Atlas Trail
The Answer to the Horse: Polearms and Anti-Cavalry Weapons from the Hasta to the Bardiche
Mounted warriors dominated many battlefields, and foot soldiers kept inventing ways to stop them. This path follows long-shafted and heavy bladed weapons from the spear of the early Roman line, through the lance of the armored horseman it was built to face, and on to the Chinese and European weapons that gave infantry reach, leverage and cutting power against riders.
Stop 1 of 8.
Weapons Systems
The hasta was the thrusting spear that gave the Roman hastati their name. By the time those troops are best documented they had largely swapped it for the pilum and the gladius, yet the name stayed in Roman military vocabulary. It is the plain spear against which the rest of this path measures its refinements.
Stop 2 of 8.
Weapons Systems
The kontos is the other side of the contest: a long two-handed cavalry lance tied to Hellenistic and later Parthian and Sarmatian heavy cavalry. Its length and weight meant the rider steered with his legs, and the whole momentum of horse and rider went into one thrust meant to break an infantry line.
Stop 3 of 8.
Weapons Systems
The zhanmadao, the horse-chopping saber, was built for one job. Song-dynasty military records describe picked infantry carrying this long two-handed blade at the front of the line, cutting at a charging horse or the limbs of its rider so that heavy cavalry could be blunted without polearm length.
Stop 4 of 8.
Weapons Systems
The guandao mounts a long curved single-edged blade on a heavy shaft. Tradition ties it to the Han general Guan Yu, but historians place the fielded weapon centuries later, with the Song dynasty, and its stylized forms live on in martial arts training today.
Stop 5 of 8.
Weapons Systems
The glaive sets a single-edged knife-like blade on a long shaft. Across Western Europe from about the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries it let a foot soldier strike a horse or rider from outside the reach of a cavalry sword or lance, and it could cut as well as thrust. Ceremonial versions outlasted its battlefield use.
Stop 6 of 8.
Weapons Systems
The voulge puts a broad cleaver-like axe blade on a long shaft. Town militias and common levies in France and neighboring regions used this inexpensive weapon, whose heavy head could dent armor even where it failed to cut through plate.
Stop 7 of 8.
Weapons Systems
The ranseur adds two curved side prongs to a central spearhead. The prongs caught and turned aside an enemy blade or hooked a rider off balance, which made it a weapon for trained men-at-arms and guards more than for the simplest levies, and ornate versions survived as ceremonial arms.
Stop 8 of 8.
Weapons Systems
The bardiche has a long curved axe blade and was used in Eastern Europe and Russia from roughly the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Russian streltsy musketeers could also plant its shaft in the ground to steady a heavy matchlock, one reason it outlasted most Western polearms.
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