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Roman army in Egypt
#1
I've been looking into Legio III which was stationed in the area of Thebes and Alexandria. I was wondering how much egyptian culture influenced the roman military equiptment of the legions stationed in the area. A Roman soldier stationed in Britania would no doubt look somewhat different than one stationed in egypt. What in particular though would distinguish the two? I know alot of equiptment such as the balteus was semi personalized and soldiers sometimes scratched inscriptions into their helmets, on their scabbards etc. etc.
Would Roman soldiers have incorporated egyptian motifs, signs of egyptian gods for good luck, or anythign else from that particular culture?
Eric
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#2
It's not really my area of study, but i picked up a book lately that might help you out if you could get hold of it; "Soldier and Society in Roman Egypt" By Richard Alston. I've just flicked through the index and it has quite a few references to the III Augusta and III Cyrenaica legions.

Joe
Arma virumque cano
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#3
There wasn't that much 'Egyptian' culture left at the time, and I suspect the legions would mostly be in contact with the heavily hellenised part. Now, I'm not anywhere near an expert on military gear, but it looks like there were no great differences in the equipment between provinces and regions. The most likely area where you would see differences is in clothing and small personal items. Of course, Egypt produced textiles for export, inclding cvery likely miltary clothes so the difference wouldn't have been huge, but I still suspect a relative dearth of trousers and chequered fabrics and a greater density of digamma-decoration and floppy sandals.

Local religious colour is likely, but that was heavily syncretised.
Der Kessel ist voll Bärks!

Volker Bach
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#4
It would depend on the period in question,but,"locally"recruited soldiers,particularly those from outside the larger urban areas,could have influenced aspects of individual kit,however,it would probably been more or less confined to personal items unless that unit had been raised within the province/diocese,some equipment does seem to be peculiar to a given area.As for religious symbolism,the old gods continued to be worshipped(though in a somewhat graeco/roman form)until at least the 4th Century so,in a nutshell,at least some would look different but only up to a point.
Iain Victory is Mine..stewie griffin
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#5
Quote:There wasn't that much 'Egyptian' culture left at the time, and I suspect the legions would mostly be in contact with the heavily hellenised part.

What, no legionaries with stripey King Tut headdresses and bronze khopeshes?? Rats!! (Hee hee hee!) Yeah, even by the late first century BC lots of countries are going Roman with their military stuff. Some folks think the Fayum shield is actually Ptolemaic Egyptian rather than Roman. Sure wish there was more surviving stuff!

Matthew
Matthew Amt (Quintus)
Legio XX, USA
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.larp.com/legioxx/">http://www.larp.com/legioxx/
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#6
Quote:What, no legionaries with stripey King Tut headdresses and bronze khopeshes?? Rats!! (Hee hee hee!) Yeah, even by the late first century BC lots of countries are going Roman with their military stuff. Some folks think the Fayum shield is actually Ptolemaic Egyptian rather than Roman. Sure wish there was more surviving stuff!

Well there is the crocodile armour!!!!

Soldiers of Antony inscribed the name of Cleopatra on their shields so we are told.

Otherwise Roman Egypt tends to get overlooked. The few popular books available are not much help with regards military equipment which is ironic given that Egypt is the best source we have for military clothing. Not only do we have original items including complete or almost complete garments, in some cases still worn on the mummified corpse but there is plenty of documentary evidence and tombstones with some original colour too. Then there are the wonderful portraits of soldiers painted in wax.

This material tends to get lumped under general headings like Egypt, Coptic or Byzantine so does not appear in many books on the Romans and will almost certainly appear in the Egyptian section of a museum rather than the Roman. So if you are searching for such material that is where you should start.

For a recent work on the subject take a look at

'Egypt: From Alexander to the Copts' by S. Bagnall and D. Rathbone. 2004 London.

However note how 'Roman' does not appear anywhere in the title!

Graham
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.

"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.

"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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#7
thanks alot guys

I'll deffinatly check out some of the suggested books.

It really is proving hard to find much archaeological evidence. You;d think with the desert climate alot of stuff would have survived.
Eric
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