Undoubtedly the most unusual weapon or military device surviving from seventeenth-century Virginia is known as a caltrop, a single example of which has been found at Jamestown.

The sudis (pl.: sudes) was a stake carried by Roman legionaries for employment as a field fortification, sometimes also called vallus. It is frequently, but incorrectly, called a pilum murale (lit. 'wall spear'). Typically, two such stakes were carried by each soldier.

Sep 1, 2006 · The caltrops sank into the sand, and the Parthians failed to see them in time. Horses and camels were made lame and brought down and their riders thrown to the ground. The Romans, too, had taken heavy casualties, but they had definitely foiled the Parthian charge.

May 3, 2020 · A few years earlier, in 318 BC, caltrops or iron spikes were used to stop Polyperchon’s elephants at the siege of Megalopolis. In this case, they were driven in heavy wooden frames connected by chains and thrown in front of the elephants - spikes up.

Caltrops are great. They can be used in a ton of different ways. The damage is nice, but the speed reduction is the best. You can throw them as troops approach yours. They can be tossed behind units as well to prevent them from running away.

Roman Marching camps were used to protect an army while away from a permanent base during a campaign or when conducting other military operations. These camps were constructed by the Romans at the end of a day of marching or conducting other exercises in the field.

Oct 14, 2024 · Historically, caltrops can be traced back to various cultures, with records indicating their use in ancient Rome, China, and the Middle East. They played a significant role in military strategy, often deployed to safeguard fortifications or to disrupt the advance of enemy troops.

The outline of the camp was usually marked by a ditch, with the resulting spoil used to make a rampart thrown up on the camp’s inner edge. This was then reinforced with earthen sod and strengthened by stakes carried by the troops.

Sudes is Latin for stake or pike. They were part of the standard legionary equipment and presumably used as a perimeter defense of an encampment. Also termed valles, they were wooden stakes 4 to 5 feet long, tapered to points at both ends with a …

Oct 22, 2013 · They consist of spherical hay bales that you can ignite and send rolling, short straight wooden palisades, small circular jagged stone pits, small circular ignitable brimstone pits, three pronged wooden stakes, small circular spike traps, and man sized wooden sudes caltrops.