owdya like them apples?

[Troll]

On Britons..."they go into battle in chariots and have small,swift horses, there are also foot-soldiers, very swift in running and very firm in standing their ground. For arms they have a shield and a short spear, with a bronze apple attached to the end of the spear-shaft, so that when it is shaken it may clash and terrify the enemy.....they can endure any kind of hardship; for they plunge into the swamps and exist there for many days with only their heads above water...." Cassius Dio 77.
Just what on earth is this blokey on about? Apple-rattling swamp dwellers? How relevent can historical/histerical documents be? Anyone ever found an Iron Age rattly apple?

[deepdigger]

No but, I think I've drunk something made from rattly apples... or was that ratty apples!!

deep

[Oxbeast]

That swamp bit sounds like gollum.....

I can't imagine Romans being scared of rattling apples. He sounds like he's making it up as he goes along.

[destroyer]

is this where we get that slightly threatening phrase 'how do like them apples!'

However i think dear old Dio may have a point. If 5000 hairy Britons charged at me armed with nothing but apples i'd be worried. I'd have to assume that they either had some sort of some secret weapon or that they were acting as a distraction so that the real soldiers, armed with sharpened mangos perhaps(a la Blackadder goes forth) could attack me in the rear.