HASTATI

(Lat. hasta, a spear.) One of the three grand divisions of the Roman infantry, so called because they were armed with spears. It consisted of young men in the flower of life, who were always drawn up in the first line of battle. The other two divisions were called Principes and Triarii; to which, in the first Punic war, was added another, called Velites, or light troops, from volare, to fly. [s. 555]