Over the past few days I have been spoilt for choice regarding what to paint next - rather like a kid in a sweetshop - so many goodies and unable to choose between them. But, in the end, I think I've decided. On the basis that you can never have enough Romans, I am cleaning up another cohort of legionaries. And then I began to have doubts on the weaponry front.
The previous cohort I painted is mostly armed with pila (heavy throwing spears). Having spent more than a year painting an army for the early Principate, I simply didn't think about it - and the blisters of figures were full of pila too...
But when I did stop to think, I remembered some reading I did a while back (okay, quite a long time ago), and also the fact that the Roman soldier of the Dominate, though he used some missile weapons, didn't really use a pilum as such. Clearly, this didn't come about overnight, so there must have been a period of transition - presumably the Third Century. It makes a good deal of sense for the legionaries to become more 'auxilia-like' - flat oval shields, spears, etc. So I suppose this is as good a place as any to discuss Roman infantry equipment in general during this period. A lot of the detail of this discussion arises from email correspondence with Adrian Goldsworthy - I can't honestly claim to have thought this out all by myself!
There isn't a great deal of definite evidence as to what was worn by legionaries and what by auxiliaries (this is true for the early Principate too - we assume we know the difference in legionary and auxiliary equipment, because of Trajan's column - but that's another argument altogether, which I won't go into now), because it is rare for items to be accurately identified with particular units. We don't have a 'good' source of pictures of soldiers showing their equipment in detail - no Trajan's column or Tropaeum Traiani at Adamklissi for this period.
The longer term trend seems to be towards greater uniformity between the two types (i.e. the distinction becoming blurred). In the back of one's mind is the Edict of Caracalla (Constitutio Antoniniana) of 212AD, in which citizenship was granted to all freemen living within the Empire, which effectively strips away any 'legal' difference between legionaries and auxilia, and removes the need for auxilia to serve 25 years to gain citizenship. But, leaving that aside, I suspect that a lot of the reason for legionary and auxiliary equipment becoming more similar is accidental.
In the third century, civil wars became common. It is well known from coins and inscriptions that legions became fractured, and that sometimes detachments (vexillations) would even end up fighting on opposite sides for different 'emperors'. Thus there was a huge, and long-term, dislocation of all the normal systems of recruitment, promotion and supply.
In the old days (i.e. during the early principate - say up to the end of the second century) the legionary fabricae (workshops in legionary bases) seem to have made the bulk of the equipment they required. The fabricae may also have made some equipment for auxiliary units (who also made some of their own gear). If (as happened during the third century) the units are scattered and the bases run down (archaeology shows us that, for example, the legionary base at Chester was almost derelict in the third century - there was even a latrine built over the commandant's house!), then the workshops disappear.
Desperate emperors would take whatever troops they could from wherever they could get them, resulting in lots of little detachments and these detachments on campaign much more than before. Equipment would run out and replacements would be drawn from whatever sources were available - even if that meant equipping legionaries from auxiliary workshops, or perhaps local factories or workshops set up on the spot. The priority would be to make things quickly and in sufficient quantity, so the tendency would be to work to standard, and simple, designs.
Auxiliary equipment is good, all purpose, stuff. Lorica segmentata is complicated, hard to make, and requires intensive maintenance, mail and scale are more labour-intensive, but simpler, to manufacture. Spears and javelins are more robust than pila. A spatha is good for infantry or cavalry (a gladius is of little use to a cavalryman - he can't reach a man low-down on the ground so, if you're going to standardise, the spatha is a better choice). A flat shield, whatever its shape, is easier to make than a semi-cylindrical scutum. Eventually you will get the typical equipment of the fourth century soldier, including the intercisa helmet (which is far simpler to make than the earlier designs), mass produced in factories, rather than made by (specialist) soldiers in workshops.
The above is all conjecture, but isn't, as far as I'm aware, contradicted by what little bit of evidence there is.
So, where does this leave me and my next cohort of third century legionaries? For 'wargaming reasons' I still want to be able to distinguish easily between legionaries and auxiliaries - and from the back as well as the front (the front is easy - the shield designs should give it away). Let us assume (purely for wargaming purposes) that pila (for example) are scarce but not unobtainable. Auxilia aren't trained to use them, and only use spears. The presence of pila (even a few) in a unit would therefore identify the unit as consisting of legionaries. But, in light of the above discussion of the breakdown of supply arrangements, it is clear that 'classic legionary equipment' (pila, scuta, lorica segmentata) ought not to be readily available, even to legionaries. So, I'll scatter those articles through the legionary cohorts, and keep the auxilia 'special', by not giving them any pila, scuta or lorica segmentata. I am even thinking that I might even make one or two of my legionary cohorts (when I get around to expanding my force from 1,000 points) from a different legion (to represent a 'lost' vexillation). I might even equip them a bit differently from the rest of the legionaries, to reflect a slightly different history and a different supply chain - perhaps more scuta, but less helmets (more scale hoods) and maybe more scale armour and less mail. All perfectly possible with the wide variety of figures available from A&A.
So, I think I am going to equip the figures notionally for this cohort with spears, and then, once they're completed, mix the figures from the two cohorts together, so that there are a mixture of weapons in the two cohorts.