Quote:The many accounts of Roman standard-bearers carrying or flinging their standards towards the enemy to embolden the onslaught of their comrades (as at Pydna and in Caesar's invasion of Britain) are of obvious relevance in this connection (Plutarch, Aem. 20; Caesar, BG 4.25).
He's extrapolating on Philip Saban's work, but there's a citation for it... what you heard and considered dumb, and what happened in history may be two different things.
Something as simple as a Commander joining the fray and fighting with his men has been known to turn routes and certain defeat into victories. If a single person can rally an army, heavily objectified items probably could to. Why did the Crusaders brink the True Cross to Hattin? (lol @ any chance of it actually being the real cross)
Logically, I think he's almost certainly correct in his hypothesis. Imagine being a front line soldier, wildly stabbing. You kill a man, and...? Someone takes his place. This continues until you're killed.
Human psychologically doesn't work in this manner and could not take this strain; we're not terminators. Battles that last all day with two joined lines? Eh... even the physical exhaustion alone of standing there in gear, much less dodging attacks and fighting. Yarmouk lasted SIX days.
Christopher Vidrine, 30
