Spiculum
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A spiculum is a late Roman spear that replaced the pilum as the infantryman's main throwing javelin. Scholars suppose that it could have resulted from the gradual combination of the pilum and a German spear of similar type.
Vegetius mentions the spiculum in his military manual, but some scholars maintain that the spiculum was simply a different name for the pilum. Whatever the case, most historians accept that the spiculum evolved from the earlier javelins used by the Roman army.
The main difference between the spiculum and the pilum was the length of the thin point. The spiculum tended to have a much shorter iron point. Thus, the spiculum was significantly shorter than its ancestor. The spiculum had a long iron shank attached to the head. Its exact design is not completely known, but it appears to have been a replacement for the pilum as a heavy, armor-piercing javelin with the characteristic shanked head.
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