03-06-2013, 12:07 AM
Cassius Dio wrote this about charges of Parthian cataphracts (here: "pikemen") at Carrhae:
"(...) For if they [the Romans] decided to lock shields for the purpose of avoiding the arrows by the closeness of their array, the pikemen were upon them with a rush, striking down some, and at least scattering the others; and if they extended their ranks to avoid this, they would be struck with the arrows. Hereupon many died from fright at the very charge of the pikemen, and many perished hemmed in by the horsemen. Others were knocked over by the pikes or were carried off transfixed. (...)"
Source: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 40.22.
So yes - please keep ignoring sources that you don't like, Macedon and others... :dizzy:
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Then Dio writes that many of the cataphracts bent or broke their lances during those attacks:
"(...) And the Romans would have perished utterly, but for the fact that some of the pikes of the barbarians were bent and others were broken, while the bowstrings snapped under the constant shooting, the missiles were exhausted, the swords all blunted, and, most of all, that the men themselves grew weary of the slaughter. (...)"
Source: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 40.24.
Lances cannot get bent or broken just by "approaching" to the enemy battle line... :dizzy:
And swords cannot get blunted just by "approaching" to the enemy as well.
"(...) For if they [the Romans] decided to lock shields for the purpose of avoiding the arrows by the closeness of their array, the pikemen were upon them with a rush, striking down some, and at least scattering the others; and if they extended their ranks to avoid this, they would be struck with the arrows. Hereupon many died from fright at the very charge of the pikemen, and many perished hemmed in by the horsemen. Others were knocked over by the pikes or were carried off transfixed. (...)"
Source: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 40.22.
So yes - please keep ignoring sources that you don't like, Macedon and others... :dizzy:
============================================
Then Dio writes that many of the cataphracts bent or broke their lances during those attacks:
"(...) And the Romans would have perished utterly, but for the fact that some of the pikes of the barbarians were bent and others were broken, while the bowstrings snapped under the constant shooting, the missiles were exhausted, the swords all blunted, and, most of all, that the men themselves grew weary of the slaughter. (...)"
Source: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 40.24.
Lances cannot get bent or broken just by "approaching" to the enemy battle line... :dizzy:
And swords cannot get blunted just by "approaching" to the enemy as well.
