Just Saw "Gladiator"...

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The Osprey Man at Arms series is great! Thebooks devoted to ancient Rome provide excellent coverage from the earliest days through the empie.
A bit more specialized, but fascinating is "The Praetorian Guard" in their elite series.
 
I have exhausted Osprey's catalog on Ancient and Classical armies, Dark Age Armies, the Crusades, Byzantine armies, and a smattering of other periods from ancient Oriental stuff to the Gulf War, New Vanguard armor books for my Steel Panthers series scenarios, etc.. I'm now expanding my horizons to the Russo-Turkish war, the Boxer Rebellion, and other non-mainstream conflicts. A crack habit would be less of a financial drain than these little tomes...

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"..but never ever Fear. Fear is for the enemy. Fear and Bullets."
10mm: It's not the size of the Dawg in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!
 
Why hasn't anyone commented about the historically inaccurate use of "Cavalry" by the Romans in first battle scenes of Gladiator?

The Romans didn't battle on horseback, they lacked proper saddles and stirups. Horses were used for transportation only unless attached to a chariot.

Also, the gladius wasn't designed for hacking or slashing combat tactics as often seen in the movie. It was designed as a pig sticker like the modern bayonet. Stab,thrust, stab, thrust.

History supports their retention of auxilliary foreign mercenary cavalries though.
 
The Romans used auxiliary cavalry (mostly Celts) in a skirmisher/screeing/flank security role from the days immediately following the Punic wars, where Hannibal's (coincidentally, mostly CeltIberian) cavalry mopped the floor with the light dilletante noble Roman cavalry forces at every turn. By the time of Marcus Aurelius, better Roman field commanders were fielding the predecessors of the later cohors equitate with telling effect, although you're right in that Maximus' cav should have been equipped with the longer spatha rather than the standard infantry gladius. It wasn't til after the (much later) debacle at Adrianople that the Roman army embraced heavy cavalry, cataphractii as the future arm of decision on the battlefield- a role that would culminate in the crack cavalry of Karolus. Better known to you and I as Charlemaigne...

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"..but never ever Fear. Fear is for the enemy. Fear and Bullets."
10mm: It's not the size of the Dawg in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!

[This message has been edited by Tamara (edited May 14, 2000).]
 
Just saw it, so just read the whole thread. Didn't want to have anything given away in advance before I saw it.

Great movie! Can't wait for the DVD.

All that said, I can't believe I'm the only one who noticed some edit reversals. There were two or three times where they'd show Maximus walking, holding his Gladius LEFT-handed, then change camera angles, and, presto, it's back in his right hand where it belonged.

A pretty minor quibble, all in all, but fun to catch.
 
The use of cavalry was pretty much limited to scouting and used in the slaughter of fleeing enemies. The cavalry was alomst exclusively made up of paid mercenaries, most often from enemy tribes of the tribes the Romans were fighting. The US cavalry used Indians in the same way. Guess where they got the idea? These tribes were promised in some cases citizenship or dominion over the new lands. Often they fought to relieve the pressure of these tribes as they were forced onto thier lands by eastern tribes from the steppes of asia and Russia. The Germans were just beginning to feel these pressures and the reason for moving west. Large cavalry formations were very ineffective due to the heavy forresting. It was said that a man could travel from Gaul (France) to the plains of Poland (the gateway to europe from the east even today)without seeing the sky due to the thick canopy. While greek fire was a later invention, the use of burning oil was extensively known and used. The recent discovery of a Roman cavalry saddle has been reproduced, and it has been found that the thighs were securely wedged allowing very good support and stability, although they could not lean into a lance as the Normans did to subdue the Saxons. They could use their longer swords, shorter shields, and could throw spears very effectively. The gladius was a thrusting, slashing sword. The celtic and german swords were long, hacking blades to take advantage of the superior size and strength of their users. The pilums were thrown to unshield the enemy as described above to allow the roman infantry to press forward in formation. The roman shields were curved and 2/3 body length. They were used in many ways as seen in the movie, but the shorter romans would get up under the larger germans and using their leverage with the shield, would thrust upward under the ribcage or loins of their opponents in short quick slashing thrusts, usually severing vital organs or arteries. The germans needing more room to swing their weapons were unable to use their weapons to best effect. When the legions were defeated by the Germans earlier under Augustus (led by a previous ally), it was because they were caught in the forrest unable to take advantage of their superior organizational skills, and cut up in individual small unit battles that lasted for days. Augustus was heard to cry out the end of his days for the roman commander to "give me back my legions."
 
Great response AK9. Didn't know about the recent discovery about the Roman saddle. Where can I see a picture of it?
 
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