Pro Thrower vs Armoured Barbarian. Can he stop the charge!?

Looking forward to Michael's post-Olympic medal interview. "I just imagined a barbarian horde rushing me and let it rip".

I wonder if Michael is reading the comments. If he is, I hope he is having fun doing some actual damage.

This young man is going to be a historian and he didn't plan on it. 😀

Michael is an amazing sport (no pun intended) and now he seems to be having fun as well. I could imagine his doubts when I watched the first video. But now I'd say he noticed already this isn't a silly channel, noticed that Tod is a pro, and I hope he has time to read the comments, because this community is one of a kind as well. Thank you enormously Michael and Tod for your effort and time, this is providing priceless input. For those without an idea that just happened to read, by some random reason, just this comment, up to Tod's experiments with the best in each area, everything was pure speculation, or, centuries old, likely biased, reports. Can't thank you guys enough, hope you had a great time, and a great weekend as well!

I love that Michael is starting to theorize with you, not just as the muscle. He's obviously an intelligent young man.

The one that went right through the shield, the mail, and the gambeson and then penetrated enough to most likely be fatal was a great confirmation of what a pilum could do. The one that deflected off the shield's boss and still went through the shield's wood, the mail, and the gambeson... That one really surprised me!

I love how Michael's been getting more and more into this over this series. All those extra shots today to try to hit from 20 m. He's having fun and letting that competitive spirit flourish, and it's making for great videos.

Let's not gloss over that he's an athlete focused at throwing a javelin the farthest. Accurately hitting targets is not what he practices yet lands the mark consistently. What an absolute legend. Folks like these bring History to life and a whole new perspective on what went down in battles. Pointy sticks must not be underestimated. edit: wrongly autocorrect

This continues to be an amazing collaboration. I appreciate the no-nonsense editing of your stuff a lot. A classic studio show would take an entire season to show what you do in 20. With all their recaps, stock footage of unrelated places and people, the dramatic narrations, etc...There's none of that extraneous crap here.

On the subject of accuracy, there's an excellent anecdote from the Battle of Ruspina, where Julius Caesar was fighting against his former right-hand-man, Titus Labienus: Labienus rode bare-headed up and down the front line, encouraging his own men the while and occasionally accosting Caesar’s legionaries in such terms as these: ‘What are you up to, recruit? Quite the dashing little fellow, aren’t you? Have all of you too been made fools of by that fellow’s words? So help me, it’s a very dangerous situation he has driven you into. I feel sorry for you.’ ‘I’m not a recruit, Labienus,’ replied one soldier, ‘but a veteran of the Tenth legion.’ To this Labienus retorted: ‘I don’t recognise the standards of the Tenth.’ Then said the soldier: ‘You’ll soon see what I’m made of.’ As he spoke the words he flung the helmet from his head so that the other could recognise him and, thus uncovered, brandished his pilum with all his force, as he aimed it at Labienus: then plunging it violently full in the horse’s chest he said: ‘That will teach you, Labienus, that it’s a soldier of the Tenth who is attacking you.’ (Caesar, African War, LCL402, p166-167) Taking this incredibly 300-esque scene at face value, some veterans could throw a pilum with force and accuracy at a range where a seasoned officer thought he was safe. It's hard to say how far Labienus was from the Caesarian lines, but considering he was taunting them, maybe around the 30-50m mark?

I have often wondered what a properly thrown pilum did in battle. Thanks to this great collaboration I need to wonder no more. That's why I love this channel.

This would be a bit impractical to do, but it would be interesting to get a few of Michael's mates from the training field, say a total of 5 to 10 throwers, and set up a bunch of silhouette targets down range and see what a massed volley of pillium would do to a unit sized formation.

Michael definitely got into it, I loved the fact he wanted more throws towards the end :) As someone else I think already said the one thing it 'disproved' I think was the pilum being design to bend so it can't be thrown back. If you can't pull the pilum out with two hands and bracing, you certainly can't pull it out one handed in battle.... no need for it to bend at all. It's probably just a by product of fast mass production as they just needed it so hold up for one throw, no need to put more work in than needed.

YES more pilum and Michael! And once again imagine marching in closed lines towards the enemy when they launch a few thousand pilum at you at close distance. It's no from me. :)

I love how Michael seems to be getting more confident in these and enjoying them more and more. Keep up the good work and if Michael sees this I hope you keeping working together and having fun.

The thing with those near misses is that in a packed formation charging at you, it is still quite likely to hit someone/something else, so I can see a shower of these pilums thrown in quasi unison by legionnaires would be incredibly devastating.

It's great to see Michael getting more comfortable with this weapon and these films. He went form "sure, I suppose this is similar to my sport, I guess I could entertain the medieval man's ideas" to formulating a battle tactic.

A couple of those hits really bring the devastation home. I found it really interesting how the point penetrated then the shaft fell and dug into the ground. If you were moving forward with some pace and with people behind you doing the same, that would dig right into the ground and push right through whatever hole it made. Even if the armor stopped it at 25-30 meters, you might just skewer yourself when the shaft dug into the ground and the man behind you ran into your back.

I just want to say that Michael Allison adds so much to these videos. It's especially great when he has a chance to talk. I'm so glad that he takes time out from his other activities to help entertain us and maybe teach us a thing or two.

Tod, you also need to test that pilum out against "bronze shielded and armored" armies of the Carthagian and Hellenistic Kingdoms. I kinda wanna see how the pilum dealt with hoplite and phalangite armies with their bronze armor and bronze shields, particularly against their elite and royal regiments which had even better hardened arms and armor.