10-31-2009, 03:06 PM
Quote:Sounds like a real stretch theory to me- the use of greaves suggest Centuriones rode? One really has to beware of books making statements that sound like fact but are actually simply one of countless theoriesTo be fair to John, he was quoting from memory. For the record, the statement made by Graham Webster in his booklet on The Roman Army (Grosvenor Museum,Chester: 1973) is quite the opposite. What he wrote was: "Centurions, who were mounted on the march, wore decorated bronze greaves over their shins" (p. 27). He had already made up his mind that centurions rode horses on the march. It wasn't the greaves that proved it.
Quote:Centuriones didn't necessarily ride- surely some at least did if they had a horse, but that's as far as one could say without proper evidence.
So, did they have horses, or didn't they?
Quote:I don't think that horse is depicted because he liked riding for pleasure. It's more a sign of wealthy status, I think.Quite so. And centurions were certainly wealthy individuals who aspired to equestrian status.
Quote:I'd be tempted to say that the bottom panel signifies his service as a cavalryman, while the top two panels (especially the right hand panel, with greaves and what I think is a centurion's helmet), signify the latter part of his career.Hmmm ... I disagree, Tom. I think all of the iconography relates to Severus's final posting as a centurion. The clincher for me has always been the Epidaurus centurion's tombstone (see below), which I have only ever seen illustrated in Roy Davies' article on "Police Work in Roman Times", History Today 18 (1968), p. 707.[attachment=0:26ls04dr]<!-- ia0 RomanCenturion_Epidaurus.GIF<!-- ia0 [/attachment:26ls04dr]
Maybe this, and the Severus tombstone, was what convinced Graham Webster that the centurions rode on the march. But it is interesting to note that, in Arrian's order of march, the centurions do not accompany their centuries, but "march" with the tribunes, who were most definitely mounted (Arrian, Ectaxis 5-6).
