Pilum with Wooden Shaft

Description of the Product

An authentic replica of a Roman pilum, as they would have been used around the time of Christ's birth and Gallic wars.

Pilum is a heavy javelin, spear to throw at your enemy when closing in while attacking the enemy lines. Pilum was the principal weapon of the Roman legionnaire, well designed to destroy the ability of the opponent's shield defense and made to penetrate armor. The short and strong pyramid head could penetrate a wooden shield, and the long iron shank (being smaller than the pyramid head) easily followed through the hole in the shield and thus possibly stroke also your enemy. Even after passing through a shield the pilum would still have enough force in it to punch through any body armor, clothing etc. If the pilum didn't incapacitate the enemy, the long spear was still stuck in his shield. The long iron shank prevented the head from being cut off leaving pilum stuck on the shield making it very hard to use the shield effectively any more. Thus encumbered, the shield was rendered useless, leaving the opponent unprotected. Pila (many pilums) were thrown right before engaging the enemies in close combat so the enemy didn't typically have time to remove the pilum from his shield before the legionaries were on top of him with swords drawn.

Pilum was not only used as a thrown javelin, but it was also used as a close-quarters melee weapon by the roman soldiers. Late republican era legionaries used to often carry two pila with them.

The total length of this Roman javelin or lance is approx. 224 cm long, which makes it quite unsuitable for shipping. We have therefore divided the pilum at the connection point between wood and steel and it will be delivered unmounted. The reassembly can be performed easily with the supplied rivets and washers. You need your own hammer and tap the ends of the rivets flat. Any regular hammer will do and if you happen to have ball point hammer available it's even better for the job. The rivets will hold the steel head and wooden shaft tightly together and the idea of you peening the end of the three rivets is to fix these rivets in place so that they don't fall out accidentally when the pilum is thrown for example.

• Assembly set -requires hammering (peening) 3 rivet heads to assemble
• Comes complete with rivets and washers
• Overall length (assembled): approx. 224 cm
• Weight: approx. 1.9 kg
• Square profile steel point
• Wooden shaft