09-17-2010, 09:33 PM
Salvete!
I am in need of references/sources (if there are any and I am not mistaken about this) that state the majority of celtic (mainly gauls and britons) and germanic armies, from about 300BC - 50A.D, consisted of levy armies, basically farmers, hunters, peasants and other lower warriors, formed into a warband or warband, with only a few ''professional'' soldiers, such as Warlords retinue, bodugyards, champions and so forth, able to afford good armour, good quality weapons, horses and so on.
I do remember reading about this in a lot of different places, mainly that many campaigns that went wrong resulted in famines for these warbands as there was no one tending to the crops during the summer, and the result is that in the winter they starve. If im not mistaken I read something like this in Caesars Gallic Commentaries, and maybe even the account of Germanicus' wars in Germania. I need specific references (if these can be provided).
Oh, and something else, I'm also pretty sure that armies fought in clusters of family or clan units, so for example, a warband of 500 would be divided maybe into 50-100 groups of 5-10 individuals, and so on. Is this true, is there any evidence to support this?
Thanks for your help,
Yuri
I am in need of references/sources (if there are any and I am not mistaken about this) that state the majority of celtic (mainly gauls and britons) and germanic armies, from about 300BC - 50A.D, consisted of levy armies, basically farmers, hunters, peasants and other lower warriors, formed into a warband or warband, with only a few ''professional'' soldiers, such as Warlords retinue, bodugyards, champions and so forth, able to afford good armour, good quality weapons, horses and so on.
I do remember reading about this in a lot of different places, mainly that many campaigns that went wrong resulted in famines for these warbands as there was no one tending to the crops during the summer, and the result is that in the winter they starve. If im not mistaken I read something like this in Caesars Gallic Commentaries, and maybe even the account of Germanicus' wars in Germania. I need specific references (if these can be provided).
Oh, and something else, I'm also pretty sure that armies fought in clusters of family or clan units, so for example, a warband of 500 would be divided maybe into 50-100 groups of 5-10 individuals, and so on. Is this true, is there any evidence to support this?
Thanks for your help,
Yuri
