[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.

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

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