Herculaneum soldier

[Gaius Decius Aquilius]

Any self-respecting publication should FIRE an idiot who comes up with crap like this...

Matthew

Are you trying to get every newspaper on the planet put out of business?

The leg wound is problematical. This area is protected by holding normal formation, but in my life experience as a medic and a police officer, I have seen wounds in very strange places, often caused by situations that would raise some eyebrows . Modern stats do show trends for modern armies for wound categories, but I don't think we have enough for the ancient world. Also, as pointed out, there is no guarantee this is a battle wound. This could have just as easily from a tavern brawl.

I also have noted from the Dura publication that 3rd century sword chapes seem to have a lot of breakage attributed to falling of a horse at an angle where the body lands on the sword. (Details excluded for sake of brevity). Our guy could, of conjecture, also taken the cut by such a fall, if he was a horseman. Such is also suggested by the bone structure. Or he just worked out a lot. Maybe.

Ralph Izard

EDIT: I just noticed the first illustration posted shows the femur of the right leg as having the injury. The NYT quote references the left leg... If indeed it was the left leg, then our guy could have fallen on his own pugio, perhaps. I did treat a stab wound where a knife was pushed through it's sheath and into a kidney of its wearer during a volleyball game.