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<blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 5837987" data-attributes="member: 9254"><p>If you go back to the 6th century, when the Roman Empire started fragmenting, you'll find a wide variety of armors. The Goths often used plate armor that was the preferred infantry armor from the 4th-5th century. European mountains and/or forests were better suited to infantry than cavalry.</p><p></p><p>However the rest of the Empire tended towards plains and the Romans had become a cavalry-centric army to counter Persian heavy cavalry on the eastern border and the Hunnish light cavalry that plagued the Danube to the north. The Romans adopted heavy cavalry, similar to the Persians, with heavy scale armor, shields, lances, and composite bows with very heavy draws. </p><p></p><p>{tangent}</p><p>According to apocryphal stories, elite heavy cavalry across the middle east used a now-extinct horse, the Nissean, that may have been a draft horse-sized precursor to the Arabian horse, with great strength, significant stamina, and capable of being trained to attack. The Nisseans had such a reputation that Xerxes, the Persian Emperor portrayed in "300", was said to have used several Nisseans to pull his chariot. (A sign of his wealth and excess, like using Ferrari's to pull a go-kart) An ancient Greek general was said to have a Nissean warhorse and his enemies were reported to have spent more time & effort defeating his horse than his retinue of body guards. During the 1300s, when Byzantium finally fell, the Turks made a point of killing off every Nissean they could find.</p><p>{/tangent}</p><p></p><p>Chain mail tunics with greaves on the arms and legs was the armor of the rank and file, along with shields, a heavy sword known as a spatha, and spears. Lots of spears. </p><p></p><p>Auxiliary units were often mercenaries hired for the task and may even be from "enemy" groups. The huns, goths, and arabs were not monolithic groups and it wouldn't be unheard of for a roman army to have a mix of hun and arab light cavalry to scout or harass enemy troops or a few units of gothic infantry to act as shock troops in terrain ill-suited to cavalry. </p><p></p><p>The romans had various forms of siege engines, including small portable catapults (scorpions or onagers) that were used in field maneuvers to break up formations. Plus, the romans were big on improved positions and had a supply train that carried a multitude of shovels, saws, axes, and other tools. A motivated legion could dig a ditch and berm around a camp before bed time and given a few days could assemble a small fort, with ramparts and a proper gate.</p><p></p><p>While certain weapons may not have been adopted in Europe, the "known world" of the 6th century "Roman" european stretched from Gothland in Sweden, around the entirety of the Mediterranean, the Black Sea to the Red Sea and then gets vague somewhere past Persia when you start heading towards India. The totality of weaponry that a well traveled Roman could know about is truly awesome.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="kigmatzomat, post: 5837987, member: 9254"] If you go back to the 6th century, when the Roman Empire started fragmenting, you'll find a wide variety of armors. The Goths often used plate armor that was the preferred infantry armor from the 4th-5th century. European mountains and/or forests were better suited to infantry than cavalry. However the rest of the Empire tended towards plains and the Romans had become a cavalry-centric army to counter Persian heavy cavalry on the eastern border and the Hunnish light cavalry that plagued the Danube to the north. The Romans adopted heavy cavalry, similar to the Persians, with heavy scale armor, shields, lances, and composite bows with very heavy draws. {tangent} According to apocryphal stories, elite heavy cavalry across the middle east used a now-extinct horse, the Nissean, that may have been a draft horse-sized precursor to the Arabian horse, with great strength, significant stamina, and capable of being trained to attack. The Nisseans had such a reputation that Xerxes, the Persian Emperor portrayed in "300", was said to have used several Nisseans to pull his chariot. (A sign of his wealth and excess, like using Ferrari's to pull a go-kart) An ancient Greek general was said to have a Nissean warhorse and his enemies were reported to have spent more time & effort defeating his horse than his retinue of body guards. During the 1300s, when Byzantium finally fell, the Turks made a point of killing off every Nissean they could find. {/tangent} Chain mail tunics with greaves on the arms and legs was the armor of the rank and file, along with shields, a heavy sword known as a spatha, and spears. Lots of spears. Auxiliary units were often mercenaries hired for the task and may even be from "enemy" groups. The huns, goths, and arabs were not monolithic groups and it wouldn't be unheard of for a roman army to have a mix of hun and arab light cavalry to scout or harass enemy troops or a few units of gothic infantry to act as shock troops in terrain ill-suited to cavalry. The romans had various forms of siege engines, including small portable catapults (scorpions or onagers) that were used in field maneuvers to break up formations. Plus, the romans were big on improved positions and had a supply train that carried a multitude of shovels, saws, axes, and other tools. A motivated legion could dig a ditch and berm around a camp before bed time and given a few days could assemble a small fort, with ramparts and a proper gate. While certain weapons may not have been adopted in Europe, the "known world" of the 6th century "Roman" european stretched from Gothland in Sweden, around the entirety of the Mediterranean, the Black Sea to the Red Sea and then gets vague somewhere past Persia when you start heading towards India. The totality of weaponry that a well traveled Roman could know about is truly awesome. [/QUOTE]
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