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What sort of equipment did the Ancient Romans use in war?
By: Chi-Yao Nieh
Weapons
The word Gladius is the Latin word for sword
and was also the name for the main sword for all roman foot soldiers.
All Gladii were made of steel and were either double edged or pointed; the hilt was either made of bone, wood, or ivory. Here are some more specific details about the sword.
Gladius
Weight 1.2–1.6 kg
Length 64–81 cm
Blade length 60–68 cm
Width 4–8 cm
The pilum was a javelin used by the roman army. It was about 2 meters long in length. It had a iron shank about 60 cm long that had a
triangular point at the end. The total weight for a pilum was between 2-5 kg’s. The pilum was had a very smart design; the tip of
the shank would be hardened yet the shaft of the shank would soft which would make the weapon useless to the enemy because it would bent out of shape after throwing it.
Pilum
Plumbatae were darts made of lead carried by
infantrymen. Each soldier would carry 5 plumbatae on
them. Each plumbatae would also have a barbed
head at the tip.
Plumbatae
Hasta is the Latin word for spear. Unlike the pilum the hasta was not used for
throwing but instead for thrusting. A hasta was usually 2m long. The shaft is generally made from ahs wood
and the head being made of iron.
Hasta
Armor
This type of armor was considered to be very
strong and impenetrable to most hits, either by missile or direct hits.
It was uncomfortable though so most romans wore an undergarment underneath.
They also did this to prevent bruising from hits.
The armor was made of wide strips of steel lying horizontally across the wearer.
Lorica segmentata
Lorica Hamata was a type of mail armor as a
standard issue armor for the primary and secondary troops.
They were mostly made out of iron but sometimes made of bronze.
Each ring had an outside diameter of about 7-9mm.
Even though it was very tiresome to make these suits of armor could be used for several decades.
Lorica hamata
The Lorica squamata was a type of scale
armor. It was made by small metal scales sewn on to
a piece of fabric. The scales were made of iron or bronze,
sometimes both metals would be on the same shirt.
The metal was not very thick but since they overlapped multiple times it made strong armor.
Lorica squamata
Scutum is the Latin word for shield. The scutum is a large oval curved shield that
weighs approximately 10 kg’s. They are about 1m in height. According to Polybius, an ancient Greek writer:
“Their arms also give the men both protection and confidence owing to the size of the shield."
Scutum
Artillery
The Ballista is an ancient missile launcher that
fires a large object at a far distance. It operated on two torsion springs which were
made of twisted skeins. A torsion spring is a lot like a spring used in
mousetraps. The Ballista was commonly used as
a siege weapon.
Ballista
The scorpio is described as a “weapon of great
power and precision”. The scorpio is like a smaller version of the
catapult. Although, it is more of a sniper than a siege engine.
It was, in a lot ways an early version of the crossbow.
The weapon used a system of torsion springs which allowed the weapon to fire projectiles extremely fast.
Scorpio
The onager is a catapult that was capable of
carrying flammable projectiles. The projectile would be put in a sling against
the tension of lots of twisted ropes and released.
The arm would be caught by some sort of padded beam and drawn back to fire again.(picture on next slide)
Onager
"Ballista." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballista>. "Gladius." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladius>. "Hasta." Second Life Marketplace. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013.
<https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Hasta/3731068?id=3731068&slug=Hasta>. "Hasta (spear)." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasta_(spear)>. "The Onager." Multimania. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013.
<http://members.multimania.nl/onager/onager.html>. "Onager (siege weapon)." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onager_(siege_weapon)>. "Pilum." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilum>. "Plumbata." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumbata>. "Roman military personal equipment." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_military_personal_equipment#Torso_armour>. "Roman Weapons." Ancient Military.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013.
<http://www.ancientmilitary.com/roman-weapons.htm>. "Scorpio (weapon)." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpio_(weapon)>. "Scutum (Shield)." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2013.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutum_(shield)>.
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