A theory I have on the Segmentata\'s use...

[Matthew Amt]

I would like to point out that the artists of the Adamklissi monument were almost certainly locals, Dacians. Considering how much we question the Column of Trajan as a reliable source of military practice -- and the artists there are Romans! -- I think we can pretty much discount most of what we see here.

Wacky, from what I've heard it's the other way around in terms of reliability! Isn't the Column generally felt to be MORE stylized and less realistic than artwork from the frontier area? I'm curious as to why you think Dacians carved the Adamklissi reliefs, rather than the army's own stone workers. One would think hired artists would be a little more skilled, and I would also think that Dacians would carve what they'd just seen. These legionaries had just clobbered them and burned their towns, after all--no reason for them to substitute very accurately portrayed forms of armor that had not been worn in those actions.

Whereas Trajan's Column may have been carved by foreign slaves who had never seen a legion in action. There are all kinds of theories about models or sketchbooks that they might have worked from.

But fill me in, Travis, *you're* the art historian here, not me!

The Romans, if anything, were not sticklers.

I hear dat!

Matthew