Archery flourished during Rome’s imperial era, but it was not unknown during the Republic. In the Roman constitution, there are mentions of “arquites” being used in defense of the city—archers were later known as “sagittarii” meaning “those that go with the bow.”

Archery was then mostly limited to recreational sport, but it was a deciding factor in the Spanish Wars. Led by General Scipio Aemilianus, the Roman forces built a ten-foot high wall around the city of Numantia, along with seven military forts manned with mercenary Cretan archers. Numantia’s fall brought a violent end to the war and cemented the bow’s place in the Roman arsenal.

Julius Caesar used similar mercenary tactics during his campaign in Gaul, hiring out archers from Crete and Numidia, but the weapon was underused by the Roman army itself, preferring instead legionnaire shock troops. That changed with the Republic’s violent defeat against the Parthian Empire.

In 53 BCE, Marcus Licinius Crassus, a member of the Republic’s First Triumvirate, attempted to invade Parthia for riches and glory. His army was over 40,000 strong and marched through Mesopotamia, aiming to capture cities in the region. Orodes II, the Parthian king, sent his own force of 10,000 men led by the spahbod, Surena.

The bulk of Surena’s force were cavalry troops, most of whom were trained archers, a tactic unexploited by the Romans. The Parthians lured Crassus’ force into the desert, near the town of Carrhae, where they made their counterattack.

Though the Parthians were outnumbered almost 4 to 1, Surena was able to surround the Roman square formation, using his mounted archers in hit-and-run attacks. Charges by legionnaires were useless, as the Parthian horsemen were trained to fire backward as they retreated, quickly recovering whatever ground was lost.

Crassus hoped to outlast the Parthians’ supply of arrows, but Surena organized a train of a thousand camels to keep his archers stocked. Eventually, Crassus was forced into a peace meeting by his own men, but miscommunication led to his death and the capture of his remaining forces. Three-quarters of the Romans were killed or enslaved, while the Parthians suffered minimal casualties thanks to the tactics of Surena and the skill of his archers.

With this defeat, it was clear to the Romans that archery could no longer be an afterthought tactic farmed out to foreign mercenaries, it had to be integral to the army’s organization.

As archery grew into a military tactic, it remained a tool of spectacle, too. The emperor Commodus was a famed archer and the stories of his skill at the bow, while surely partly fictionalized, attest to the weapon’s cultural dominance. From his perch in the Colosseum’s imperial box, he is said to have killed one hundred lions with one hundred arrows. An arrowhead he designed in a half-moon shape was able to decapitate an ostrich in one strike.

Even less savory are the stories of Domitian, another emperor, who is said to have proven his skill at the bow by shooting arrows between the fingers of slaves at great distances.

As time went on, the Romans relied more and more on auxiliary military forces. Towards the end of the Empire, Celtic and Germanic warriors made up the majority of their archers, and Roman arrowheads became indistinguishable from those used by these groups.

The Barbaria groups that menaced Rome as the Western Empire collapsed were nomadic tribes that deployed mounted archers in battle, in much the same way as the Parthians. In spite of Rome’s embracing of archery, it was still never core to their battle plans, and the weapon that helped build their empire also hastened its collapse.

Want to get hands-on with Roman history? Check out the 1st-century CE Roman arrowhead specimen!

These particular arrowheads are made from bronze and feature a trilobate design. The long, three-bladed heads were made to make short work of armor, puncturing deep into their targets and penetrating any protections they wore.

Arrowheads come from numerous sites across Europe and date to the 1st-century CE. They are available as both a specimen and a necklace pendant.