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I would greatly appreciate references/pictures regarding the earliest use of steppe saddles by Romans, and the army in particular.
I'm familiar with the medallion of Innocentius, 4th century, do we have a specific date for this?
And what other clues can people provide?
Thank you.
John Conyard
York
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I'd be interested in the subject, too. :-) )
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)
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Remarks by Philip on the Athenian Leaders:
Philip said that the Athenians were like the bust of Hermes: all mouth and dick.
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The problem here is that there is firstly little archaeological evidence and secondly there was no 'standard' saddle in use at the time. By the 4 and 5 century's most 'roman' cavalry was 'barbarian' in nature, that is to say provided by former enemies of Rome. Sassinids, Goth's, Hun's, Sarmatians, Franks, Vandals and steppe peoples etc all provided soldiers and mercenaries to the army and the style of saddle differed greatly.
So while you might be able to reconstruct a saddle from a specific find You could hardly say it represented a member of any particular class.
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I think you can classify saddles into three groupings, the traditional four-horned, the pad, and the steppe style saddle. The question is when were they used by the Roman army? We can say they were all used in the fourth century, but can we narrow it down using pictorial evidence?
When we've done that, I can decide what was used by, for example, the Taifali in Britain in the late fourth century.
This is the basis of my inquiry.
John Conyard
York
A member of
Comitatus Late Roman
Reconstruction Group
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.comitatus.net">http://www.comitatus.net
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.historicalinterpretations.net">http://www.historicalinterpretations.net
<a class="postlink" href="http://lateantiquearchaeology.wordpress.com">http://lateantiquearchaeology.wordpress.com