Takabara Javelins

[Justin Swanton]

Not forgetting the specialised mobile units known as the welebara, from the wele, a deeply concave shield placed, not on the head, but beneath the feet of a Gardinian fighter. Ingeniously mounted on a wheel (root wele: Assy. 'that which rolls'), the soldier stood upright in it and was pushed into battle by a camp follower. His speed along with his superior elevation, enabling him to pick out targets for his javelins above the dust of battle, gave him a distinct advantage over his adversaries.

Sorry, just could not resist!

[Andreas Johansson]

"taka" means a shield, presumably not all shields (since we know that the word spara exists and means another sort of shield)

Whence that "presumably"?

Umm, from my vague memory of Sekunda (1988), I think. Unless that was a rhetorical question.

Not meant as rhetorical. It would hardly to be safe to assume that a step missing in your summary of the argument was necessarily missing in the original.

[Patrick Waterson]

No, it's only this inscription from which Sekunda constructs a name for the troop-type.

Of course, it is only the name that's at issue; there is other evidence for the existence and appearance of "Persian peltasts".

Thanks, Duncan.

(Since at least one other subject people appear to be named for a cultural or cultic habit - the Sakā haumavargā, aka Amyrgian Scythians, or the haoma-drinking Scythians/Saka - one idly wonders if the raising of maginnāta might be something similar.)

So might we find ourselves fielding a unit of kottabos players?