best part: you only need a few tribulata mixed to the volleys of plumbatas to have at least the psychological effect of not wanting to walk through

This thing would have rotted in the archaeological record and ended up being a tiny collection of arrowheads and fish hooks.

I really appreciate this channel. Always such an interesting watch. Still eagerly awaiting the inevitable Tod Cutler collab!

Wow, that little addition made them so much more scary.

Imagine how demoralising that would be, in conjunction with a spear throwing stick, as the guy next to you is screaming as his face is sliced open from a glancing hit and the guy behind drops with it in his chest.

Sounds very practical thing to for tactical use.
The only problem I see is carrying those things on you. Catching on your hands, cloths and whatever comes too close to you.
Cork stoppers can prevent that, but this makes a bundle very bulky.
Another option is carrying the hooks and thread sparely on you and prepare your regular plumbata before an engagement.

If they existed I think they would have been used. Considering Romans did not wear trousers but some of their enemies did, even more so. Even tho I don't think a naked leg is much of an advantage, might even have a higher psychological effect of slowing a charge because soldiers now step very carefully out of fear of injury.
While advancing from the throwing side seems possible, fights are not just one way. If contact is made with the enemy line, soldiers rotate out from the front rank. We still don't know exactly how the Romans did it but in this case the hooks would pose a threat to the own troops as well. Might stop them from breaking and running away tho ^^
Interesting experiment. Thank you!
PS: I really appreciate you showing misses and don't pretend to hit every throw and the emphasis on "might" and "could have". We don't know. Doesn't make these things less exciting.

Even if it wasn't standardized, seems plausible to me that maybe some individual soldiers would do this to theirs

Absolutely brilliant... Although I was wincing visibly as you casually snared yourself walking through that entanglement! ... Can imagine that even skirmish troops attacked like that would have a hard time maintaining any useful cohesion, let alone a tight body of troops or horse... Some smart thinking there👍

I love everything  plumbata

Would love to see this optimised!!

The awesome thing about plumbata is the virtually unlimited potential for adaptation and modification.
Keep them coming!!

When I first envisioned this, I was thinking basically a caltrop tied to an arrow that way the ones that don't stick into the ground are also effective and can get lost in the fray of arrows. This could be done to an arrow to achieve farther distance but would need some kind of special bow so as to not get caught when shooting.

One of the traps I really enjoyed from the Roman strategy was how they employed pit traps during the siege of Alesia.
They sharpened a single tree and placed it in a hole in the ground. Rows on rows in staggered line of this obstacle were set ahead of the trenches which were ahead of a wall.

Awesome. An optimization video would be more than welcome. I have some ideas you might consider.
1) The lead weight is made of lead pipe and can slide over the shaft but is wedged in place close to the arrowhead with a wedge that will break on impact. That means that in the moment of throw it will be close to the fore end to adjust the balance for optimal flight and on impact it will be pushed back allowing for deeper penetration.
2) A rag tail instead of fletching. if held in the hand the rag tail can be used as a handle to wind up the plumbata much like a sling and when thrown the rag tail provides drag to stabilize the flight. It's also much easier to source than feathers good enough for fletching and much easier to install.
3) The use of wooden or bone hooks. When using natural shafts there might be side branches that can be used as integral hooks and of course bone and wood hooks can be made and fixed on the shaft. Wooden hooks wouldn't leave any archaelogical trace and small pieces of bone dissolve in acidic ground quite quickly.

The only drawback of this tribolata design I can think of is that it makes the missile quite hard to carry around and deploy quickly because the hooks can snag on each other, on clothing etc. But when deployed from fixed positions against and incoming enemy these might be thrown in great numbers to slow down the enemy advance. That seems incredibly suited to siege warfare.

Thanks for great video as always! Your conclusions about breaking enemy lines by catching or hurting legs sound convincing.
It seems to me that that the hooks would make it also more tricky to pick the plumbatas and throw them back (or pull them out from your shield).

First video. I like the style. Its like a video from the olden times. Without all the flashy stuff.

Feels like you could direct the opponent's forces during battle with these. I was also thinking "what if you turned the hooks around?" The backlines could throw the inverted tribulata if they wanted to achieve total victory by snagging retreating soldiers.

One horse catching a leg on those could panic a whole horde of riders into confusion - if you can find a horse to walk through the regular ones would be an interesting test but I wouldn't risk a horse near these. +1 to seeing the optimized version

These Roman Lawn Darts are definitely nothing to scoff at!