Sat Jul 17, 2004 3:49 am by Tawakalna
at a time of almost constant conflict, tramping around the country repelling one Saxon raid after another as the Dux Britanniarum and Comes Litus Saxonis used to do? He might have donned civilian or non-military formal regalia once a period of peace had been established, but seeing as most of this period was taken up with active campaigning, armour would perforce have been necessary almost all the time. To wit, what other armour would there have been? the celts by this time were thoroughly Romanised anyway, even if they hadn't actually been within Imperial borders. And the Germans were heading that way too. A Romanised Celt might have worn traditional dress and spoken Gaelic amongst an audience of celts, but "Arthur" straddles more than one culture; he had to weld together a fractured society made up of urbane Romans, urbanised Romano-Celts, non-urbanised Celts dependent upon Roman trade, and those Celtic tribes to whom Romanisation was superficial or non-existent.
Both legend and fragmented history indicate that the British revival of the 6th C against Saxon invasion was due largely to the use of massed heavy cavalry formations against loose-order foot, and these cataphract-like units are typical of late Roman auxiliaries such as the Sarmatians who retained their own unit structure but fought under Roman officers and in Roman uniform and armour. We also can't be certain that there wasn't at least a partial reoccupation of Britannia some time after 410AD and the Groans of the Britons rescript to Honorious. A Western Imperial expedition using auxiliaries was certainly possible in the 450s under the Emperor's Majorian and Valentinian III and their "kingmaker" Aetius. But, again, until some evidence is found, that's just speculation.
Should make a nice comedy 