09-16-2012, 02:57 AM
Nathan wrote
At first the legio stood immobile and retained the narrowness of the place as a barrier
(Church & Brodribb give 'clinging to the narrow defile as a defence', of course...)
So - unless you can translate angustias as 'steepness' rather than 'narrowness' (?), the soldiers were in the 'narrow place' rather than standing on top of it!
I of course prefer the "clinging to the narrow defile...." (as you might expect :wink
If you look at the Cunetio site you (see attached) you can see that you have the steepness of the defile and the narrowness of the battle site.
[attachment=5193]CUNETIOBATTLFIELD.pdf[/attachment]
Regarding Dunstable and Church Stowe, both sites have much to recommend them so they cannot be written off but do need to be either proven or disproven. I think that both sites lack the topography to trap the Brythons or control their advance but look forward to be disabused of my views.
Vindex wrote:
...and has a river running through the middle of it which one or the other side would have to cross. I would argue that this is far from ideal for an armoured foot soldier and for me discounts Cunetio.
The River Kennet is not a huge river like the Medway or the Thames and is more like a large stream at this point and is fed by streams from Salisbury plain called winter bournes. In late summer many of these dry up and the Kennet is very shallow and easy to cross.
Even if there was a lot of water there are crossing places as I have indicated, one from the Roman period consistent with the roads at that time and one farther up stream.
The diagrams attached show the battlefield and the red star marks the point of where the following picture is taken from.
Kind Regards - Deryk
At first the legio stood immobile and retained the narrowness of the place as a barrier
(Church & Brodribb give 'clinging to the narrow defile as a defence', of course...)
So - unless you can translate angustias as 'steepness' rather than 'narrowness' (?), the soldiers were in the 'narrow place' rather than standing on top of it!
I of course prefer the "clinging to the narrow defile...." (as you might expect :wink
If you look at the Cunetio site you (see attached) you can see that you have the steepness of the defile and the narrowness of the battle site.
[attachment=5193]CUNETIOBATTLFIELD.pdf[/attachment]
Regarding Dunstable and Church Stowe, both sites have much to recommend them so they cannot be written off but do need to be either proven or disproven. I think that both sites lack the topography to trap the Brythons or control their advance but look forward to be disabused of my views.
Vindex wrote:
...and has a river running through the middle of it which one or the other side would have to cross. I would argue that this is far from ideal for an armoured foot soldier and for me discounts Cunetio.
The River Kennet is not a huge river like the Medway or the Thames and is more like a large stream at this point and is fed by streams from Salisbury plain called winter bournes. In late summer many of these dry up and the Kennet is very shallow and easy to cross.
Even if there was a lot of water there are crossing places as I have indicated, one from the Roman period consistent with the roads at that time and one farther up stream.
The diagrams attached show the battlefield and the red star marks the point of where the following picture is taken from.
Kind Regards - Deryk
Deryk