Roman Armor

[Crispvs]

To return to your original set of questions for a moment, there is evidence that the equipment of sailors and marines may have differed from that of regular infantry.

Letters dating to the early second century AD by Claudius Terentianus, who was in the navy, but wished to join a legion show that he lacked equipment which would have been normal for legionaries and he asks his father, who was a legionary, to send him pieces of equipment such as a sword, caligae and a pickaxe, which were presumably not issued to him by the navy.

With regard to corn (to refer to the OT part of the thread), 'corn' is simply an alternative word for 'grain' and therefore it is as correct to refer to the 'corn supply' to Rome as it is to refer to the 'grain supply'. The problem is that in recent decades, the general word 'corn' has often been appropriated to refer to one particular sort of corn, namely maize, whereas in truth, the same word can equally refer to any other type of grain, be it barley, spelt, rye or anything else.

With regard to Latin words that can mean a number of different things, a quick look in any decent English dictionary will reveal numerous English words which suffer from the same multiple personality disorder. :wink:

Crispvs