Sub-Roman Britain (Cavalry etc)

[Alanus]

Bears aside....It might interest you to know that when you discuss mirror images this thing impinged greatly on Sarmatian and Alan culture. They seem to have been obsessed with mirrors. I cant recall all the different types of burial chamber they had in the 4 sarmatian periods or all the sites we know of but there are a great deal of mirrors in them. They seem to have been of immense importance to them but I do know why that was.

You're observant! I think the mirror image goes back to the Scythians, maybe the Cimmerians. The high frequency of mirrors in Scythio-Sarmatian graves certainly had a religio-philosophical base. They are always present in warrior-priestess inhumations, perhaps symbolic of the "past and future." The supposed Golden "Man" of Issyk was wearing one, which could boost Dr. Kimball-Davis' theory that this person was a High Warrior Priestess (even my cracked theory that she was the Lady of the Lake).

For AOTB,
The juggling of numerical totals can almost be science, albeit not a very sound one. Something got lost between AD 400 and the medieval period-- namely Britain's history. What we wound up with are mostly bogus pedigrees (to slide great men into your family) and a bunch of ambiguous and altered poems. 300? Influenced by poems, Skene tripled it to 900. (Which then presents 3 cavalry units, which might correctly by headed by a British equivalent of the 3 original Roman commanders.) Rhys places the highest as the "Amherawdyr" (imperitor), the equivalent of the Count of Britain. But most post-Victorians and modernists don't believe there ever was a 900-rider British cavalry. 8)

(You want their names? Look to Morris, around page 124. Three commanders in a series of supposed battles-- Agricola, Marcellus, both presumably led by Theodoric/Tewdrig, the Big Cheese/Count of Britain?)

When we try to slide medieval terms-- "page" "knight" etc.-- into a post-Roman Celtic context, we cannot be accurate. There was a difference in the social structure of the Celts and Germans, the latter heavily influencing medieval European culture.

For the Celts: King Morgan had a singular "man," Guengarth, who accompanied him on excursions, as opposed to a beavy of pages, helpers, etc. Perhaps a passable book on late Celto-Brit culture would be William Probert's The Ancient Laws of Wales, which include social stratification, the Code of Education, the Hunting Laws, and the important Institutional Triads (as opposed the worthless Legendary Triads). Hard to put numbers on the followers of any king or noble, since it was an extended family structure, and familial traditions varied even though their gens-laws were similar. But remember that Probert was a pre-Victorian (1823). :wink: