Velites

Roman soldiers, who were commonly some of the Tiros, or young soldiers of mean condition, and lightly armed. They had their name, a volando, from flying, or a velocitate, from swiftne . They seem not to have acted in distinct bodies or companies, but to have hovered in loose order before the army. Kennett’s R. A. page 190. Their arms consisted of a sword and javelin, and they had a shield or buckler which was sufficiently large to cover its man, being round and measuring three feet and a half in diameter. They generally wore wolf’s skins, or some other indifferent ornament upon their heads, to distinguish them during an action. Their javelins were a sort of dart, the wood of which measured three cubits in length, and was about the thickne of a finger. The point was about a hand’s full breadth in length, and was so thin and brittle, that it snapped off the instant it reached or penetrated its object, so that the enemy could not return it. It was distinguished in this particular from other darts and javelins.