Quote:Octavianvs wrote:
as far as I know all thier kit was purchased by each soldier as it was taken from thier pay., it was passed down or perhaps sold off afterwards or perhaps back to the unit armourers even. I am sure any number of things could have passed. the horrid memorie i have i can remember reading where but right now not exactly where. but i remember such as soldiers being recalled having old style armour instead of newer as either the troops on his side or his enemy troops ( such as during all the civil wars and powere struggles throughout the empire ) there was one instance where 2 legionaries were fighting and on was wearing newer segmentata and the other was wearing mail, when he killed the older legionary he found it to be his father i believe. does anyone remember this ?
I do recall reading it somewhere also but never knew if it was a rumour or a documented fact.
Tacitus Annals I.27
"....Even dismissal is not the end of our service, but, quartered under a legion's standard we toil through the same hardships under another title. (
evocati/veteran)If a soldier survives so many risks, he is still dragged into remote regions where, under the name of lands, he is "settled" in soaking swamps or mountainous wastes. Assuredly, military service itself is burdensome and unprofitable; ten as a day is the value set on life and limb;
out of this, clothing, arms, tents, as well as the mercy of centurions and exemptions from duty
have to be purchased. But indeed of floggings and wounds, of hard winters, wearisome summers, of terrible war, or barren peace, there is no end. Our only relief can come from military life being entered on under fixed conditions, from receiving each of us the pay of a denarius, and from the sixteenth year terminating our service. ..."
...and...
Tactus Histories III.25:(Civil Wars 69 AD, second battle of Cremona)
"... I will record the incident with the names, on the authority of Vipstanus Messalla. Julius Mansuetus, a Spaniard, enlisting in the legion Rapax, had left at home a son of tender age. The lad grew up to manhood, and was enrolled by Galba in the 7th legion. Now chancing to meet his father, he brought him to the ground with a wound, and, as he rifled his dying foe, recognized him, and was himself recognized. Clasping the expiring man in his arms, in piteous accents he implored the spirit of his father to be propitious to him, and not to turn from him with loathing as from a parricide. "This guilt," he said, "is shared by all; how small a part of a civil war is a single soldier!" With these words he raised the body, opened a grave, and discharged the last duties for his father...."
note there is no mention of the equipment of each....the incident was illustrated with one soldier in mail and the other in segmentata by our own Graham Sumner in Brassey's "Roman Army:Wars of the Empire"..... 
