Equites sagittarii (late 2nd century)

[jho]

Salve,

I will have to re-read his arguments for lack of swords but find this highly unlikely. A quick scan of the image base produces the following:

This guy is wearing the quiver at the right hip, no sword is shown but it could have been worn on the left in view of the location of the quiver:

http://www.romanarmy.com/cms/component/o...Itemid,94/

This guy is wearing the quiver at the right hip, the straight line in front of his right leg may be a sword, if not, it could have been worn on the left in view of the location of the quiver:

http://www.romanarmy.com/cms/component/o...Itemid,94/

This relief is inconclusive in view of the worn state:

http://www.romanarmy.com/cms/component/o...Itemid,94/

This guy (not in the image base) is wearing his quiver on the back and DEFINITELY has a sword on the right hip:

http://www.ubi-erat-lupa.org/site/datenb...asp?Nr=423

My take on this is:

The last grave stone is conclusive evidence that swords were worn by some sagittarii troopers. Those sagittarii who would wear their quiver on the right hip would need a secondary weapon for close quarter fighting even more urgently than regular troopers who were at least protected by a shield. Therefore I assume that they will have worn a sword or axe at their LEFT hip which would not show up on grave stones because they always show the right side of the trooper.

This is just based on a quick scan of the image base. I assume that there will be more depictions of equites sagittarii which will produce more conclusive results.