Melvadius Posted March 30, 2012 Report Share Posted March 30, 2012 Live Science is carrying this story claiming that celebrity endorsements are nothing new in the military field. I don't think that this is an early April Fools spoof but you never know.... Millennia before modern-day military recruiters talked up potential soldiers in shopping malls or put up posters, one Roman city took a rather different approach to recruiting soldiers for the emperor's army. A newly translated inscription, dating back about 1,800 years, reveals that Oinoanda, a Roman city in southwest Turkey, turned to a mixed martial art champion to recruit for the Roman army and bring the new soldiers to a city named Hierapolis, located hundreds of miles to the east, in Syria. His name was Lucius Septimius Flavianus Flavillianus and he was a champion at wrestling and pankration, the latter a bloody, and at times lethal, mixed martial art where contestants would try to pound each other unconscious or into submission. ...continued Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caldrail Posted March 30, 2012 Report Share Posted March 30, 2012 Anything that uses the phrase 'martial arts' in connection with Roman history is on dubious ground in my view. However, the possibility that a pankration specialist was used to recruit is an interesting possibility - I have no idea about its authenticity - because my main obection would be that pankration was a greek sport with a limited following in Roman society whose contestants tended to be regarded as athletes, or infama, and quite often slaves themselves. The connection between legions and gladiators is established. There was a commonality between their equipment with a parallel development and we know that on occaision gladiators were used as bodyguards, trainers, and in rare instances military units entirely. However, since the pankration was not identifiably a legionary sport, where's the connection? My guess is that this was an ancient example of celebrity endorsement. They dragged a famous pankrationist to speak out and persuade the impressionable youths to sign up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvadius Posted March 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2012 I agree that at present it seems like someone puffing up an article with modern references to make a story where there really isn't one - remind you of any particular Governments at present? . From a quick search there does appear to be at least 3 or 4 well known inscriptions relating to Lucius Septimius Flavianus Flavillianus and his victories in the pankration but I haven't so far been able to track down anything, apart from this article, providing details of this 'new inscription' or more importantly an 'actual' translation to provide the context to the story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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