Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A heavy javelin used by the Roman foot-soldiers.
  • noun Any javelin used by barbarous races with whom the Romans had to do, as by the Franks, Burgundians, and others.
  • noun In pharmacy, an instrument used to triturate substances in a mortar; a pestle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A Roman military javelin.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin pilum

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Examples

  • The pilum is a stout wooden shaft 41 feet long, with an iron spit about three feet long fixed in it.

    Caesar and Cleopatra George Bernard Shaw 1903

  • [*] The pilum was the Roman pike, and the spatha the short single-edged Roman sword.

    Historic girls; stories of girls who have influenced the history of their times, 1891

  • But the Romans had every legionary trained in the use of the javelin pilum and and lots of archer auxiliary mostly from the east - light mounted archers with composite or recurve bows from Numidia, Osrhoene and Parthia, foot archers from Syria, even specialised slingers from the Balearic isles.

    Bowmen in medieval Wales Carla 2009

  • His weapons were a javelin (pilum) and a short sword (gladius).

    The Spartacus War Barry Strauss 2009

  • His weapons were a javelin (pilum) and a short sword (gladius).

    The Spartacus War Barry Strauss 2009

  • His weapons were a javelin (pilum) and a short sword (gladius).

    The Spartacus War Barry Strauss 2009

  • His weapons were a javelin (pilum) and a short sword (gladius).

    The Spartacus War Barry Strauss 2009

  • Mark picked up on the wave attack tactic - the first line hits with +3 for pilum charge, then next turn the second joins in in the gaps and they get the pilum charge bonus again.

    Zama 202 BC Cromwell MkI 2008

  • Mark picked up on the wave attack tactic - the first line hits with +3 for pilum charge, then next turn the second joins in in the gaps and they get the pilum charge bonus again.

    Archive 2008-06-01 Cromwell MkI 2008

  • Any man who burns his picket stake, section of breastworks, or pilum shaft will be flogged and beheaded—we may need them to fight Parthian raids off.

    Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007

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