The ultra-elite are always going to have access to the most valued resources, including tutelage.
Though the pool shrinks and shrinks. There are far more elite in North America than North Korea, but the North Korean elite are just as extravagant as any. You admit that loss occurred during the third century which is mighty close to ca. 170AD. No telling what an epidemic and it's after effects may have done.
Again, I cannot imagine 30% of any population dying out in the modern day and our society not coming to a complete and utter halt. It would be a disaster of which we haven't seen, nor could we imagine. Not a single person alive could be testament to that loss of life. Why do we assume that it was business as usual, or that they were "good as new" just ten years later? The after effects would last for generations as people's perspective on life would be changed permanently, and their children, and so forth.
Pax Romana ended with the Antonine Plague. 180AD. I think Nationalism suffered as well. They no longer were ancient people working for their prior goals, but many turned to new religions, and other aspects of life that weren't currently in the mainstream.
Do you think Commodus was affected mentally by the plague? He was born in 161AD so he was probably nine or ten when it was at its height, when thousands of people were dying around him. If so, were other Romans? Undoubtedly so.
I honestly think that segmentata did not "last" as long as hamata. It may have been better, cheaper, easier to produce, or any combination of them... but if hamata lasts a lifetime, and could be scavenged from the dead, and easily repaired, then it's economically far easier to just produce massive amounts of it and it be far cheaper, regardless of quality or combat effectiveness. There was a reason the Romans used plate for three hundred years, during their height. I don't think when they had an unlimited economy, so extravagant that Caligula built massive ships in Lake Como or to transport obelisks from Egypt, that they would use -any- inferior equipment when better was available. There is absolutely no rational explanation for that. It'd be like equipping United States Army soldiers with m1 Garands and T-72 tanks.
The simple fact is that plate armour was used by an Empire during its golden age, and then fell out of use, only to return a thousand years later when Europe was revitalized and again going through a period of prosperity. If that doesn't sum it up, then I don't know what does. We don't have a single Principate source, of which there are many, criticizing the military for ineffectiveness like we do Vegetius for the Dominate. He literally says the military is a shell of its former self, and yet we disregard him. People want to like hamata because it's comfortable, I get it. We don't put air conditioners in tanks and the commanders of these very hardened troops did not give a ---- about skin chafing.
The only evidence we have to say otherwise is the "say-so" of people with no melee combat experience, wearing modern recreations, and thinking that it's better. And then they say that Vegetius was a civilian and not to be trusted. Really? REALLY? We don't have ANY idea how tight formation melee battles really played out. The lines could've been separated by a small distance for the vast majority of the fight, or they could've been constantly clashing. We don't even know THAT! http://scholars-stage.blogspot.com/2015/...utely.html
Why would they use an inferior armour for roughly twelve generations, at a time when they were literally throwing gold around like it was nothing? It's absolutely preposterous!
Though the pool shrinks and shrinks. There are far more elite in North America than North Korea, but the North Korean elite are just as extravagant as any. You admit that loss occurred during the third century which is mighty close to ca. 170AD. No telling what an epidemic and it's after effects may have done.
Again, I cannot imagine 30% of any population dying out in the modern day and our society not coming to a complete and utter halt. It would be a disaster of which we haven't seen, nor could we imagine. Not a single person alive could be testament to that loss of life. Why do we assume that it was business as usual, or that they were "good as new" just ten years later? The after effects would last for generations as people's perspective on life would be changed permanently, and their children, and so forth.
Pax Romana ended with the Antonine Plague. 180AD. I think Nationalism suffered as well. They no longer were ancient people working for their prior goals, but many turned to new religions, and other aspects of life that weren't currently in the mainstream.
Do you think Commodus was affected mentally by the plague? He was born in 161AD so he was probably nine or ten when it was at its height, when thousands of people were dying around him. If so, were other Romans? Undoubtedly so.
I honestly think that segmentata did not "last" as long as hamata. It may have been better, cheaper, easier to produce, or any combination of them... but if hamata lasts a lifetime, and could be scavenged from the dead, and easily repaired, then it's economically far easier to just produce massive amounts of it and it be far cheaper, regardless of quality or combat effectiveness. There was a reason the Romans used plate for three hundred years, during their height. I don't think when they had an unlimited economy, so extravagant that Caligula built massive ships in Lake Como or to transport obelisks from Egypt, that they would use -any- inferior equipment when better was available. There is absolutely no rational explanation for that. It'd be like equipping United States Army soldiers with m1 Garands and T-72 tanks.
The simple fact is that plate armour was used by an Empire during its golden age, and then fell out of use, only to return a thousand years later when Europe was revitalized and again going through a period of prosperity. If that doesn't sum it up, then I don't know what does. We don't have a single Principate source, of which there are many, criticizing the military for ineffectiveness like we do Vegetius for the Dominate. He literally says the military is a shell of its former self, and yet we disregard him. People want to like hamata because it's comfortable, I get it. We don't put air conditioners in tanks and the commanders of these very hardened troops did not give a ---- about skin chafing.
The only evidence we have to say otherwise is the "say-so" of people with no melee combat experience, wearing modern recreations, and thinking that it's better. And then they say that Vegetius was a civilian and not to be trusted. Really? REALLY? We don't have ANY idea how tight formation melee battles really played out. The lines could've been separated by a small distance for the vast majority of the fight, or they could've been constantly clashing. We don't even know THAT! http://scholars-stage.blogspot.com/2015/...utely.html
Why would they use an inferior armour for roughly twelve generations, at a time when they were literally throwing gold around like it was nothing? It's absolutely preposterous!
Christopher Vidrine, 30
