07-28-2013, 11:23 PM
Here are some more quotes regarding this issue.
The author of the Sylloge Tacticorum places the daepotatoi or krivantes among the supernumenaries. Their task, he writes, was to pick up the wounded and help them to the medics, the iatroi (ST 35.13). They followed the promachoi at a distance of 40 fathoms (about 75 m). Their number he puts at 40 for an army of 24,100 (ST 45.2). Leo VI also mentions medics (therapeutae or iatroi) and adds that they were also called daepotatoi. However he also claimed that the daepotaoi were called so in the more ancient times while in his the prevalent term was scrivones (Leo 4.17) and were tasked with following the battle-array and tending to the wounded. In the Sylloge Tacticorum, it is also written that carrying the wounded to the rear was effected through the gaps of the rear lines (ST 45.19).
According to Mauricius and Leo VI, the daepotatoi, or depotatoi, of each vandon should number 8-10 (Maur. 7.17a) or 6-8 (Leo, 12.96) (from the least capable) men, lightly dressed, swift and without weapons. They should follow their unit from a distance of 100 feet (about 31 m) and haste, as Sean also wrote, to help the wounded and those who fell from their horses, so that they wouldn’t be trampled during the advance of the support line or die from their wounds. They were rewarded with one nomisma (coin) for each man they thus saved. Once the support line had engaged the enemy and the latter was routed, they were tasked with collecting the spoils and handing them over to their dekarchs, themselves also receiving a share. They should have two stirrups on the left of the saddle, or according to Mauricius both, one to the front, the other to the back, so that the daepotatoi and the wounded can more easily mount. They should also have water flasks with them to give to those close to feinting.
Lucianus mentions a Calimorphos, who had been an iatros (medic) of the Roman 6th Contophoroi (Quomodo historia conscribenda sit, s.16)
At the battle of lake Regullus, when Marcus Valerius was wounded, it was his nephews who defended him at first and then carried him to the hypaspistae who then carried him to the Roman camp (Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Antiquitates Romanae, B.6, ch.12, s.1).
The author of the Sylloge Tacticorum places the daepotatoi or krivantes among the supernumenaries. Their task, he writes, was to pick up the wounded and help them to the medics, the iatroi (ST 35.13). They followed the promachoi at a distance of 40 fathoms (about 75 m). Their number he puts at 40 for an army of 24,100 (ST 45.2). Leo VI also mentions medics (therapeutae or iatroi) and adds that they were also called daepotatoi. However he also claimed that the daepotaoi were called so in the more ancient times while in his the prevalent term was scrivones (Leo 4.17) and were tasked with following the battle-array and tending to the wounded. In the Sylloge Tacticorum, it is also written that carrying the wounded to the rear was effected through the gaps of the rear lines (ST 45.19).
According to Mauricius and Leo VI, the daepotatoi, or depotatoi, of each vandon should number 8-10 (Maur. 7.17a) or 6-8 (Leo, 12.96) (from the least capable) men, lightly dressed, swift and without weapons. They should follow their unit from a distance of 100 feet (about 31 m) and haste, as Sean also wrote, to help the wounded and those who fell from their horses, so that they wouldn’t be trampled during the advance of the support line or die from their wounds. They were rewarded with one nomisma (coin) for each man they thus saved. Once the support line had engaged the enemy and the latter was routed, they were tasked with collecting the spoils and handing them over to their dekarchs, themselves also receiving a share. They should have two stirrups on the left of the saddle, or according to Mauricius both, one to the front, the other to the back, so that the daepotatoi and the wounded can more easily mount. They should also have water flasks with them to give to those close to feinting.
Lucianus mentions a Calimorphos, who had been an iatros (medic) of the Roman 6th Contophoroi (Quomodo historia conscribenda sit, s.16)
At the battle of lake Regullus, when Marcus Valerius was wounded, it was his nephews who defended him at first and then carried him to the hypaspistae who then carried him to the Roman camp (Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Antiquitates Romanae, B.6, ch.12, s.1).
