Interested in Roman Riding?

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Hmmmm....still a mutinous rabble going by Ammianus. :mrgreen:

[Robert Vermaat]

Hmmmm....still a mutinous rabble going by Ammianus. :mrgreen:

Duh. At least they managed to come back. Unlike Cannae.

[Vindex]

A promising start Jurjen.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Hmmmm....still a mutinous rabble going by Ammianus. :mrgreen:

Duh. At least they managed to come back. Unlike Cannae.

Come back from Adrianople did they?

[Robert Vermaat]

Hmmmm....still a mutinous rabble going by Ammianus. :mrgreen:

Duh. At least they managed to come back. Unlike Cannae.

Come back from Adrianople did they?

You want to trade cavalry stories?

[M. Demetrius]

Maybe because the weather here is warmer, I don't know, but here in Texas, the wooly side of that pad is worn on the horse, and the leather side toward the saddle. Or is it just preference?

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I would tend to think the same, Dave. I know a few people who do it, though.

[jvrjenivs]

Maybe because the weather here is warmer, I don't know, but here in Texas, the wooly side of that pad is worn on the horse, and the leather side toward the saddle. Or is it just preference?

Sure, have to change that! But this way it was better for us to check some things. In the end the sheepskin will be 'inside'-up and covered by the saddlecloth. But yeah, work in progress.

[Ammianus]

Fantastic Jurjen!

Its lovely to see how something that was once just a dream is starting to take place in the flesh.

I look forward to seeing this take shape.

[John Conyard]

Now Byron,

A charge often brought against the late army, for no good reason, is one of poor discipline. But if that could be used against the 3rd century army, we must also consider the various civil wars of the Severan period, the disaster of AD 69 and the Year of the Four Emperors. Civil war is a constant through Roman history, and we need to draw a distinction between the capacity of emperors to control their armies and the effectiveness of those armies. Evidence for lapses of discipline in late Roman armies can be collected, for example in Ammianus (16.12.33, 25.6.11-13, 27.2.9). But I would set against that the evidence of Livy (22.6.11, 25.21), Caesar (B. Gall. 1.40, 7.47-52), Tacitus (Hist. 1.64-9, 2.56), and Cassius Dio (80.4.1-5.1). Discipline never changed that much!

You and others lost the argument on the Comitatus forum already :twisted:

[Vindex]

Now Discipline never changed that much!

Oooh...not wanting to go off topic but that is a pretty sweeping thing to say - can you qualify what you mean John?

The maintenance of morale and discipline has many, many factors and tends to be very "of the moment".

You really need to support such a generalism.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Now Byron,

You and others lost the argument on the Comitatus forum already :twisted:

Not at all, John, your answer here is an admission of defeat! :twisted:

[John Conyard]

In my post I referenced Ammianus (16.12.33, 25.6.11-13, 27.2.9), Livy (22.6.11, 25.21), Caesar (B. Gall. 1.40, 7.47-52), Tacitus (Hist. 1.64-9, 2.56), and Cassius Dio (80.4.1-5.1).

That's more references than you normally get on RAT! Did you not see them?

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Yep! shock: hock: :lol:
Haven't gotten to Dio yet....

[Virilis]

Guys, interpretating such a difficult phenomena as the "morale" of the armies in different phases of the roman empire from such a limited evidence we have (Ammianus etc.) is a bit silly. It would require a vast interdisciplinary approach to get a grip of the subject (including also political, social sciences and cultural studies). So it remains a matter of opinion / personal taste at this point. Late roman gear just looks superb :twisted: ....