Why are Sotaroas cheaper than Toxotai?

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Do these findings relate to all Gauls, or just to warriors? Because the way you phrase it, it sounds like you are comparing the average Roman to the Celtic warrior caste. I'd say a fairer comparison would be with Roman centurions (military lifestyle, but also a degree of affluence so they wouldn't be affected by famine as much as ordinary grunts).

Ah, no because the Average Celtic Warrior (ACW) is equivilent to the Average Roman Citizen (ARC). Both the ACW and ARC are landed, both probably have at least one slave, both are rasonable well fed in most years. Whether or not Centurians were better off once they gained rank is a difficult question, because they likely grew to manhood under the same or very similar conditions to the "grunts".

Lys makes a good point about the food. That's really great though. I never knew you could infer muscle mass from analysing bones. (EDIT: How does that work by the way? How do you relate bone mass to muscle mass?) @Lys: Safe to say that man today is on average weaker than man ~2000 years ago? (i.e. when you look at nutrition.)

The bones not only increase in mass, but the connections of tendans and ligiments leave markers on the bones which indicate how thick/long they were and therefore what kind of muscle they were attached to.

[Ludens]

Ah, no because the Average Celtic Warrior (ACW) is equivilent to the Average Roman Citizen (ARC). Both the ACW and ARC are landed, both probably have at least one slave, both are rasonable well fed in most years.

Except that the average Roman citizen was not a full-time warrior, but I see your point.

About centurions: I recall reading in Goldsworthy that the social background of centurions is unknown. The attention lavished on them in Caesar's commentaries indicates that he felt it worthwhile to court them. This must mean they, as a class, had more political influence than the rank-and-file, and hence were more affluent as well.

[antisocialmunky]

The Average Celtic Freeman was also probably not a full-time warrior...