sorry to answer this but says in the book that the bamboo spears that cato handed clothar were from asia minor which would most likely be in present day western asia ( since i dont think the empire expanded to the ocean ) where the bamboo shoots grow. Given clothars nickname of the spear thrower he should be able to control them well enough and near the end of the book i believe it shows that even a child can master the technic =)

my answer might not be correct but its what i had been led to believe just replying as much as i can? :lol:

I believe Asia Minor is the Turkish Pennisula.

I, too, was wondering about the origins of this weapon. I did some searching on Google and all I could find was information on the atlatl and the Hawaiian throwing spear.

At first I thought that Clothar's strap was used to generate greater thrust in the spear, but that simply doesn't work. Atlatl, spear-throwers, and even bows launch their projectiles based on a generation and release of elastic energy- Clothar's leather straps and rigid darts have no such characteristics.

Then, thanks to this thread, I Googled "Javelin Asia Minor" and found a .pdf file about the Olympics which discussed using a strap on a javelin to increase distance and accuracy. Several other links I found seemed to hold this same assumption that the straps were used to make the throwing distance greater. Some seem to think it works as some kind of counter-lever and a few even say it increased range by simply making the javelin "easier to grip".
:blink:

One writer postulated that the spin caused by the strap would stabilize the javelin and cause it to fly farther, but the distance gained from a rifling effect would not be very substantial. Then, upon submitting "javelin strap Asia Minor" to Google, i found this site which, if you text-search for "javelin" claims that the strap was used to create a rifling effect which simply increases accuracy. This to me seems to be the best reasoning behind the use of straps.

So, in conclusion, it seems that javelins with straps would be well known in the Roman world, since it was a staple of the Greek Olympics, and that what would have been special about Clothar's was their bamboo construction and master-craftsmanship. I can see them being foreign to any britons of the period such as Arthur, but they probably wouldn't have turned the head of Caius or Publius any more than any fine weapon they came across.

Of course, this is an uneducated suppostition derived from a night of Googling. I'd be interested as to what Mr. Whyte could add about Clothar's weapons and his sources for them.