Quote Originally Posted by bovi
Shame on me for believing Wikipedia, vanilla RTW, and... EB's Hastati/Principe/Triarii description ? Cohors Imperatoria's description says it can be used as a normal spear though, even though it's not designed for it. As you say.

Should we change the description for the roman units then?
No, don't worry about any descriptions. They did bend on impact but the haft was also designed to shatter. I can't remember exactly, I think Latin and Etruscan ones bend because of the poor iron. Hispanic ones generally don't.

In any case it's only the shank that bends, the head is hardend steel and diamond shaped. The idea is that is goes through the shield and into the body, that's why the shank is so long.

Soft is also very much a relative term here, as anyone hit with an iron bar will tell you.