Pro Thrower vs Armoured Barbarian. Can he stop the charge!?

Wasn't the pilium suppose to break on impact?

This really debunks the myth of the "designed bend" in the iron. It was hard to remove because of the head shape and friction, and nothing to do with curvature of the shank

Let's be honest, this is every javelin throwers dream :D

your test is very cool, but also inaccurate.
you should research barbarian shield wielding techniques, see what they did to counter this, and make sure your dummy is mechanized so that it can do the same action and be in motion as well
otherwise you're pilluming an inattentive guard

Michael is gonna be a Legionnaire yet!

I can see how Tod is possibly creating a new craze - pilum throwing. It can be done instead of ax throwing.

That was quite surprising. Even if the Pilum hadn't pierced the mail of the wearer, that person's shield would have been useless. Throwing spears seem far more useful than I imagined

Great test. But lets put this into context (c). The `barbarian` would not be simply standing. And not even rushing at you in a straight line. He may be dodging, and involving active defence moves, trying to deflect incoming projectiles with a shiled and his weapon. Unfortunately, this is not possible to recreate IRL and test how this active defence would increase the survival rate of the targets.

I thought that was the whole idea of pilum , they were used to break up charging formations and to stick into shields so they owner had to discard them so when they engage the legions' they could go to work with there tower shields and the thrusting of the gladius ! am i wrong in thinking this ?

Fair play to Michael, it takes some strength to chuck those things one after the other

I think, the main drawback of the Pilum is, it is hard to recover and must be repaired after every battle.

It's shame you don't publish white papers on those experiments. I understand it'd take quite a lot more experimentation to actually write one but I'm guessing it'd inspire the scholar society to either prove or disprove it. And then we'd have a healthy and hopefully accurate debate with all kinds of ideas. Maybe even some definitive answers.

I thought that pilum were designed to be one throw weapons that would bend upon impact so that the barbarians could not through them back.

Also i think that Roman legion were mainly a post-Greek phalanx that specialised in pushing over the enemy and killing behind the shield line (hence the short strong swords with pummel). The pilum may have got the barbarians into a vendetta kind of mood, and once up close against the shield wall they were no match for the Roman scrum like push, which would not work unless the barbarians got close. The pilum were to make the barbarians angry/mad enough to charge the Roman phalanx (battle tank / battle field Rumba).

There is a video in my channel where I explain with a mock up.

And, my dad lived in Croydon.

Woulnd be interesting to see this test the Pilum engendered closer than in this test to history version. Roman pilim hat at the thinner part weekended metall an weekend spotst so zhat the metL part of the pilum bends after piercing and makes it even harder to pull out and impossible to throw back

very interesting video, did the numbers of joules has been recorded for these throws?

Surprisingly,Pilum didn't stopped the Parthian and Sassanid Cataphracts in Carrhae and Edessa respectively 😮

Given how easily the shield was peneteated, i wonder if it might actually give better protection carried at a 30 degree angle. Less coverage, but if the shield is hit the pilum might be better deflected.

It's interesting to see a common person throw, not a professional thrower.
Are there some differences in damage?

You mean a weapon that one of the most efficient militaries in human history used for over 6 centuries is actually effective?

I don't know about you guys but I'm shocked.

It's funny to watch him throw lol, as someone who has thrown a bunch of spears at targets his straight arms are funky

What's the title of the Vegetius's book you're reading?
Excellent video, beautiful work from you too, and those throws! Due to the low speed, I didn't realised the energy behind those things, but those blows are devastating, even more if the guy taking it is running.

License this footage for a video game, itll be awesome!

What a rush!

So what do we learn from it? If you ever find yourself in danger on an ancient battlefield, get yourself a olympic spear thrower.

This brings back a reincarnation memory

From croydon ? 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅

I had the impression that the Roman infantry en-mass, all threw their pilums at once at the enemy seconds before they closed at close quarters. It would be difficult for the enemy to defend against the Roman's swords with their shields and eyes concentrated on the pilums coming in . I made this comment just before the video got to 12.51 and you did mention it :))

It is quite amazing that the comfirmed hits were so close to each other.

BARBARIANS FROM NON-GEOGRAPHICALLY DESCRIPTION CROYDON

Do you think that would work with a atlatl

Not historically accurate. I don't have the inclination to point it out why now. Anyone can read it up if they really want to.

Was there some doubt that a piece of steel would penetrate a piece of wood?

What an ingenious tool for battle.
At the start of a battle, you’ve effectively disabled / distracted two ranks of the enemy before you’ve even engaged them.
How long will those defenders last with a shield bowling over or discarded?

The pilum was a disposable annoyance that actually worked well. Part time enthusiast re-enactors show it working. I the hands of a professional Roman soldier who needed this for life or death struggles they were in certain much better at it.

The Roman’s also employed lead bullets they hollowed out to whistle when slung. Absolutely terrifying and deadly. The pilum was intended to slow you down. The lead shots were killers

can you stop it with the fucking hair curling for christs sake.

That young man has one hell of an arm !
It is not easy throwing Anything of this weight !
Give him a freakin AtlAtl and let him throw for distance !
That should be interesting.

That’s a thin piece of wood though and doesn’t represent an actual shield that men used in battle to protect themselves. The pillum doesn’t look accurate either and made in a more modern, aerodynamic way. Something is always off about videos trying to show pillum being used in the way it’s believed. This is a pro javelin thrower that’s been practicing for years on this one skill, not a Roman soldier that has many things to learn and do. I’m not saying this to be mean to anyone in this video. I’m saying this in all seriousness and curiosity. How would a wall of average men/soldiers use these against real shields in combat? I’ve never seen one convincing piece of media showing anything like that. Movies and tv depicting this can’t do it without camera angles and editing, historians can’t seem to do it without using inaccurate shields and pro javelin throwers doing it in a single, calmly timed and controlled way. This is not an insult to Michael at all. He seems great at what he does. I’m asking as an amateur historian who is looking for facts and real world examples and all the variables in how these things were done.

I think you may have just invented a new Olympic sport!

The trower was more close.

"A wooden dummy doesn't throw pila back!" - Brucilius Leeus

The sole purpose of the pilum was to take away the enemies shields

It’s not just about killing the enemy. It was a great way to render their shields useless and even if you only clipped them, the kinetic energy could knock them off balance and trip them up. And if there were enough people charging, that guy could get trampled. Every man that doesn’t make it to the line, is one less man to fight.

Yeah, shit's annoying in RimWorld, tribals evolve at late game stage, gotta go power armor not even. That thing is no joke, deadly weapon

tod is such a lovely man

From what I saw here, I would venture hitting the guy in the second or third rank would do a lot more to break up a charge than the first rank. It would mean that any casualties from the second would force anyone behind him to trip over him. Meanwhile the first rank, if he kept going is now unsupported and easily taken care of in a time where ranks were might.

Even with glancing blows, having half your battle line stop to remove the pila from their shield would bring a battle to a halt, let alone those non lethal blows are almost a guaranteed death sentence by infection.

Wonderful to finally see the true effect of these weapons. Even if most pila dont kill, disrupting your enemy by way of sharp sticks is plenty to turn a combat in your favor!

I definitely wouldn't want to be the Barbarian that Michael was throwing at...
Or the Barbarian to either side or behind.
And that's the whole point of the Pilum (pun fully intended).

you need more targets at once, like group so will be easer to hit first row of 3 and second row 3

The first person view of getting hit by a jav in terrifying