12-24-2017, 06:33 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-24-2017, 03:50 PM by Michael Kerr.)
Alanus wrote: I was interested in Tacitus' description of the Roxolani being disabled and finding it difficult to regain their feet after being knocked onto the ice. As it turned out, the entire armor, plus my two-handed sword and helmet, weighed 70 pounds. It's not easy righting yourself, and you have to roll over onto your stomach and push yourself up with your hands.
I remember the fallen Roxolani warrior on Trajans column seemed to be attempting just that and how one of his companions seems to be putting his hand out to help. I think steppe horses were trained to stop if a rider came off so that he could attempt to re-mount his horse. In the case of this rider on the column maybe his horse was killed. As discussed in numerous threads on this subject that we have had over the years it is very frustrating to try and pick the wheat from the chaff on Trajan's column depictions, we see a Roxolani rider using a smaller scythian bow rather than the more powerful composite bows that have been around for a while by then, in a "Parthian shot" type action and also only one of the Roxolani actually has a sword and none have bow cases. Tacitus did mention when he wrote of that engagement between the Sarmatians and Parthians in 35 AD how the Sarmatians were outranged by the Parthians with the bow so they chose to charge the Parthians who were spread out so maybe to the Roxolani princes and nobles at least, heavy armour for themselves and their horses and the contus was their preferred weapon and the mass cavalry charge could have been their favourite mode of warfare so they could technically be classed as cataphracts and they left the archery and the use of the lasso to their lighter and less well off cavalry.
Radu Oltean did some interesting depictions in his book Dacia The Roman Wars Volume 1 on how he thought the various Roxolani horsemen may have looked like.
I remember the fallen Roxolani warrior on Trajans column seemed to be attempting just that and how one of his companions seems to be putting his hand out to help. I think steppe horses were trained to stop if a rider came off so that he could attempt to re-mount his horse. In the case of this rider on the column maybe his horse was killed. As discussed in numerous threads on this subject that we have had over the years it is very frustrating to try and pick the wheat from the chaff on Trajan's column depictions, we see a Roxolani rider using a smaller scythian bow rather than the more powerful composite bows that have been around for a while by then, in a "Parthian shot" type action and also only one of the Roxolani actually has a sword and none have bow cases. Tacitus did mention when he wrote of that engagement between the Sarmatians and Parthians in 35 AD how the Sarmatians were outranged by the Parthians with the bow so they chose to charge the Parthians who were spread out so maybe to the Roxolani princes and nobles at least, heavy armour for themselves and their horses and the contus was their preferred weapon and the mass cavalry charge could have been their favourite mode of warfare so they could technically be classed as cataphracts and they left the archery and the use of the lasso to their lighter and less well off cavalry.
Radu Oltean did some interesting depictions in his book Dacia The Roman Wars Volume 1 on how he thought the various Roxolani horsemen may have looked like.
Regards
Michael Kerr
Michael Kerr
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
