Vindolanda - "wretched Britons"

[Caballo]

I was looking at the Vindolanda tablet on the "Brittunculi" (tablet 164)

1 _nenu...[.]n. Brittones
2 nimium multi · equites
3 gladis · non utuntur equi-
4 tes · nec residunt
5 Brittunculi · ut · iaculos
6 mittant
"... the Britons are unprotected by armour (?). There are very many cavalry. The cavalry do not use swords nor do the wretched Britons mount in order to throw javelins."

I'm not convinced that "mount" is the right translation for residunt, nor does it make much sense to me IMHO. Especially as the translators feel that it probably refers to the British cavalry mentioned in the previous phrase.

My dictionary translates resideo as to "remain sitting , stay, rest". So maybe a better translation would be "nor do those bl@@dy Brits stay in one position in order to throw javelins" (as in "Keep still while I aim this hasta at you...")

This would contrast the more orderly Roman tactics (Hippika Gymnastica-style) with hit and run native Brit cavalry charging around and throwing javelins at will from all angles- rather like the Sioux horsemen?

But I'm no Latin scholar- what do people think?

Cheers

Caballo

[Arthes]

Greetings,
I agree....
this would give the impression that the lazy Brits just hang around and throw their javelins when the fancy takes them ... Cavalrymen having their teabreak (heather tea with honey of course) would refuse to climb back on their horse and just throw their javelins from where they resided
'Take that you Roman swine....'
'Now, what were you saying about the latest battle results?'

However, it could also be read as 'Nor do those damn Britons stay in one place, so that we can throw our javelins at them hock: '.... :wink:

No manners at all.....these Britons!

The other thing I am wondering about is the use of the word 'cavalry'.....is this meant to describe the usual chariots whirling around on the flanks with the warrior throwing the javelins or a mounted Pictish style cavalry as seen on the later picture stones....?
regards
Arthes

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Sounds like a good interpretation to me! But I am no Latin scholar either! :wink: I wouldn't really want to be too obliging to someone who was trying to poke me with a hasta either, so I am probably biased.

Regards and have a Happy new year!

[Matthew Amt]

Couldn't it just mean that they don't stay mounted to throw javelins? That would seem to be the simplest translation, to me.

Matthew

[D B Campbell]

I'm not convinced that "mount" is the right translation for residunt, nor does it make much sense to me IMHO.

You may be interested to know that the Latin language specialist J.N. Adams gave a (fairly) detailed defence of the translation in Journal of Roman Studies 85 (1995), p.124f.

He pointed out that the verbs "sedeo" and "sido" are used of sitting on horseback, the former being stative ("to be in a sitting position") and the latter active ("to sit down"). The compound "resideo" would then indicate an active process of remaining seated on horseback.
He concluded that "in the context residunt can only refer to the act of sitting on horseback (to launch the javelin)."

(You pays your money ...)

[Caballo]

Thanks, all -especially DB (sorry to be so formal )

I wonder whether the issue here is that the original translation of "nec residunt" assumes that the opposite to "sitting on horseback" is being dismounted. I suggest that the writer may mean that the opposite of the static "sitting on horseback" on a stationary horse is being on horseback in motion.

Another helpful issue may be the context. From Vindolanda online "Our best guess is that this is a military memorandum of some kind which describes the fighting characteristics and qualities of the native Britons with particular reference to cavalry. It might be an intelligence report directed to the commanding officer by exploratores (cf. Rankov (1987)), or possibly a piece of information provided with a view to the recruitment of natives, attested in the time of Agricola...A more attractive alternative is to envisage it as a note or a draft of a note left by a departing commanding officer (cf. line 1 note) for his successor." http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/4DLink2 ... sPageNum=0

In any of these contexts, does the translation of "nor do the wretched Britons mount in order to throw javelins" make sense? Throwing a javelin from a horse seems not to be a terribly difficult manoevre.....I still don't feel that from a commonsense military perspective that the accepted translation makes sense IMHO.

Arthes wrote "The other thing I am wondering about is the use of the word 'cavalry'.....is this meant to describe the usual chariots whirling around on the flanks with the warrior throwing the javelins or a mounted Pictish style cavalry as seen on the later picture stones....? "

Again from the Vindolanda commentary- far better than my knowledge- "the paucity of evidence for native British cavalry in this period. Our literary sources describe British essedarii, charioteers who went into battle with pugnatores whose role was to leap from the chariot at the appropriate time and engage on foot (Caesar, BG 5.16, 4.24.1, 32.5, 33, Pomponius Mela 3.6.52, Silius Italicus 17.417, Arrian, Tact. 19.2-3), cf. Stead (1965). That these were still prominent in Agricola's time (presumably only in the newly acquired or unconquered regions) is indicated by Tacitus' account of the battle at Mons Graupius (Agr. 35.3) and he elsewhere notes that the essedarii were persons of higher rank whilst the pugnatores were their clientes (Agr. 12). But it seems reasonable to assume that if our text were referring to these they would have been described as such in more detail. Tacitus certainly implies the presence of conventional cavalry too in the British forces at Mons Graupius (Agr. 36) and our Vindolanda text might be taken as an additional important indication of their prominence and character in the frontier region at the end of the first century AD. 2"

So I assume that the text refers to cavalry on horseback- not chariots?

Cheers

Caballo

[D B Campbell]

Thanks, all -especially DB (sorry to be so formal )

No need to apologise, PB!

So I assume that the text refers to cavalry on horseback- not chariots?

I would guess so.
(As you noted, essedarii would denote charioteers, while equites definitely suggests horsemen.)