02-23-2013, 11:08 PM
You may be overlooking the fact the Romans had a very industrial pottery/rooftile production (Nijmegen being proof, but there will be plenty of other sites of similar scale) and had essembled craftsmen to make arms in fabrica. If you consider the size of the Roman army, the amount of weapons and armor needed are staggering. Marble blocks were sawed into slabs using water powered saws. The proces of mining and smelting was well developed. I fail to see what you are trying to prove, as there is plenty of evidence the Romans were a near-industrial society and by no means like the cottage industry of the early Middle ages.
On you suggested experiment of the horses charging a solid body of men, do not forget to have the mannequins shout, shoot and throw spiky things at the horses. On contact, you will want them to jab sharp spears at them and hack them with swords. Without that, it proves nothing other then that you can train a horse to approach an obstacle at speed, much like teaching it to jump a hedge or fence. All fine and well untill that obstacle starts becoming violent and you loose a lot of valuable trained horses. There is a very relevent comment about modern police horses in this thread. I assure you, jab a horse with a sharp stick/spear or pierce it with an arrow or plumbata and as a rider, you have a challenge getting control, let alone getting it to plunge into the fray.
On you suggested experiment of the horses charging a solid body of men, do not forget to have the mannequins shout, shoot and throw spiky things at the horses. On contact, you will want them to jab sharp spears at them and hack them with swords. Without that, it proves nothing other then that you can train a horse to approach an obstacle at speed, much like teaching it to jump a hedge or fence. All fine and well untill that obstacle starts becoming violent and you loose a lot of valuable trained horses. There is a very relevent comment about modern police horses in this thread. I assure you, jab a horse with a sharp stick/spear or pierce it with an arrow or plumbata and as a rider, you have a challenge getting control, let alone getting it to plunge into the fray.
