[Len Parker]

[url]http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/_Texts/HODIHI/4/2d_edition/6*.html[/url]
The Gothic vanguard charged across the morass; many were swallowed up in its muddy waters; those who reached the opposite side were falling fast beneath the shower of lances which the mighty arms of the Gepidae hurled against their frail wicker-work breastplates.


I don't have the original text but down at Author's notes it has this: 'Jejunas pectorum crates acta validioribus lacertis lancea transmeabat' (Ennodius, p174). I tried to translate it but couldn't make any sense of it. I couldn't see anything in that line about wicker. Maybe it preceded it. Probably just another bad translation, but I thought I'd show it anyway.

[Matthew Amt]

Okay, I'll confess that the topic title had me thinking of 15th century Gothic armor made of wicker! Ahem...

This passage sounds vaguely familiar, it certainly doesn't get a lot of press. I expect "crates" is the word interpreted as "wicker", comparable to the earlier Roman "cratis" which was a wicker practice shield.

Gut reaction, it could be a corrupted text. Or the author was working from a corrupted text. Dunno! Looks like one of those passages that most folks kind of shrug at, and try to ignore...

Matthew

[Dan Howard]

Can't use this passage without the original text. We need the surrounding paragraph, not just one sentence. Does anyone have access to it?