03-23-2005, 01:32 PM
Hi Graham, sorry for the late answer I was on vacation in the real world --pretty nice too..<br>
my email: [email protected] <br>
I will be very glad to look at that picture.<br>
I re-read lately a story of Napoleon's Grande Armée which relates an episode of the early napoleonic era, namely the Consulate. Being a ancient Romans's fan like a lot of people then, Napoleon ordered a "legion" to be raised, all dressed in nice skirts with short swords and sleeping under canvas in the Field de Mars in Paris. That's where the Eiffel Tower is nowadays.<br>
Of course the experiment lasted one winter and given the fact that a real war was going on at that time the "legionaries" were quickly converted into more conventional line fusiliers and grenadiers...<br>
That should be in line with the theory of the monarch's whim, and Caracalla deciding to get into the antiquarian business with his "pahlangites".<br>
However, Cassius Dio speaks of fifteen thousand men. Three legions are a lot of legionaries. Could they be the Severan Parthian legions?<br>
And in this case, could the strange pseudo-thrakian helmets seen on the arch of Septimus --classified by us specialists as "smurf type"-- be the rawhide helmets in question?<br>
That would depend on when the arch was erected. Do we know that?<br>
As for the bronze segmentata. My theory is that some were piped with bronze, as shown in the Kalkriese fragment. The evolution of the segmentata shows a clear R and D attitude as it became simpler, and thus cheaper and quicker to make, with time. First they did without the piping, then they found a simpler way to attach the girdles to the chest plate, then they reduced the number of girdles and so on..<br>
But that guy on the painting (Neronian?) is not a praetorian, I think.. <p></p><i></i>
my email: [email protected] <br>
I will be very glad to look at that picture.<br>
I re-read lately a story of Napoleon's Grande Armée which relates an episode of the early napoleonic era, namely the Consulate. Being a ancient Romans's fan like a lot of people then, Napoleon ordered a "legion" to be raised, all dressed in nice skirts with short swords and sleeping under canvas in the Field de Mars in Paris. That's where the Eiffel Tower is nowadays.<br>
Of course the experiment lasted one winter and given the fact that a real war was going on at that time the "legionaries" were quickly converted into more conventional line fusiliers and grenadiers...<br>
That should be in line with the theory of the monarch's whim, and Caracalla deciding to get into the antiquarian business with his "pahlangites".<br>
However, Cassius Dio speaks of fifteen thousand men. Three legions are a lot of legionaries. Could they be the Severan Parthian legions?<br>
And in this case, could the strange pseudo-thrakian helmets seen on the arch of Septimus --classified by us specialists as "smurf type"-- be the rawhide helmets in question?<br>
That would depend on when the arch was erected. Do we know that?<br>
As for the bronze segmentata. My theory is that some were piped with bronze, as shown in the Kalkriese fragment. The evolution of the segmentata shows a clear R and D attitude as it became simpler, and thus cheaper and quicker to make, with time. First they did without the piping, then they found a simpler way to attach the girdles to the chest plate, then they reduced the number of girdles and so on..<br>
But that guy on the painting (Neronian?) is not a praetorian, I think.. <p></p><i></i>