Roman Pilum 200BC-250AD

The Roman Pilum was a standard Legionaries weapon used by Roman soldiers  for 100’s of years.

Each Legionary carried a pair and these would be thrown at relatively short distance just before the battle lines met. The long, slender hand-forged iron head is designed to penetrate deeply, even through shields and into the body behind.

The Romans relied so heavily on these that Legionaries trained regularly and they even had indoor throwing arenas.

It has often been said that these heads have been designed to bend on impact. I strongly suspect that because they are long and thin they just bend, not a design feature as such.

Classically, the head and the shaft of the pilum were made as one piece. However, this would make shipping difficult so we supply just the iron components and wooden head stock complete so all you need to do is mount it to a suitable wooden shaft for which we provide instructions in the film below.

Overall length of pilum head : 71cm/28″. Weight 600g

Suggested shaft length: 127cm/50″ (this is the part you have to get and fit)

Overall length once mounted: 198cm/78″

Price is per piece.

TC129