Roman Weapons

The Romans conquered many nations with their well designed weapons.  They always started the battle with long ranged fire, to weaken the enemy.  Long ranged weapons were also used to aid foot soldiers, while in combat.  When the general of the Roman army thought the enemy had been weakened by this attack, the charge signal was given.    Long ranged weapons were the pilum, the scorpion, bows and slings.  The foot soldier would then charge in with their close range weapons.  Their siege weapons were rams, ballista, towers, onager and catapults.  The soldiers used a gladius and a dagger for close combat.

The long ranged weapon, the pilum, was also consider a javelin.  It was made of a mild steel and was approximately seven feet tall.  The tip of the pilum was three feet and the handle was four feet.  Each foot soldier had at least one pilum.  The pilum was considered the principle weapon of the legionnaire.  The Roman soldier would throw the pilum at the enemy like a javelin,  If the pilum made contact with an enemy soldier the three foot tip would pierce the body of the soldier.  If the pilum hit the ground, after being thrown, it would bend because the tip was made of a mild steel making it useless to throw back.  But if it hit the enemy’s shield, it would pierce the shield and bend, so the enemy could not pull the pilum out, and thus making their shields useless.  This made the enemy soldier vulnerable to the Roman gladius in close range fighting.  After the battle was won, the Roman soldiers would collect the pilums and repair them for more battles.

The Roman gladius and the dagger were the two most important close combat weapons. The gladius was a short sword, made for thrusting into an enemy.  Combined with the Roman shield it was very lethal.  The gladius was light weight, which made it easy to maneuver and it did not drain the soldiers strength to use.  It was double edged for better efficiency.  The blade was 20 inches long, two inches wide and the handle was four inches long and the whole gladius weighed two pounds.  With the gladius in one hand and the shield in the other, the Roman soldier was a very fierce fighter.    The Roman dagger was used only as a last resort.  It was approximately seven inches long, and very light weight, and used in hand to hand fighting.

When the Romans were attacking a town from a distance, they used siege weapons like catapults, towers and rams.  The Roman catapult was a weapon that would hurl large objects, such as boulders at an enemy’s town.  It was composed of a wooden frame on wheels, and had a sling to toss the objects such.  The Roman tower was build to be taller than the enemy’s castle walls.  They were made from wood and were armored on all sides.  The towers carried men.  It was pushed up against a castle wall and then the Roman soldiers would invade by climbing over the castle wall.  The Roman ram was used to breach the wall of a town or break down a castle gate.  It was a thick long pole made from a strong wood with a metal armored front.  It was also called a battering ram.

All of these weapons allowed the Romans to be strong fighters and conquer many nations.  The Roman warriors  were also well trained in combat and the Roman armies had huge numbers of men.  The sight of the huge Roman armies sometimes were enough to make many nations surrender without a fight.  Even though the Romans had great weapons and many men, they over expanded their control into many nations, and their army couldn’t protect all this land, so they eventually fell.  But the Roman Empire will never be forgotten.