If the Hasta is a spear...

**Dayve** · 12-29-2005, 20:39

Then how come Hastati are named... Hastati? When it is the Principes who carry the Hasta...? I'm not saying that there is a historical inaccuracy in the mod because it's like this in every mod and in the history books... But perhaps something has been lost down the line? (By down the line i mean, since they existed until now, how they've been written about)...

You see my thinking is that, since the spear was cheaper to buy than the sword, then Hastati would be buying the Hasta, since they are young and haven't much money, but it will be the older men, the Principes, who are buying the sword... But i don't see why Hastati would be named Hastati when they apparently were never equipped with the Hasta...

**The_Mark** · 12-29-2005, 20:53

Does modern cavalry use horses? Do modern British fusiliers use fusi... whatevers?

It's the same thing here. A unit was named after its weapon, the name became a tradition, the weapon was phased out by better ones, the tradition of the name was carried on. Hastati had used spears a while before our mod's timeframe, thus the name, but Romans noticed that they performed better with short swords, so they got those.

**Dayve** · 12-29-2005, 21:28

Ah... I hadn't thought of that... Oh well, question answered, ye may delete this thread.

**Mouzafphaerre** · 12-30-2005, 00:36

Originally Posted by Dayve

Ah... I hadn't thought of that... Oh well, question answered, ye may delete this thread.

.
Why? It will be a reference for the posterity.

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**Dayve** · 12-30-2005, 00:54

Well i mean because the forums are so cluttered and this is a useless thread now that my question has been answered so they might as well just get rid of it... Or they could leave it it doesn't really matter

**Dooz** · 12-30-2005, 02:53

Originally Posted by The_Mark

Does modern cavalry use horses? Do modern British fusiliers use fusi... whatevers?

It's the same thing here. A unit was named after its weapon, the name became a tradition, the weapon was phased out by better ones, the tradition of the name was carried on. Hastati had used spears a while before our mod's timeframe, thus the name, but Romans noticed that they performed better with short swords, so they got those.

So, if the spears were phased out by the time of the mod and the lower Hastati were actually using swords, how come during the same time the Principes are still using spears?

**Ranika** · 12-30-2005, 02:58

Why would they not? Spears still have a use, and it's sometimes valuable to have more experienced soldiers using spears; if all your spearmen are inexperienced young men, they'll probably never be too good or useful.