more Ammianus Marcellinus self-contradictions

[Alanus]

Without further confirmation, it would be better to assume there was more than one Bainobaudes, I think. It may have been a fairly common name, after all, like Marcellus or Severus among the Romans!

Thanks, Nathan. You just enforced my Rumplestiltskin scenario. Of course, the other extreme might be an authorial or scribal error. Nobody was perfect-- Cassius Clay got knocked out, Ted Williams struck out, and even Caesar lost a battle. :dizzy:

Strangely enough, when my eldest son was born I considered naming him Bainobaudes-- or Brainobodies, another extremely popular name-- but in the end I named him Nathan. :grin:

[markhebb]

When I get home I'll check in volume one of the prosopography series..be interesting if they've got more than one reference...

[markhebb]

Ok - they are listed as two separate people in the PLRE 1 :-)

[Renatus]

Does it say anything about them, other than what we have already noted?

[inkstain]

And also switch from cavalry Scutarri to infantry Cornuti? Did guys just hop from one kind of command to another type like that?
Thanks for exploring this, friends. I'm listening! The "at the same time" chronology problem caught my eye, as well, but I'm not yet convinced completely either way (one or two Mr. B's) I also checked the PLRE, since my amateur status keeps me very insecure about trusting anything!

[markhebb]

Not particularly - one is listed as a Scutariorum Tribunus the other as a Cornutorum Tribunus. The latter was killed at the Battle of Strasburg

[inkstain]

As inelegant as the Islands First and Laeti Second solution is, it's appealing—unfortunately, I think it's also impossible.

Here's why:

Barbatio clearly moved from Castra Rauracum near the Belfort Gap location of the Laeti incident downriver (northwards) to the construction of the pontoon bridge site either up the left bank (Libanius) or the right bank (John F. Drinkwater.) It was the failure of the bridge, either through sabotage or industrial accident (Drinkwater again) that led to Barbatio packing it all up for good, burning his pontoon boats and refusing to lend Julian boats.

THEN, instead of calling the campaign quits, the Caesar presses on, resorting to sending Bainobaudes and his group floating across the river on their shields to massacre the Alemanni sheltering on the islands.

So while 'at the same time' is tempting, it makes no sense but to acknowledge that Baino I was cashiered before Baino I/II raids the islands.

Still confused...you obedient Immunis Milo

[Nathan Ross]

it's appealing—unfortunately, I think it's also impossible.

A tribune of the scholae (Bainobaudes I) was ranked higher than a tribune of the auxilia palatini (Bainobaudes II). So unless Bainobaudes was chucked out of the scholae and reinstated at a lower rank in the auxilia (which you'd think Ammianus would have mentioned!) then these were surely different individuals.