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Viewing Topic "Ancient weapons ideas"
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| Posted by: Blood Rave |
1) The Roman Gladius and Spatha swords 2) Ancient Javelin types 3) The Dori and and Sarrissa 4) The Composite Bow 5) The Kopis 6) Shields
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18/02/2014 02:09:00
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Posted by: scratchbuilder Total Posts: 51 Joined Date: Saturday, 6 July 2013 |
Good sugestions! Please excuse me for modifying them. Roman Swords, including the pre-gladius and post gladius types. The Composite & Compound Bow. The Hoplite Panoply, all arms and armour of this type. The Kopis / Falcatta / Macherra. A general work on the evolution of the shield. A general work on the evolution of the pike.
Posted on:
19/02/2014 10:57:00
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Posted by: Doe3000 Total Posts: 2 Joined Date: Saturday, 9 May 2009 |
It would be interesting to see a book on the Roman Pilum. I think this topic was discussed in-depth in the Ancient Warfare Magazine, so there's certainly plenty of knowledgeable people on the subject. A book on the Gladius (Fulham, Mainz, Pompeii types, etc) would be even better.
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21/02/2014 10:09:00
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Posted by: Blood Rave Total Posts: 18 Joined Date: Friday, 10 May 2013 |
Roman swords would be an interesting subject, I put the Gladius and the Spatha forward because the gladius is the classic roman sword, the Spatha was a cavalry sword which incidentally became the standard infantry sword during the late empire and was the ancester of the medieval broadsword. Author wise, i'd say Mike Loades would the best choice with his experience of ancient and medieval weapons.
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21/02/2014 11:15:00
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Posted by: sassan Total Posts: 4 Joined Date: Friday, 17 February 2012 |
Well I agree with those Ideas but please excuse also me for modifying both of you when it came on Roman swords. Both of you reffer to gladius as if this was Roman technical name for short sword but it was not-this is perhaps the greatest myth circulating about Roman army and book about Roman swords might improve general awareness about this myth.Gladius is only general latin word for any sword,not only and exclusively to Hispanic short sword and even long swords of the celts as well as Spathae were reffered under term gladius simply because it were swords.Maybe word "gladius"get this meaning now in modern age but to Romans it does not meant exclusively short sword. Spatha on the other hand really means longer swords type BUT where have you figured out that it... "incidentally became the standard infantry sword during the late empire"?
Posted on:
21/02/2014 21:13:00
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Posted by: Blood Rave Total Posts: 18 Joined Date: Friday, 10 May 2013 |
By the late empire, the Spatha had become the new standard weapon of the heavy infantry and the gladius was relegated to light infantry use.
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22/02/2014 13:28:00
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Posted by: sassan Total Posts: 4 Joined Date: Friday, 17 February 2012 |
From the end of 2nd century Spatha sword started to dominate equipment of all Roman infantry including lightly equiped infantry and they already used longer types of what you inccorectly call "Gladius" so this was part of longer evolution not a sudden twist.Short sword(gladius = sword,it does not mean "short sword")was probably used limitedly for some time after third century too but we have very little preserved evidence to know about this more in bigger detail.
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23/02/2014 22:07:00
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Posted by: Blood Rave Total Posts: 18 Joined Date: Friday, 10 May 2013 |
The Spathae also seems to be a weapon of honour in the Byzantine court, the title of bearer of the Spathae only went to the best and the Varangian guard tended to hold that title. Also with the Spathae, you see similarities to the Viking swords as well as other germanic swords
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25/02/2014 14:46:00
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Posted by: scratchbuilder Total Posts: 51 Joined Date: Saturday, 6 July 2013 |
Thank you sassan. Yes, the classic infantry sword was the Gladius Hispana. I was being general, or perhaps lazy, by using the modern shorthand description. The legions were relatively slow moving assault troops who served the empire well in its expansionist phase. Once thrown on to the defensive Rome needed lighter and more flexible infantry to plug the holes. I suspect that looser formations required more reach, hence the adoption of the Spatha. I suspect that looser formations called for a longer reach, hence the adoption of the Spatha.
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26/02/2014 00:24:00
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Posted by: sassan Total Posts: 4 Joined Date: Friday, 17 February 2012 |
Well as a keen Byzantinolover(although I hate term Byzantine for his total historical inaccuracy and artificiality-they were simply Romans)I must say that Spatha was ordinary sword weapon in in early "Byzantine" era and that swords in general were called spatha in "Byzantine" empire.So the ceremonial bearers of the sword-Spatharii-just wore usuall weapon of their time not that spatha was weapon of honor-office of Spatharii itself was honorary and it can be hold also by persons who were not members of Varanganian guard-not to mention office of Spatharios existed long before Varangian guard was founded(since 5th century at least)and usually was held by eunuchs later also by noneunuchs too and yes-also by Varanganians. Germanic spathae came directly from models used by the Roman army,this is well known fact so there is little to wonder about it.
Posted on:
26/02/2014 10:16:00
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Posted by: Blood Rave Total Posts: 18 Joined Date: Friday, 10 May 2013 |
One of the most famous Spatharios was Harold Haadrada when he was in Byzantine service
Posted on:
26/02/2014 13:01:00
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Posted by: sassan Total Posts: 4 Joined Date: Friday, 17 February 2012 |
Indeed-Harald is actually one of my heroes:-)
Posted on:
26/02/2014 20:53:00
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