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Roman regiments of the VIth century.
#16
Well,So once again:This painting is not mine ;-).But I will defend it although I agree it rather gives good impression of sixth century soldier.

I'm lazy to write it all down here(but I will give more details if you'll be interested.)so now I only write what I saw as realistic and documented:

1-His HELMET is Ok-such helmets are in the archeology the most commonly documented form of head protection for the 6th century and I have absolutely no doubt that they were used in great numbers by "Byzantines" as well.Not only by mercenary units but by regular army soldiers alike.At least One helmet of this type was even found in very specific byzantine situation and bearing what can be called imperial iconography.

2-His persian' TROUSERS (sarabara)are Ok and are documented very richly on many artistic depictions from 5th to 7th century.

3-His ARMOUR is Ok and as Benjamin already write such breast bra/armor harness(which function was probably to better distribute the weight of the armor)is again very richly shown in art of the 6/7th century(and its earlier examples are already shown in 3th and 4/5 century art, while this bra was in common use long into medieval time until very end of the empire).And it is well documented for the 6th century art.

4-PTERYGES:personally I believe it were indeed likely more common for guard units in an attempt to look more classic like to evoke old military traditions but more importantly I have no doubts about that they were still in use(also by common soldiery) and that it is not just an artistic convention at all and I would even dare to put my hand into fire for it.I also see no practical reason why this should be only artistic convention and especially at the time so close to period where it definitely was not just a convention.If I doubted this I would had to doubt also existence of armour under padding from which pteruges usually hanged.Same as Armour harness also pteryges are richly documented deep into medieval byzantine times.The only question is level of their use-how much usuall they were and for what type of soldiers?That's what I don't know,I guess it was rather less and less used with passing centuries but in the east probably never completely fell out of use.

SWORDConfusedword hilt is the only controversial thing to me,but I dont think its form is any major shift from from swords of that period(5/6cent).I have no idea on what source artist based this on(if on any...).The scabbard decoration by indentations is documented at least on two sorces of the period-as already Benjamin posted many scabbards of this shape are visible on carvings of Maximinus throne and the second source is Barberini ivory where scabbard of exactly the same shape is also clearly visible on figure of victorious general whos identification with Belisar is quite likely.

TORQUESConfuseduch items were symbols of officers and guardsman (for example it is evident from more mentions in writings it was usuall decoration for draconarii)but were also issued as reward for bravery even to common soldiers and of course common soldiers had also opportunity to get something like that as booty from enemy.Of course I dont claim every soldier had such decoration-certainly only very minority might occasionaly had them.I dont know no other details about this painting so I have no idea what type of soldier this is intended to be but except his torques there's nothing which would be out of reach of ordinary 6th century roman soldier.

DOGBig Grinog was not usuall part of soldiers equipment...but nobody mentioned it :wink: Big Grin

Well as I said at the beginning- I can support everything I said on actual art of the period but I'm lazy to put here at this moment.But I will take my time and find all those pictures if anyone believe its only result of my imagination.6th/7th century army get recently to by my priority in focus of my interest.
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Messages In This Thread
Roman regiments of the VIth century. - by Agraes - 10-29-2013, 07:05 PM
Roman regiments of the VIth century. - by Pavel AMELIANVS - 10-29-2013, 08:59 PM

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