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+--- Thread: Archery suffered by the Romans (/showthread.php?tid=3329)
Archery suffered by the Romans - Conal - 05-05-2005
Hi
I have recently read that a skilled horse archer was able to fire in say the space of 10 seconds, first a high angle shot, then a mid and low angle shot, timed to arrive at the target at the same point and time. This being so a group of 1000 archers could land 3000 arrows in a single shower and 18000 in a minute coming in at different angles on an eqivalent number of Legionaries !
This is awsome firepower, provided the arrows would have some penetrative inpact .... which leads me to my question .... has anyone or does anyone know of any studies on teh affects of arrows on Legionary kit ?
Conal
Re: Archery suffered by the Romans - Antonius Lucretius - 05-05-2005
I found that a while ago.
Tests of several weapons, not including arrows unfortunately, against different armour types.
[url:3vzdfr96]http://www.dayton.net/~lawson/weaponsvrsarmor.txt[/url]
re - Johnny Shumate - 05-05-2005
Plutarch in his biography on Crassus described shields and armor penetrated by arrows.
Johnny
Re: Archery suffered by the Romans - Dan Diffendale - 05-05-2005
Quote:Plutarch in his biography on Crassus described shields and armor penetrated by arrows.
I believe in his Life of Antony that Antony's soldiers overlapped their shields while in a very tight formation and the double-thickness of the shields stopped Parthian arrows, while a single shield did not (Witness: Carrhae).
re - Johnny Shumate - 05-05-2005
If I remember correctly, Antony's campaign was met with total frustration and left behind a high Roman body count. Is this the one where they hugged the mountians of Armenia?
Johnny
Re: Archery suffered by the Romans - Dan Diffendale - 05-05-2005
Indeed, you remember correctly. Its one claim to fame was that it was not annihilated like Crassus'...
Arrows - Conal - 05-05-2005
Thanks guys.
Re: Archery suffered by the Romans - Alexandr K - 05-08-2005
Hi,
some time ago, on the old RAT, we've had a discussion about the effectiveness of arrows on Roman armour. I've argued, that normally the arrow could not penetrate roman defensive kit. I haven't found the discussion on the new RAT, so look here:
http://p200.ezboard.com/fromanarmytalkf ... 1310.topic
Greetings
Alexandr
Re: Archery suffered by the Romans - Dan Howard - 05-08-2005
Yep. An arrow penetrating mail was the rare exception, not the norm. There are plenty of ways to incapacitate a Roman host with archers without penetrating armour.
Re: Archery suffered by the Romans - Praefectusclassis - 05-09-2005
That thread is on RAT v2 though: [url:2rgqh4ml]http://www.romanarmy.nl/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=2034[/url]
Re: Archery suffered by the Romans - Alexandr K - 05-09-2005
Thank you Jasper. I haven't been able to find it. I should cure my blindness :oops:
Alexandr