Thearos
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Interesting. THis is about the pilum, right ? One thing I like about the Campbell piece is that he gives the sources and the archaeology.
So Polybios says the head is meant to bend. Writing ca. 160-130 BCE, and about the period around 216 BCE. [difficult to reproduce experimentally, and difficult to reconcile with people using pilum to stab-- in the first BC]. He's well informed, a military man, hostage in Rome, well connected with the Roman leaders, used by the Romans as military adviser and saw action with Romans. Very technically accurate (the kestrosphendone: that's his description). But got one detail wrong (thinks Celtic swords are soft, probably because he saw examples of such sword twisted in votive or funerary contexts).
Plutarch writing about Marius, ca. 100 BCE [writes in ca. 100 CE but uses earlier sources], says that the general Marius came up with the idea of replacing one of the pins with wood. This would work. BUT archaeological examples from the first C1st BC don't seem to have this arrangement. So Campbell thinks the famous "wooden pin" was a short-lived arrangement.
My own view, drawing on Campbell and a few other things--
1. ca. 200-150 BCE: long pilum point is meant to bend
2. ca. 100 BCE: same effect achieved by wooden pin, innovation of Marius (who seems to have had a lot of bright ideas in military matters), specifically to fight German invasion 3. ca. 50 BCE: people have noticed that in fact, it's better if the long point doesn't bend (notably achieved the effect of pinning several shields together)-- hence two iron pins, reinforcing collars, and accounts of people using pila to stab in hand to hand fight (as happens under Caesar in Gaul).
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