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"Late Roman cavalry spears and javelins" Topic


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822 hits since 13 Oct 2018
©1994-2025 Bill Armintrout
Comments or corrections?

Midlander6513 Oct 2018 7:12 a.m. PST

I see in Mortem et Gloriam, many Roman cavalry are classed as having short spears and javelins. Looking through my books and on the web, there seems to be a big variety in spear length (not counting Kontos) from about 5 feet up to 8 or 10, some with a spike at the base, some without. Javelins are also shown from a toy-like 4 feet up.

Does anybody know what the actual practice was – was there standardisation? Failing that, is there a broadly accepted consensus of what was likely?

Secondly, were both spear and javelin were carried, if so how, or is this just a game mechanism to depict that a short spear was carried, sometimes for thrusting in close combat and sometimes used for throwinb?

GurKhan13 Oct 2018 8:00 a.m. PST

Josephus says that the Roman cavalry in C1AD carried one substantial spear and a number of short javelins, in a quiver attached to the saddle. Something like this was probably standard for a lot of cavalry throughout the Imperial period.

French Wargame Holidays14 Oct 2018 1:57 p.m. PST

A javelin boot, not a lot of evidence though.

link

cheers
Matt

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