The Darts of Mars

Fancy having these nasty-looking beasts raining down on your head?

These are plumbatae, lead-weighted darts that are a distinctively late Roman weapon. Originally they would have had wooden shafts ending with fletchings, rather like mini-javelins.

Each infantry soldier would carry about five of these nasty weapons behind his shield, ready to hurl them in advance of a charge. They would be flung (possibly underarm) high above the enemy ranks, with the lump of lead giving them extra force as they plummeted down.

Plumbatae were so deadly, they became known as Martiobarbuli – the ‘darts of Mars’ – and some regiments were specialists in their use.

These examples are from the museum at Wroxeter Roman City museum, which I visited earlier this year, and provide some of the best evidence we have for regular Roman garrisons in the cities of late Roman Britain.