Warriors For The Working Day
Military Art
By
Paul Hitchin
145 Walsall Road
Pelsall
Walsall
WS3 4BP
UK
Telephone
07967630942
Dux Bellorum – Romano British cavalryman
An interpretation of the real King
Arthur. A post Roman British cavalryman, in this case armedand equipped as an officer. He wears a bronze scale
cuirass and a‘Spangenhelm’ type helmet of late
Roman design. He is armed with a spear and sword and carries an oval
wooden shield reinforced with iron banding. The colour of the shield and
the reinforcing cross may represent the man’s Christianity.His mount is pony sized and
there are no stirrups, these were not introduced into Western Europe for
several hundred years after the time of this figure.Nevertheless the 4 horned
Roman saddle used gave good support to the rider allowing Romano British
cavalry to hit hard at the Saxon warriors who fought on foot and the
mobility provided by cavalry allowed them to campaign across the whole of
Britain. Men such as this kept back the Anglo Saxon invaders for a
generation and in their eyes kept the light burning in the West until
eventually overwhelmed by the newcomers.It was men such as this whose
exploits have become the inspiration for the legends of King Arthur and
his Knights although their way of life and deeds were most probably a far
cry from the later Medieval romances.
