Roman troops of the Third Century AD

**First Citizen Gallienus** · April 24, 2011, 04:19 PM

He combined Christianity with his sun worship of "Sol Invictus" and made the official state religion. That's why December 25th became a holiday for Jesus' birth, when in reality it was combining the birthday of Christ with a pagan festival in the winter. And Easter "Sun" day is holy.
Edit: Forgot to mention that he wasn't baptised until he was in his death bed as well....

**military tribune** · November 29, 2011, 08:44 AM

Nice drawings of 3rd century Romans, though Severus Alexander painted in one of the drawings looks too old. He died at age of only 26.

**Emperor Caesar** · December 01, 2011, 10:06 PM

cool pic

**Gäiten** · December 03, 2011, 12:32 PM

Originally Posted by military tribune

Nice drawings of 3rd century Romans, though Severus Alexander painted in one of the drawings looks too old. He died at age of only 26.

Given his decadent style of living, it fits, IMHO

**tomySVK** · December 04, 2011, 11:09 AM

Didn´t you mean Elagabalus? The sources about Severus Alexander are quite positive, it appears that the Senate liked him, he toleranted various religions, but he wasn ´t competent as general, for that reason Severus Alexander was killed by his soldiers.

**Emperor Caesar** · December 04, 2011, 08:40 PM

Yeah I read that too.

**tomySVK** · December 22, 2011, 10:03 AM

I found nice picture of roman cataphract from Dura Europos at Graham Sumner´s website. Does someone know the publication which contains this picture?

**First Citizen Gallienus** · December 30, 2011, 11:49 AM

Not quite sure where this fits, and it does say 1st and 2nd centuries rather than 3rd but whatever, here it is. It's kind of a huge image as well.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Joar** · December 31, 2011, 05:18 AM

Nice find!

**tomySVK** · January 01, 2012, 09:15 AM

They are also Graham Sumner´s work and they are part of his books called Roman Military Clothing. Volume 2 is dedicated to years 200-400 AD. They are excellent books, I also found several pictures from them, but it seems that Osprey´s pictures are often deleted here. I don´t know, if I can post them here.

Nice find anyway.

**Latin Knight** · January 05, 2012, 07:34 PM

Originally Posted by Blatta Optima Maxima

Wasn't Constantine christian ???...??...

That's what he wanted people to believe

And, to the OP, great pictures, i wonder where you guys find those. Just putting "Roman Cavalry" in Google Images often comes with disappointing results.

What i like is how people who are wholly unfamiliar with the Roman history and army evolution picture the Roman military as a vast clone army with rectangular shields, lorica segmentata and vivid red colors, and who only fought using the testudo formation

.

I like how those images show how the legionary equipment and battle tactics changed with the passing of the centuries and with regional/cultural variations (the eastern soldiers usually wore scale, lamellar, while the western ones favored the mail). If you show to anyone that watched the Gladiator the 5th image from the OP (roman legionary, mid to late 3rd century AD) he'll have a hard time believing its a Roman soldier, and will say its a viking or something

.

**Latin Knight** · January 05, 2012, 07:42 PM

Originally Posted by First Citizen Gallienus

He combined Christianity with his sun worship of "Sol Invictus" and made the official state religion. That's why December 25th became a holiday for Jesus' birth, when in reality it was combining the birthday of Christ with a pagan festival in the winter. And Easter "Sun" day is holy.
Edit: Forgot to mention that he wasn't baptised until he was in his death bed as well....

Everything you said is true, Gallienus, but about the baptism on deathbed, that was actually commonplace at the time, not an evidence that you are not a "true christian". Its due to the fact they associated this sacrament with the purification of sins, so it would be more convenient to be baptized only when you were about to die, to purge all the sins you commited during life, which seems to be corroborated by the Bible (John the Baptist baptized adult people to purify their souls).

Only later did this sacrament became the way of introducing a person to the Christian faith, as its the modern conotation.

Anyways, i myself don't believe Constantine's convertion was anything more than a political maneuver. In fact, i think he did believe in Christ, nevertheless, didn't abadon the "other" gods. While he might have agreed with the Christian view of Jesus as God, he would have probably maintain his belief in a polytheistic system. Not only him, but by the time Christianity rose and established itself as the dominant religion, many people would see no problem in worshipping Christ together with Jupiter, Minerva, etc. Things weren't as simple as the black and white dicotomy between "pagan" and "Christian". The same thing happened with the Germanic and Slavic peoples that converted to Christianity, they would accept the new faith while preserving the "old ways", thus giving birth to the peculiar syncretism that marked the Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages.

**Diocle** · January 05, 2012, 07:59 PM

Originally Posted by Latin Knight

Everything you said is true, Gallienus, but about the baptism on deathbed, that was actually commonplace at the time, not an evidence that you are not a "true christian". Its due to the fact they associated this sacrament with the purification of sins, so it would be more convenient to be baptized only when you were about to die, to purge all the sins you commited during life, which seems to be corroborated by the Bible (John the Baptist baptized adult people to purify their souls).

Only later did this sacrament became the way of introducing a person to the Christian faith, as its the modern conotation.

Anyways, i myself don't believe Constantine's convertion was anything more than a political maneuver. In fact, i think he did believe in Christ, nevertheless, didn't abadon the "other" gods. While he might have agreed with the Christian view of Jesus as God, he would have probably maintain his belief in a polytheistic system. Not only him, but by the time Christianity rose and established itself as the dominant religion, many people would see no problem in worshipping Christ together with Jupiter, Minerva, etc. Things weren't as simple as the black and white dicotomy between "pagan" and "Christian". The same thing happened with the Germanic and Slavic peoples that converted to Christianity, they would accept the new faith while preserving the "old ways", thus giving birth to the peculiar syncretism that marked the Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages.

I more than totally agree with you Latin Knight!
But I think that the political calculus in the plans of Constantinus (ut eum dii deaeque perdant) was the main thrust.

**Diocletianus** · January 05, 2012, 09:01 PM

Constantine was a great politician. He show a total lack of ''vergogne'' in his politics : adoption of christianity, murder, betrayal of his allies,etc. I can compare him to Staline at a certain point.

**Diocle** · January 08, 2012, 06:34 PM

Constantinus = Stalin!!!

Diocletianus you are a great, great, great guy! a friend! and a good man!!!as well as an intelligent guy!!!Finally a good point!!!

And now let me, and I apologize, a bit of 'Voulgar Italian':

COSTANTINO = STALIN

dedicato a voi 'vermi neri'! ciapa lì bacia pile!

**Emperor Caesar** · January 08, 2012, 06:55 PM

Constantine was a great emperor.

**Diocletianus** · January 08, 2012, 07:20 PM

What do you mean by great ? Was he great like 5''11 ?

Greatness is relative. Some may call it the great for his military achievement and other for his religious policy.Others because he was a good man (...).
He certainly kept the frontier of Rome safe but at the cost of a megalomanious civil war.

I think we call it the Great because he was a historical figure of MASSIVE importance.

**Emperor Caesar** · January 11, 2012, 09:30 PM

I mean that he was a great emperor by:his military achievements, major reforms and his moving of the capital although I don't look Rome not being at Rome it set up the Byzantine/Roman Empire that would last for more than another 1100 years. He reunited Rome as well which ended the power struggle till his death. Major building projects too.

**First Citizen Gallienus** · March 16, 2012, 02:30 AM

Clearly some of these are 4th century but whatever. Here we go, first up is a Roman cataphract. Noticing some of these spears, one can clearly see cool stripe designs on them. Is it possible at all to implement this in the mod?