Multiple javelins were also sometimes carried by Egyptian war-chariots, in a quiver
and/or bow case.[10]
Beyond its military purpose, the javelin was likely also a hunting instrument, for food and
sport.[11]
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Ancient Greece
[edit]
A depiction of a javelin thrower on an ancient Greek vase,
ca. 450 BC. Attributed to the painter of the Brussels Oinochoes.
The peltasts, usually serving as skirmishers, were armed with several javelins, often
with throwing straps to increase stand-off power. The peltasts hurled their javelins at the
enemy's heavier troops, the hoplite phalanx, in order to break their lines so that their
own army's hoplites could destroy the weakened enemy formation. In the battle of
Lechaeum, the Athenian general Iphicrates took advantage of the fact that
a Spartan hoplite phalanx operating near Corinth was moving in the open field without
the protection of any missile-throwing troops. He decided to ambush it with his force of
peltasts. By launching repeated hit-and-run attacks against the Spartan formation,
Iphicrates and his men were able to wear the Spartans down, eventually routing them
and killing just under half. This marked the first recorded occasion in ancient Greek
military history in which a force entirely made up of peltasts had defeated a force of
hoplites.
The thureophoroi and thorakitai, who gradually replaced the peltasts, carried javelins in
addition to a long thrusting spear and a short sword.
Javelins were often used as an effective hunting weapon, the strap adding enough
power to take down large game. Javelins were also used in the Ancient Olympics and
other Panhellenic games. They were hurled in a certain direction and whoever hurled it
the farthest, as long as it hit tip-first, won that game.
Ancient Rome
[edit]
Main article: Pilum
Republic and early empire
[edit]
Reconstruction of a post-Marian pilum
In 387 BC, the Gauls invaded Italy, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Roman Republican
army, and sacked Rome. After this defeat, the Romans undertook a comprehensive
reform of their army and changed the basic tactical formation from the Greek-style
phalanx armed with the hasta spear and the clipeus round shield to a more flexible
three-line formation. The hastati stood in the first line, the principes in the second line
and the triarii in the third line. While the triarii were still armed with hastae,
the hastati and the principes were rearmed with short swords and heavy javelins. Each
soldier from the hastati and principes lines carried two javelins. This heavy javelin,
known as a pilum (plural pila), was about two metres long overall, consisting of an iron
shank, about 7 mm in diameter and 60 cm long, with pyramidal head, secured to a
wooden shaft. The iron shank was either socketed or, more usually, widened to a
flat tang. A pilum usually weighed between 0.9 and 2.3 kilograms (2.0 and 5.1 lb), [citation
needed]
with the versions produced during the empire being somewhat lighter. Pictorial
evidence suggests that some versions of the weapon were weighted with a lead ball at
the base of the shank in order to increase penetrative power, but no archaeological
specimens have been found.[12] Recent experiments have shown pila to have a range of
about 30 metres (98.4 ft), although the effective range is only 15 and 20 metres (49.2
and 65.6 ft). Pila were sometimes referred to as "javelins", but the archaic term for the
javelin was "verutum".
From the third century BC, the Roman legion added a skirmisher type of soldier to its
tactical formation. The velites were light infantry armed with short swords
