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Do you have a favorite legion?
#16
Let's hope they weren't to strict on height requirment. Some poor guy might get stuck with wearing platform caligae! E EM E EM<br>
~Quintus <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/uquintusromanus.showPublicProfile?language=EN>Quintus Romanus</A> at: 7/6/01 9:06:24 pm<br></i>
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#17
Salve,<br>
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There are no surviving references for height requirements for the praetorian guard. They are likely to have been selected for height based on evidence for other elite formations, though there is no surviving evidence directly proving that.<br>
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Vegetius , 1.5. mentions a height of 6 foot or at least 5 foot 10 inches (Roman measurements, so slightly under modern English) for the <i> alares</i> and first cohorts of the legions.<br>
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A law from AD367 in the Codex of Theodosius (7.13.3) handles about a reduction of the height requirement from 5 foot 10 to 5 foot 7 for Italian recruits for an unspecified branch of the armed forces. Another reference in this legal work shows that the <i> ripenses</i> (soldiers serving i units on river frontier) had lower standards to meet than the elite <i> comitatenses</i> field army troops.<br>
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It was considered special that the <i> legio</i> I <i> Italica</i>, Nero's phalanx of Alexander, was recruited from Italians all of a length of six feet and bove as described by Suetonius.<br>
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The average length of people in Roman times is a hotly debated issue, and while the average height may have been somewhat lower than today, the bones of a Roman first century soldier found at Velsen in the Netherlands showed him to be over 1,90, clearly contrasting with the stock image of the short Roman of popular imagination.<br>
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Regards,<br>
<br>
Sander van Dorst <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showLocalUserPublicProfile?login=sandervandorst>Sander van Dorst</A> at: 7/6/01 7:46:17 pm<br></i>
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#18
I know. I really don't think that average caucasian heights have fluctuated as much as some would believe. Evolution takes much longer than a few thousand years to produce size differences in the area of 4-to-five inches.<br>
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Julius Caesar's reputed diminuitive stature probably doesn't help popular thought. <p><br><i>SI HOC LEGERE POTES, OPERIS BONI IN REBVS LATINIS FRVCTVOSIS POTIRI POTES.</i></p><i></i>
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#19
Hi Marius,<br>
It doesn't seem to be so that average height is a function purely of evolution. The Dutch, said to be the tallest white people, have grown on average about 15 cm in the last century or so. It is a strange thing to note that, when someone from the Netherlands goes to southern France, only about 1000 kms, he can pick out another Dutchman in a crowd, simply because both are taller, on average that is (this is from personal experience!).<br>
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Greets<br>
<br>
Jasper<br>
<p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/ujasperoorthuys.showPublicProfile?language=EN>Jasper Oorthuys</A> at: 7/7/01 12:58:20 pm<br></i>
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
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#20
If it's not evolution, what can cause such drastic changes in average height amongst a people? It has to be via some sort of genetic selection...<br>
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But why does it happen? <p><br><i>SI HOC LEGERE POTES, OPERIS BONI IN REBVS LATINIS FRVCTVOSIS POTIRI POTES.</i></p><i></i>
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#21
We are extremely off-topic and threatening to go even further, so let's bring this back to favorite legions or take it to another thread... but I'll just toss my two cents in... nutrition tends to have a major effect on height and size. Poorly nourished infants do not develop physically or mentally into their full potential. Previous to the meat-glutted Twentieth Century, when the idea of a "chicken in every pot," became an achievable promise in Western countries, most people subsisted primarily on cereals. Low protein diets contribute to shortness; it may well be that Germanics were so tall because as cattle herders rather than true agriculturists they subsisted on dairy-rich high-protein foods.<br>
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As for the Dutch, I've heard one German say that they always have their noses so high in the air, the body must grow to keep up. E EM<br>
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And BTW, when one says "length" instead of "height," it looks a bit odd. There was surely some speculation regarding Caesar's length, but not on account of his soldiering...<br>
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Cheers,<br>
J. <p></p><i></i>
Cheers,
Jenny
Founder, Roman Army Talk and RomanArmy.com

We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson
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