07-24-2007, 07:23 PM
Gents,
During the 5th c. I would accept that local powers in the North would be either direct decendants of soldiers who stayed on to fight for strong men who took over from the Romans. These could have been Roman soldiers, now fighting for themselves.
Or, new strong men moved in where Roman power had vanished, to take over the forts.
However, all that is based on assumption and sparse signs that some military installations were used by unknown later occupants. Only very seldom we see that some elite settlement existed in a fort.
No sources, Roman nor Irish, give any hard information about who these later 5th c. occcupants really were. Pedigrees claim descent from Rome, but then they all do that. Weaopons of course show Roman influences, but then that's also logical, Roman cuklture, civilians as well as military, continued to be the dominant factor for some time to come - it did not vanish overnight. Simplistic views that have the British have a sigh of relief, drop their togas, grow moustaches and don striped trousers as soon as the Romans supposedly sail forth, are based on Romantic nonsense. :wink:
During the 5th c. I would accept that local powers in the North would be either direct decendants of soldiers who stayed on to fight for strong men who took over from the Romans. These could have been Roman soldiers, now fighting for themselves.
Or, new strong men moved in where Roman power had vanished, to take over the forts.
However, all that is based on assumption and sparse signs that some military installations were used by unknown later occupants. Only very seldom we see that some elite settlement existed in a fort.
No sources, Roman nor Irish, give any hard information about who these later 5th c. occcupants really were. Pedigrees claim descent from Rome, but then they all do that. Weaopons of course show Roman influences, but then that's also logical, Roman cuklture, civilians as well as military, continued to be the dominant factor for some time to come - it did not vanish overnight. Simplistic views that have the British have a sigh of relief, drop their togas, grow moustaches and don striped trousers as soon as the Romans supposedly sail forth, are based on Romantic nonsense. :wink:
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
