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Roman Booby traps...
#1
Ok, the thread on palisade stakes made me think of this. Did the Romans ever use punji stakes, like the NVA used in Viet Nam? The best way to cripple an army based on infantry is to destroy it's feet. Make a pit, deep enough to swallow someone's foot. Plant a sharpened stake in the bottom, and voila. Instant foot ugly. Simple. Did the romans ever use anything like this? <p>Tiberius Lantanius Magnus<BR>
CO/Optio,<BR>
Legio XXX "Ulpia Victrix"<BR>
(Matt)</p><i></i>
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#2
The 'lilies' used by Caesar at Alesia seem to fit the bill:<br>
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<b><br>
(These were) arranged in diagonal rows forming quincunxes, (and) were pits three feet deep, tapering gradually towards the bottom, in which were embedded smooth logs as thick as a man's thigh, with the ends sharpened and charred, and projecting only three inches above ground. To keep these logs firmly in position, earth was thrown in the pits and trodden down to the depth of one foot, the rest of the cavity being filled with twigs and brushwood to hide the trap. These were planted in groups, each containing eight rows three feet apart, and they were nicknamed lilies from their resemblance to that flower<br>
</b><br>
<i> De Bello Gallico</i>, VII, 73<br>
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The same passage describes similar defences of sharpened interlocked tree limbs and 'goads' or iron hooks fitted into blocks of wood and sunk into the ground. All of these devices would have served to slow any force trying to assault Caesar's encircling walls and give those manning the ramparts more time to pick them off.<br>
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Cheers, <p>Tim O'Neill / Thiudareiks Flavius<BR>
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Tim ONeill / Thiudareiks Flavius /Thiudareiks Gunthigg

HISTORY FOR ATHEISTS - New Atheists Getting History Wrong
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#3
Not just Alesia - the damned things are all over the place. There was a famous batch of pits (in quincunx formation) found just in front of the Antonine Wall (from memory, at Rough Castle, but I could be wrong) and they have turned up on Hadrian's Wall at Wallsend and I even had one on the berm between the rampart and ditch of the outwork at Inveresk. Since many of these don't have an obvious stake in the bottom, it has been suggested that they may either have had some form of caltrop in them, or possibly just functioned as a pitfall.<br>
<br>
Mike Bishop <p></p><i></i>
You know my method. It is founded upon the observance of trifles

Blogging, tweeting, and mapping Hadrian\'s Wall... because it\'s there
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#4
Salve,<br>
<br>
Caltrops (<i> tribuli</i> or <i> triboli</i>) were quite popular with the army in Byzantine times, used for defence of camps as well as in combat. They are recorded in several of the manuals dating from that period. They were one of the reasons why in the Byzantine armies cavalry horses came to be shod, whereas in earlier times the hooves of army mounts do not seem to have been fitted with horseshoes on a regular basis.<br>
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An article that deals with related subject matter:<br>
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Gilliver, C.M., 'Hedgehogs, caltrops and palisade stakes' in: <i> JRMES</i> 4 (1993), 49-54.<br>
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Regards,<br>
<br>
Sander van Dorst <p></p><i></i>
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