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Miscellanies · §5 · Julius Africanus

What the Roman kit still lacks against barbarians

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Shots from a sling that hit the heads crush the helmet and go in; and it is hard to duck a missile in flight because of the piece of iron about the neck. Besides this they do not throw the javelins with aim, spending ten on one possible kill, and they do not meet charging horsemen with small pikes.

If then someone put a Greek breastplate and helmet on a Roman soldier, and gave him a longer pike, and taught each man to throw each of the spears at each mark and to fight on his own, and sometimes set a run so that the charge inside missile-range against the enemy would be sharp, no barbarian, being cut down, would hold out against the Romans.

Greek

τά τε ἀπὸ σφενδόνης βληθέντα ταῖς κεφαλαῖς τὸ κράνος θλάσαντα ἐνδύει, ἐκνεῦσαί τε φερόμενον βέλος δύσκολον τῷ τοῦ περιαυχενίου σιδήρου τμήματι. Πρὸς δὲ τούτοις οὔτε κεκριμένα ἀφιᾶσιν τὰ ἀκόντια, τὰ δέκα εἰς ἕνα τυχὸν φόνον ἀναλοῦντες, καὶ κοντοῖς πρὸς τοὺς ἐπιόντας ἱππεῖς οὐκ ἀπαντῶσι μικροῖς. Εἰ γοῦν τις θώρακα Ἑλληνικὸν καὶ κράνος στρατιώτῃ Ῥωμαίῳ περιθείη, καὶ κοντὸν δοίη προμηκέστερον, καὶ ἕκαστον τῶν δοράτων ἐφ' ἑκάστου σκοποῦ βάλλειν καθ' αὑτόν τε ἕκαστον διδάσκοι μάχεσθαι, <καὶ> ἔσθ' ὅτε καταστήσειεν δρόμον, ὡς ὀξεῖαν γενέσθαι τὴν ἐντὸς βέλους τοῖς πολεμίοις ἐμβολήν, οὐκ ἂν βάρβαρος κοπτόμενος ἀρκέσειε Ῥωμαίοις.

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