06-22-2005, 04:46 PM
The best wool came from Northern Europe as did the best weavers.
There is a thread entitled "Crowd Behavior and Ancient Battles". The subject is the tendency of crowds to "collapse" when densely packed. There is one good quote from an ancient battle observer where this happened.
It is my belief that when an ancient army became tightly packed that it was in a critical state where collapse could and did occur. If a collapse did occur, it was over for that army. Veterans, we might assume, avoided getting too packed in together, and, we might further assume, were more effective in combat. Romans had a regard for veterans all beyond their numbers.
There is a thread entitled "Crowd Behavior and Ancient Battles". The subject is the tendency of crowds to "collapse" when densely packed. There is one good quote from an ancient battle observer where this happened.
It is my belief that when an ancient army became tightly packed that it was in a critical state where collapse could and did occur. If a collapse did occur, it was over for that army. Veterans, we might assume, avoided getting too packed in together, and, we might further assume, were more effective in combat. Romans had a regard for veterans all beyond their numbers.
"In war as in loving, you must always keep shoving." George S. Patton, Jr.
