What's the effective range of a pilum? Twenty or thirty feet, maybe? There's no way you could throw from the back row of a manipular formation past the front, is there?

-Simetrical

Reply

Effective range is at least three times what you listed. They did throw their pila from the rear ranks while the front was engaged at times. Why not? If you have a deep mass of attackers and can throw over the heads of your own, it would make it very uncomfortable for those poor sods stuck waiting to fight. They even deployed archers on the 9th rank, and horse archers on the 10th rank on occasions to fire over the heads of their own.

Now I don't think you would typically find the principes and triarii deployed in fashion that would allow them to throw over the hastati--maybe that is what you meant.

Reply