Immortalized as Roman Pila these spears gave the Roman soldier a huge battlefield advantage over his opponents. But it was the combination of the short sword and the Pila that made him so deadly.
Immortalized? You bet. That’s because as far as I was concerned a Roman soldier had a Pilum and a short sword called the Gladius. My Latin grammar taught me that Pila was the plural form for more than one pilum. While two swords or more were gladii. A dagger was a pugio, and a sword was a scutum. But a gladius was not just any sword. It was a very special short sword that typically had a 20 inch blade that was absolutely devastating at close quarters.
As for the Roman Pila, no spears came close to being as effective
Roman soldiers trained intensely to use the gladius and pilum in deadly concert with each other.
You will find that when it comes to bowie knives, swords, kukris, and firearms that
I am a purist who insists on the utmost historical authenticity.
I had to take three years of Latin. Each month all of us had to take a 200 question test in Latin grammar and vocabulary. If we didn’t score at least 90 %, we’d have to spend two hours after school the next Friday correcting each of our mistakes over and over again. Because of such intense study of Latin and my deep love of History that I revere what is truly authentic.
When I bought my first pilum that had been made somewhere in India, I was totally disgusted.
I found out how fraudulent the Indian made Roman Pila were.
So help me God, if I am to be over 90 percent accurate with my gladii, Roman pila, scuta and pugios, I demand that all historical weapons I put on my wall are just as authentic.
I have a lot to say about both Roman pila and gladii. But I’ve said it already in my Looking Glass online magazine. I invite everyone who’s sincerely interested in the gladius and Roman pila to visit the following two links where you will also find my you tube videos.