12-03-2007, 10:02 PM
Ave Centurio Flavius,
Nice job, thanks for posting the excerpt. And to continue the quote exactly where you left off, Dio says : "He often used these garments when not in battle." This would seem to cast even more doubt on the "armor's" usefulness, at least to me.
Vortigern,
What about Constantine the Great ? According to the Anonymus Valesianus (5), during the second war against Lincinius :
Licinius himself had covered the slopes of high mountain near Hadrianopolis with a huge army. Hither Constantine turned his march with his entire force. While the war went on slowly by land and sea, although Constantine's army had great difficulty in scaling the heights, at last his good fortune and the discipline of his army prevailed, and he defeated the confused and disorganised army of Licinius; but Constantine was slightly wounded in the thigh.
Wouldn't this seem to imply an active role in the battle ?
And I also remember reading about Constantine leading the cavalry against the Sarmatians and personally throwing the heads of many he had slain at the feet of Galerius. Of course, Constantine wasn't emperor at the time - only an officer in the Eastern armies. Still, he seems to have been a true warrior who was more than capable of leading men from the front.
Aurelian has a similar past as described by the HA in 'Aurelian' [18].
Then there's Maxentius during the battle of the Milvian Bridge. Didn't he lead his men out of Rome to confront Constantine ?
In fact, many of the Ilyrian emperors seem to have been great warriors which is why moderns refer to them as soldier-emperors. So, Julian doesn't really stand out against this background. He was merely the last of the Ilyrians.
~Theo
Quote:Here's the excerpt from Epitome of Dio Cassius, book 79, para. 3:
"...For, though he was most bold with his threats and most reckless in his undertakings, yet he was the greatest coward in the face of danger and the greatest weakling in the presence of hardships. He could no longer bear great heat or the weight of armour, and therefore wore sleeved tunics fashioned more or less like a breastplate, so that, by creating the impression of armour without its weight, he could be safe from plots and at the same time rouse admiration.
Nice job, thanks for posting the excerpt. And to continue the quote exactly where you left off, Dio says : "He often used these garments when not in battle." This would seem to cast even more doubt on the "armor's" usefulness, at least to me.
Vortigern,
Quote:There is no evidence of emperors leading from the front in this period.
What about Constantine the Great ? According to the Anonymus Valesianus (5), during the second war against Lincinius :
Licinius himself had covered the slopes of high mountain near Hadrianopolis with a huge army. Hither Constantine turned his march with his entire force. While the war went on slowly by land and sea, although Constantine's army had great difficulty in scaling the heights, at last his good fortune and the discipline of his army prevailed, and he defeated the confused and disorganised army of Licinius; but Constantine was slightly wounded in the thigh.
Wouldn't this seem to imply an active role in the battle ?
And I also remember reading about Constantine leading the cavalry against the Sarmatians and personally throwing the heads of many he had slain at the feet of Galerius. Of course, Constantine wasn't emperor at the time - only an officer in the Eastern armies. Still, he seems to have been a true warrior who was more than capable of leading men from the front.
Aurelian has a similar past as described by the HA in 'Aurelian' [18].
Then there's Maxentius during the battle of the Milvian Bridge. Didn't he lead his men out of Rome to confront Constantine ?
In fact, many of the Ilyrian emperors seem to have been great warriors which is why moderns refer to them as soldier-emperors. So, Julian doesn't really stand out against this background. He was merely the last of the Ilyrians.
~Theo
Jaime
