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Short description

Armed with the gladius and two pila, the lightly equipped Hastati formed the front line of infantry of the pre-Marian Republican legions.

Description

The Hastati were the youngest and, excepting the Velites, the poorest men serving in a pre-Marian Republican legion. In the traditional deployment of an army of this period, they were the first line of infantry, and were expected to wear down the enemy, and if not able to defeat them, then to retreat behind the lines of the Principes, in order for the Principes to continue the fight.

The Hastati were armed with what the Romans considered to be full panoply of armour, which was the scutum, gladius, helmet, pila and, in the case of the Hastati, the pectoral, as opposed to the chain mail armour of the Principes and Triarii.

Though assumed to be relatively inexperienced, in battle, the Hastati were expected to give a good account of themselves and were naturally imbued with the Roman fighting spirit.

Polybius (Book 6, 23) states that "the next in seniority (to the "Velites") called Hastati are ordered to wear a complete panoply", and that along with the Velites, Principes and Triarii, the Hastati made up the names, among the Romans, of the four classes in each legion, distinct in age and equipment. They divided them so that the senior men known as Triarii numbered six hundred, the Principes twelve hundred, and the Hastati twelve hundred, the rest, consisting of the youngest, being Velites.

Literally, the Hastatus is a "hasta-user", referencing the hasta, a spear with which these soldiers were originally equipped prior to the fourth century. While the gladius varied in design throughout its usage, the Gladius Hispaniensis was the most commonly and widely used, being adopted after Roman contact, in Iberia, with the Celtiberians.

The scutum, or shield, was semi-rectangular in shape and provided good protection for almost the entire body. The pilum (plural "pila") was the javelin thrown before charging the enemy, of which, the Hastati were equipped with two.

It has been often said that the pilum was designed to bend on impact, thus rendering it incapable of being re-used by the enemy, but this is not the full story. This was not its prime function, but merely a useful consequence of the design. It existed as a close-range javelin that used weight, rather than velocity, to provide its penetrative power. The earliest known examples of the pilum are representations on 4th century frescoes from the Gigoli tomb at Tarquinia, and a socketed example recovered from a 5th century tomb at Vulci in Etruria.

The Montefortino helmet was the head protection of choice in the Republican era and received its name after archaeological finds in the Italian town of Montefortino. Earlier examples may have been more decorative due to the fact that equipment (including helmets) would have been passed down through the generations of a family. However, post-Marius, the enlisted Head Count soldiers couldn't afford to equip themselves and, therefore, relied on the State to provide them with standardised, though less decorative, equipment. This equipment was effectively that of the principes, though remnants of the manipular system remained in the positions and titles of centurions within each cohort of the reformed legions.