View Single Post
Old 7th November 2019, 08:52 PM   #22
fernando
Lead Moderator European Armoury
 
fernando's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Portugal
Posts: 9,618
Default

While i thought i would not venture any further conclusions unless i had a solid evidence to crack the inscription riddle, perhaps a couple hints on the subject would be pertinent ... i guess .
Suggestions that this gladius ( and more of the kind) found its way to Mexico, either sent by Napoleon to his fan Santa Ana or by later further conventions like those examples studied by Juan Calvó, stand beyond the possibility that it never left this side of the pond, i am afraid.
I confess my perplexity at the mode Jim's coleague explains the interpretation of marking methods in items quoted as found in Mexican battlefields. The way numerals like second (segundo) and seventh (septimo) are abreviated each one in a different manner, confuses me ... as in HERE and HERE .

Also the letters R referring to zapadores, the Y to minadores and the RL to Engineers are something atypical; obviously not abreviations but some kind of code, whih does not represent the regiment where the trooper served but some allegory ... the regiment, batallion or compay still to show somewhere in the uniform, or cap.
We can read that the constitution of the Mexican army units was somehow replicated from the Spanish ONES.
On the other hand, i have yet no reason to reject that, the initials in Bruno's sword are actual abreviations of regimental names/numbers. However the F after the R is one riddle to start with. There are records of historic units like those of Fusileros, Fortificaciones and Ferrocarriles; but not one that i spot as plausible for this specfic case.
fernando is online now   Reply With Quote