Papers by Alexander Tomashevich
Roman military equipment in the 4 th century BC: pilum, scutum and the introduction of manipular ... more Roman military equipment in the 4 th century BC: pilum, scutum and the introduction of manipular tactics Słowa kluczowe: wojskowość starożytnego Rzymu, pilum, scutum, taktyka manewrowa W eapons and tactics of the Roman army in the era of the great wars with Carthage, Macedonia and the Seleucid Empire, as well as in campaigns against the Celts and the tribes of Iberian Peninsula , waged in the years 264–133 BC, are the subject of many publications. Earlier periods in the development of Roman weapons and fighting techniques have been comparatively neglected. The main reason for this is the low reliability of literary sources (Small 2000, p. 230) and almost complete lack of archaeological finds, the context and dating of which can be linked with the army of Rome in the period of the Early Republic (Rawlings 2007, p. 54), as well as the scarcity of iconographic sources. However, this period was crucial for the emergence of a particular method of fighting of the army, which was to conquer the whole Mediterranean world. The aim of this text is to explain and interpret different types of sources and, as a result, to offer a reconstruction of major elements in the evolution of weapons and tactics of heavy infantry, which formed the backbone of the Roman army in the period when these changes occurred, with a special emphasis placed on the widespread use of oblong shield and heavy javelin in the 4 th century BC. Authors of principal publications concerning the subject of development of Roman arms and armour such as Michael C. Bishop and Jonathan Ch.N. Coulston (2006) as well as Michel Feugère (2002) begin their narrative from the First Punic War. There is no consensus among researchers as to the dating of the transformation of Roman weaponry and tactics in this period. Most of them do not agree with any date given by ancient authors, often emphasizing low reliability of written sources (e.g.
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Papers by Alexander Tomashevich