08-12-2016, 12:50 PM
Sorry, unless you can post a direct historical sources which would back your theory, i'd rather believe what Polybius wrote. And he did not mentions any stars and stripes, horoscopes and stuff in his work on Roman army.. at least when i read the pages with the english translations of those texts i didnt see any..
plus, it doesnt even add up... Per you now, Principes and Triarii are Class I, yet in Legion, we have 1200 Principes, 600 Triarii and 300 Equites. Your own numbers tell that Class I is as big as remaining classes together... yet, Hastati are just 1200 men strong... while Velites are another 1200 men strong group and you said they are not from Class II,III or IV, but from Proletarii..
oh, and btw, im 39 years old (this month). A lot of my friends sometimes go play a football on the field. Sometimes they play against younger guys, but as they are getting older, more and more they just refuse such proposals, because they just dont like losing to 16-17 (or a bit older) years old.. they just cant run fast enough, and long enough as those teenagers..
Melee combat is very fatiguing. Of course you can have individuals who train every day, and they might have a bettter condition than some 18years old.. but it would be by no means a standard in a whole population.. and same was true in Roman society... Legionaries before Marius were not military professionals.. they were farmers, therefore their constitution would be impacted by the farming.
plus, it doesnt even add up... Per you now, Principes and Triarii are Class I, yet in Legion, we have 1200 Principes, 600 Triarii and 300 Equites. Your own numbers tell that Class I is as big as remaining classes together... yet, Hastati are just 1200 men strong... while Velites are another 1200 men strong group and you said they are not from Class II,III or IV, but from Proletarii..
oh, and btw, im 39 years old (this month). A lot of my friends sometimes go play a football on the field. Sometimes they play against younger guys, but as they are getting older, more and more they just refuse such proposals, because they just dont like losing to 16-17 (or a bit older) years old.. they just cant run fast enough, and long enough as those teenagers..
Melee combat is very fatiguing. Of course you can have individuals who train every day, and they might have a bettter condition than some 18years old.. but it would be by no means a standard in a whole population.. and same was true in Roman society... Legionaries before Marius were not military professionals.. they were farmers, therefore their constitution would be impacted by the farming.
Jaroslav Jakubov
