive formation at closed space, presenting a solid shield line and projecting spears as a defensive measure against cavalry – and you can throw those darts from a standing position.

its the same basic idea as napoleonics forming square rather than skirmishing and shooting at cavalry

Pila are designed for infantry vs infantry fighting, when the main threat changed to cavalry, the equipment changed too.

back to the popcorn

A hedgehog of long spears is best against cavalry, horses cannot come close. And the spears of the 2nd and 3rd ranks are also a part of the defense. Pila are much shorter.

Yes, a horse makes a mighty fine target for pila. In Arrians "Order of Battle against the Alans" circa A.D. 135, he instructs two legions to deploy 8 ranks deep, and specifically instructs the 1st 4 ranks to level their pila at the horses chests, while the last four ranks are to throw their pila at the enemy.

Arrian also instructs his mounted horse archers to deploy behind the legions so that they can shoot over them.

By the time Vegetius was writing, the name seems to have changed--the weapon he calls the Spiculum in its description is basically a pilum.

I'm not convinced it ever really went away, although whether it was universally used or only by some units and not others is a good question.

I think that the Pilum may have dropped from use simply due to the fact the Romans wanted to throw it, then the soldier was left fighting against a mounted man with a sword --risky -- especially if said cavalryman had a spear!
The steady spear line would stop most horsemen closing as the horses would refuse.
Thats my tuppence worth anyway..!