Author Topic: Ancient Roman archery?  (Read 2816 times)

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Offline chef-d405

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Ancient Roman archery?
« on: June 16, 2015, 02:39:32 pm »
I am an avid student of Roman and Greek empires. Archery information  pertaining to either that I find seems to contradict itself. Roman bows are usually portrayed as composits. Does anyone know much as far as accurate information on ancient Roman or Greek archery?

Offline Zuma

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Re: Ancient Roman archery?
« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2015, 03:38:43 pm »
I think it was NOVA PBS had a Roman chariot build documentary.
I posted a thread last year.
When they finished the chariot they tested it with an archer.
The build was great and extremely detailed.
I don't know if you could find out anything about bows from
those guys but I bet they know.
Zuma
If you are a good detective the past is at your feet. The future belongs to Faith.

Offline chef-d405

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Re: Ancient Roman archery?
« Reply #2 on: June 16, 2015, 04:14:13 pm »
I was just thinking more about this. I figure the Romans had to have a bow that was "Roman." However, most of their archers were likely conscripts. Scythians, Celts, Gauls, persians, etc. I'm betting your average Roman army had quite a variety of different archers in any given major campaign. I just can't seem to find much in the way of documemtation.

Offline DC

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Re: Ancient Roman archery?
« Reply #3 on: June 16, 2015, 04:46:05 pm »
I think it was NOVA PBS had a Roman chariot build documentary.
I posted a thread last year.
When they finished the chariot they tested it with an archer.
The build was great and extremely detailed.
I don't know if you could find out anything about bows from
those guys but I bet they know.
Zuma

The archer that tested it has been on just about every documentary that had any mention of bows. He is apparently "the" expert on ancient archery. He's British so there might be someone on here that knows who he is and maybe how to get in touch with him.

PS After I posted this I went to Google and put in "What kind of bows did Roman archers use"

https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=what+kind+of+bows+did+roman+archers+use&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=&gws_rd=ssl