Why Is The Roman Scutum Important

Introduction

Rome was the most successful ancient civilization. First, they had the best battle techniques. Secondly, Rome built the best weapons and tools. Finally, Rome had amazing
Architecture.
The Roman Army
By 27 B.C the Romans already controlled large areas of Europe and parts of Asia and
Africa. Rome was able to control this area because of their dominating fighting force.The fighting force of Rome was one of the most feared and successful armies in history. For hundreds of years they seemed unbeatable. They attacked their enemies on open ground using javelins and swords. They were also very skilled at capturing cities. The army surrounded the cities so no one could escape and no supplies could be brought in. Then, …show more content…
The four most important weapons that a Roman soldier carried were his scutum or shield, a sword known as a gladius, a pilum which is a spear, and another type of spear called the plumbata. The scutum was an oval shaped shield made out of two pieces of wood glued together. Then over that, it was covered in leather. This was a very important weapon or defense for the Romans. The scutum was used in many formations as I talked about earlier. The scutum was known as a body shield and was very heavy, 10kg. The scutum was one of the most important weapons and that helped the Roman army to their huge success. The Roman gladius which means sword in Latin, was used for stabbing people so it had a sharp v shaped tip. It could aldo be used for slashing at people. The sides were heavily sharpened too. The sword was light so it went very well with the heavy scutum. Because the sword was so light the Roman soldiers could draw quickly against their enemies. The gladius was one of the most important swords in history because of the help it gave to the Roman soldiers. The pilum was a long stick with an iron spear head on the end. There were two different types of pilums. A thick one and a thin one. The thin one was 2 meters long with a very sharp point. The thick one was almost the same length and was attached to a 5 cm. Tang which is the spearhead. The block was a metal ball were you would hold the pilum and it would protect the soldier’s hand from the enemy. Roman soldiers carried both types of pilum. The plumbata was similar to the pilum. The plumbata was smaller and was used like a dart. They would use this when they were fighting face to face with the enemy. It was wood with an iron tip at the end. The roman soldiers carried five of these at a time in their scutum. All of these strategies, but more importantly their weapons made the Roman army one of the most feared and successful armies of