Common misconceptions

[Erpingham]

I've long been interested in how "facts" embed themselves in the popular understanding of topics, especially history.  This topic was inspired by a comment elsewhere on the forum about the "mythical" coffin shield of the Goths.  This is a sort of wargamer one especially because it features in lots of figure ranges, rather than a common misunderstanding.  Others are long debunked but still are often "corrected" in popular reports (No, Vikings didn't have horned helmets, nor were knights routinely lowered into their saddles by cranes).  Some are still fighting their way out of more formal history into popular history and some are a point of debate where the popular interpretation is being challenged.  Now, I'm the sort of person who would buy a book on "Historical misconceptions and their origins" so, I wondered, are there any out there which are personal favourites?  They could be popular history, they could be wargamer specials.  They do have to have some degree of common acceptance, so "KTB wedges" and "WMWW" are disqualified

[DougM]

Chained troops was one of my favourites. Or the Sasanian bubble hat.

Confusion between Mongols and Huns was sadly common.

[Mick Hession]

Within the wider population I suspect the incidence of fire arrows or engines shooting fireballs is greatly overestimated thanks to films like Gladiator.

As to coffin shields and the like, the accuracy of figures has improved greatly in line with updates to canonical sources (i.e. WRG Armies and Enemies books for the most part - not a criticism of the earlier volumes as they filled a void at a time when information was as scarce as rocking horse droppings) and in 15mm there must be few European or Near Eastern armies that cannot be built accurately nowadays with Far Eastern armies catching up fast (nobody uses Greer as a guide nowadays, thankfully). And there are also some very good American ranges, though less popular because those armies are distinctly underpowered compared with contemporary old world opponents. Sasanian globe hats still occur, admittedly, but the relevant WRG book is the oldest, I believe, and Phil Barker hates Sassanids anyway 

Cheers
Mick

[DBS]

Servile rowing gangs in galleys.  (Even in the Renaissance, when it was a genuine thing, it was very far from being a universal thing; and whilst on the subject of Renaissance naval warfare, English culverins outranging Spanish cannons because of their longer barrels...)

In fact, most depictions of ancient slavery, though F Howerd Esq is completely excused for the wonderful Lurkio.

[RichT]

You could include popular misconceptions such as that all Romans always wore lorica segmentata and carried semi-cylindrical shields. A number of popular culture concepts of the ancient world could fall into this category:

- New Kingdom Ptolemaics (as in Total War or Cleopatra)
- Loincloth wearing Spartans (300)
- Leather armour (and especially vambraces) on everyone (sword and sandal imagery generally - of course leather armour might have been more common than we might think)
- Flaming weapons in ancient warfare (every ancient world film ever made)

Or you could have specialist misconceptions where it's still a matter of debate if they are really mis- (though I'm sure they are):

- Macedonian phalangites all carried a small shield called a pelta (and its more extreme cousin, which still gets trotted out on occasion, that this shield was carried on the back)
- Greek hoplites were so heavily burdened (by their shields especially) that they couldn't fight
- Persian armies were all about archery and flanking attacks by cavalry

[Justin Swanton]

The chequerboard is my all-time favourite - but that is wandering into dangerous territory. Here are some safer ones:

• Throughout its 1000-year history as a republic and Empire, Rome's legionaries used rectangular shields.
• Roman legionaries always formed a tortoise in every battle. Regardless of circumstances.
• All heavy infantry in every epoch fought like WWE wrestlers. As a corollary to this the notion that sword-armed infantry indulged in fencing.
• All formations dissolved into a chaotic free-for-all at the moment of contact with the enemy.
• Infantry frequently wore a harness made of leather straps to impress their enemies with their manliness.
• Cavalry would charge into a group of heavy infantry and then stop and fight them in a static melee.
• Cavalry in a long-distance pursuit of an enemy traveled at full gallop.

[Erpingham]

Leather armour (and especially vambraces) on everyone (sword and sandal imagery generally - of course leather armour might have been more common than we might think)

I was thinking of choosing this.  There is a particular style of leather armour commonplace in certain films - often like lorica segmentata but polished leather - which is a popular conception.  And that muscled cuirasses worn by officers were leather and not metal.

What makes it fun is your second bit - we don't actually know how common leather armour was, so we can't "prove" its wrong. 

I also recall (I think this is a wargamer one) that all Roman legions from the 4th century onwards wore rawhide armour, according to what Mick calls "canonical" sources.  This led to all late Roman figure ranges depicting such armour.

[Imperial Dave]

- Leather armour (and especially vambraces) on everyone (sword and sandal imagery generally - of course leather armour might have been more common than we might think)

I used them in re-enacting....very very effective

[Duncan Head]

Achilles sacrificing Trojan prisoners in the Etruscan "Francois Tomb" - is this where all those vambraces came from?

[Andreas Johansson]

One which annoyed me the other week - and for which I place the blame squarely on you Englishmen - is the idea that longbows rendered armoured cavalry obsolete.

Perhaps not a misconception, exactly, but one wargamerism that keeps annoying me is the usage of "Renaissance" to mean roughly AD 1500-1700.

[Paul Innes]

Representations of Cleopatra.

[Imperial Dave]

walk like an Egyptian......

[barry carter]

Disciplined troops draw up in regular formations and on the order to advance on the enemy, break into an undisciplined 1/2 mile run to smash into said enemy, meeting in the middle of the battlefield.
All battles are fought in the middle of dense woodland.

[Dave Knight]

Super troops (in our period)

Samurai - the only time they ventured oversees into Korea they were singularly unsuccessful

English Longbowmen - equipped with automatic weapons that mowed down the opposition  in droves

Classical Indian 'Long'bowmen - see above

[RichT]

Super troops (in our period)

Spartans - super disciplined super invincible super warriors.