It wouldn’t be until December 19, 1988 that the plumbata would be banned for recreational use.
Snow’s father David began to advocate for a ban on lawn darts, claiming that there was no way to keep children from accessing lawn darts short of a full ban
If only somebody would see it the same with guns…
Plenty of people see it that way, unfortunately the NRA has been funded by those who think of it as a net positive every time one American kills another with a gun, and they’ve used that money to drum up fear in our most vulnerable and weak-minded citizens, the conservatives.
Nearly 2000 years of tradition, cut down by philistines!
Lol, beat me to it!
Standard issue scissor holster?
Medicus!
With all seriousness, I’m not sure if that’s something kept for the re-enactor’s convenience or if it is actually meant to represent something historical.
I legit did not know this was a thing. Thanks!
How would they throw the darts? Like I threw lawn darts as a kid, trying to get them as high as possible in a parabola, or would they throw them shuriken style, right at the charging hordes?
Questions like that are often hotly debated in experimental archeology! My thinking is high, in a parabola, as they were meant as harassing weapons, but as far as I know there’s no consensus.
I mean, they are versatile, so they probably had different tactics that suited various engagements.
You throw them in a straight line at short range, mostly at the horses of cavalry charging at you.
We don’t have a clear answer on this. There was a video I saw once that you might be able to find on YouTube still where a guy experimented with them and tried different methods. Frankly didn’t really solve the question for me. They all seem somewhat viable. Underhand straightforward seem to work all right. Kind of overhand like a javelin sort of worked although maybe not the best. They also tried kind of loping overhand so it came down on top of the target sort of like you’re implying. Considering the weight of them I think that might make the most sense.
It’s JARTS! Used for their true purpose
I thought the javelin was Greek and the pilum was Roman. I don’t see how these could actually replace a javelin or pilum since part of the point was to use the weight to force the enemy to drop their shield. I’m no historian, though.
Edit: autocorrect
Javelin is a generic term, pilum is a term for a specific kind of Roman javelin. The replacement is in that Roman soldiers started carrying these darts instead of pila - while pila were more general-purpose and heavy-duty weapons, these light plumbata were much more of a harassing tool that a soldier could carry more of.
Cost savings measure. In addition to being heavy for the troops to carry, it was expensive to make.
I’ve never seen any evidence that said they replaced the javelin. More of a supplement or alternative.
Replaced in the sense that the plumbata became the widespread standard, not replaced in the sense that javelins were no longer used by any legionaries.
