04-18-2006, 12:26 PM
Thanks for your informative answers.
What I wonder is how the Romans came to grip with the penetrating power of eastern composite bow? There is this much quoted line in Plutarch, but why was it then that Ventidius already in 39 BC completely routed a Parthian army, which, so much we can presume, was operating with the same composite bows? Was it that the Romans had suddenly found a magic potion against the bow's penetrating power or was its force perhaps overrated in the first place?
Thus many died, and the survivors also were incapacitated for fighting. And when Publius urged them to charge the enemy's mail-clad horsemen, they showed him that their hands were riveted to their shields and their feet nailed through and through to the ground, so that they were helpless either for flight or for self-defence.
Plutarch, The Life of Crassus, 25, 6
What I wonder is how the Romans came to grip with the penetrating power of eastern composite bow? There is this much quoted line in Plutarch, but why was it then that Ventidius already in 39 BC completely routed a Parthian army, which, so much we can presume, was operating with the same composite bows? Was it that the Romans had suddenly found a magic potion against the bow's penetrating power or was its force perhaps overrated in the first place?
Thus many died, and the survivors also were incapacitated for fighting. And when Publius urged them to charge the enemy's mail-clad horsemen, they showed him that their hands were riveted to their shields and their feet nailed through and through to the ground, so that they were helpless either for flight or for self-defence.
Plutarch, The Life of Crassus, 25, 6
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)
