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1776, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Penguin 2000, page 21:
Besides a lighter spear, the Roman legionary grasped in his right hand the formidable pilum, a ponderous javelin whose utmost length was about six feet and which was terminated by a massy triangular point of steel of about eighteen inches.
2011, Ben Aaronovitch, Rivers of London, Gollancz 2011, page 371:
Verica plucked a pilum from the hands of the nearest legionary – the soldier didn't react – and handed it to me.
^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “pīnsō, -ere”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 466-7
Further reading
“pilum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“pilum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
pilum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
(ambiguous) to throw down the javelins (pila) and fight with the sword: omissis pilis gladiis rem gerere
“pilum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
“pilum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
