Leather Cuirass Lorica Musculata, I used to think no way but

[Robert Vermaat]

Hi Gil,

Decius and his son Herennius in 251 by the Goths, Regalianus in 260 against the Roxolani, Valentinian is almost killed in 368 against the Alamanni, but we know of none of these incidents that the emperor was anywhere near the front line.

[color=darkblue]Vortigern's answer was ambiguously worded, to put it politely. One could just as easily have stated, "We don't know for certain if they died in combat, but of course, they were on campaign at the time, so it's quite possible."

I guess I was so busy moderating that I missed your curt dismissal.

Please send me a non-polite but straight PM about my 'wording', since I have not a clue what you're on about.

My dismissal of your claim was not ambiguous, I just gave you a short list of the historical evidence of emperors leading from the front.
You claimed that Valerian as well as Valens lead from the front, for which there is no evidence whatsoever - they were present at the battlefield, is all there can be said of that. Nothing ambiguous about that.

Besides, I forgot to dismiss your claim about 'the father of Constantine' (who was named Constantius, did you not know that?), and who by no means fell fighting the Picts, but instead became ill and died in Eboracum/York, which David kindly did for me:

Just to clarify a point, Constantine's father, Constantius I Chlorus, was not killed fighting the Picts (except in the movie "Constantine and the Cross"!); he apparently died of some kind of illness or overexertion at York after a campaign. There's some evidence he knew he was dying some weeks or months in advance, since he made a special effort to call his son (who was on the staff of Galerius) to his side.

Thanks David!

To but it politely, Gil, you are not using or at best misquoting the historical sources. There is no evidence of emperors leading from the front in this period.