The ''lancea'' was a

javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon. Today, the javelin is predominantly used for sporting purposes such as the javelin throw. The javelin is nearly always thrown by hand, unlike the sling ...

used in

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

. According to the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'', the word originally came from the

Celtiberian language Celtiberian or Northeastern Hispano-Celtic is an extinct Indo-European language of the Celtic branch spoken by the Celtiberians in an area of the Iberian Peninsula between the headwaters of the Douro, Tagus, Júcar and Turia rivers and the ...

, also cf. λόγχη (''lonche''), the Greek term for lance. One kind of ''lancea'', possibly known as the ''lancea pugnatoria'' or "the fighting lance" was used as a thrusting weapon by cavalrymen. This weapon was used by cavalrymen as it was lighter and easier to use than the '' pilum''. The ''lancea'' was also used by auxiliaries. Legionaries would use the ''lancea'' if the occasion called for it. Arrian equipped his army with the weapon during a battle with the

Alans The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranian peoples, Iranic Eurasian nomads, nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today North Caucasus – while some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded ...

. Soldiers that used it were known as '' lancearii''. It is unclear how the ''lancea'' was distinguished from the '' hastae''. Many ''lancea'' had '' amenta'', although not all. This kind of javelin also had short wooden shafts and small leaf-shaped metal heads. Sometimes the heads had elongated points which may have been used to increase the penetration of the spear.

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Bibliography

* . * * . * * . * * * . * . * * * * * {{Citation , last=Strobel , first=Karl , title=Strategy and Army Structure Between Septimius Severus and Constantine the Great , date=2007-01-01 , url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470996577.ch16 , work=A Companion to the Roman Army , pages=267–285 , editor-last=Erdkamp , editor-first=Paul , place=Oxford, UK , publisher=Blackwell Publishing Ltd , language=en , doi=10.1002/9780470996577.ch16 , isbn=978-0-470-99657-7 , access-date=2022-09-03, url-access=subscription . Ancient weapons Throwing spears Ancient Roman legionary equipment Roman spears Projectiles

See also

References

Bibliography