08-03-2006, 06:07 AM
Quote: Do you think my shield is larger than a cavalryman's ? I know they carried smaller sizes as well - I believe Faventianvs carries one of those. Mine measures : 107 cm by 89 cmI think it is, yes. How about a round one measuring 89 cm?
Quote: I understand. It isn't practical under battle conditions - good point. I haven't had the benefit of going to LR events and getting really good insights like that. :wink:It never answers everything but it will give you ideas about practicality, sure!
Quote: I find that a bit surprising since the early empire had horsemen who threw darts. But maybe the Late Empire did have them and we just don't know ?Well, what can I say. Sure, a horseman would be able to throw them as good as the next guy, even more so when stationary. It would also be easier to carry more of them in a quiver, as Maurikios' troops seem to have done. But then when you read the Strategikon, there's a lot of talk who should be carrying these things around, and somehow I never found that when he discusses the cavalry.
Would you say it's more likely than not that they had them ?
Vegetius, writing 200 years earlier, also mentions only infantry when he's talking about plumbatae. But I can't tell if that omission also means that cavalry never carried any.
I'm still looking for a quote about a cavalryman killing the nephew of the Vandal king during Belisarius' reconquest of Africa.
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)