11-21-2008, 08:28 PM
Kineas wrote:
Are you thinking of the failure of Brasidas' shield? (Plutarch Moralia 190B)
Certainly the oft-quoted 'Achilles binding the wounds of Patroclus' seems to show that Patroclus was wounded by an arrow penetrating his shield, and there are the examples frequently quoted from Xenphon to show that a shield could not keep out powerful arrows....and at Plataea, crouched behind their shields, the Spartans took many killed and wounded, and the Tegeans could not stand this, stood up and charged...it has been estimated ( Blyth) that around 2% of arrows penetrated shields with sufficient force to wound or kill the man behind.
It is clear that the sources support Kineas' postulation that shields were not 'weapon-proof'.
Quote:I['m pretty sure Alcibiades got a spear through his shield somewhere--and I'm not surprised.
Are you thinking of the failure of Brasidas' shield? (Plutarch Moralia 190B)
Certainly the oft-quoted 'Achilles binding the wounds of Patroclus' seems to show that Patroclus was wounded by an arrow penetrating his shield, and there are the examples frequently quoted from Xenphon to show that a shield could not keep out powerful arrows....and at Plataea, crouched behind their shields, the Spartans took many killed and wounded, and the Tegeans could not stand this, stood up and charged...it has been estimated ( Blyth) that around 2% of arrows penetrated shields with sufficient force to wound or kill the man behind.
It is clear that the sources support Kineas' postulation that shields were not 'weapon-proof'.
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
