Quote:"But what if the Romans allocated an age division for the levy to each property class, with Class I recruiting the oldest men, and Class V the youngest? In this manner, Class V, being the youngest and more fleet of foot but the poorest would be recruited to serve as velites in the army."
Thing is, that is not what Polybius described.. besides, what with young boys from higher middle class families? where would you put them? There were families that had wealth not as big as Patrician families (census states over 400.000 denarii), yet would have more than 5000 or what was required for admission to legion... 200 or 300 denarii for a breastplate would be not a big deal for them.. especially, when we take into account that not all members of the family enlisted at the same time for the same campaign.. even if family had just single piece of armor, why would they not give that armor to the member that enlisted that season? These were farmer families with possible several sons, really doubt entire male part of the single family would leave family farm be, and would go campaigning..
Anyway, back to Polybius. my entire point was in the fact, that those few sentences that describe differences between Hastati, Principes or Triarii have not a single word about difference in armor/equipment, with exception of specifically mentioned spear being used by Triarii. If there was some clear wealth difference between Hastati, Principes and Triarii, i would assume Polybius would mentioned it, yet he only said that they were equipped the same way...
Quote:Conjecture not fact. Plutarch mentions those in battle array numbered 88,000 men, so to reach this number, the triarii had to be in battle array (on the field of battle).
If Triarii were in the main infantry block, how is possible that Hastrubal's cavalry charged the rear of Roman formation without any problems? Polybius sais (3.116.8) that he delivered multiple charges with devastating effect... yet, in the very similar situation, at Trebia, Roman Triarii were told to turn back and fight off the charging cavalry, allowing the bulk of Roman infantry to fight through Carthaginian formation...
(besides, i specifically remember i read in some book that almost 10.000 Triarii were left guarding the camp, once i find exactly which book it was, i will post it here)
Jaroslav Jakubov
