Battlefield looting

After reading some Illida I found it strange how after being killed the body of the dead soldier was so quickly looted of weapons and armor. Were people really so keen on looting the bodies of enemies quickly on site or is the Illiad not a credible source for such things.
Also looting during battle thread

Yes, basically. By the later middle ages there's specific rules in place governing when and where to loot and who gets a share.

People really have way too romantic view of warfare. Arms and armor were expensive more and more the further back in time you go. And the Trojan war was during the bronze age and bronze was expensive as hell since you had to trade to make it.

Looting was called "finally getting paid for all this terrible shit" for most of history.

Well, the dead aren't gonna need it.

This. Looting was the reason for a peasant (or anyone else) to go to war, particularly as coming back with mad dosh was one of the only ways to attain social mobility.

Hell, you didn't even have the "thank you for your service" thing going on. Soldiers were generally reviled on all sides.

I woud like to take this time to thank all those filthy aghani savages for wearing all that beautiful yemeni silver.

My wife thoroughly enjoys the heated seats in my mercedes.

Aloha Snackbar, piss be upon them.

>not keeping the yemeni silver
>not giving it to your grandson after a motivating session of storytelling/grandpa ranting

wew lad you're a pleb

Surely he kept like a nice dagger or an ear or something.

I'm just wondering where he's from; the US discouraged looting in decades of late.

I'm guessing Israeli.

>discouraged
Not that user but it's pretty hard to discourage someone from taking valuable items off of people that were just trying to kill you, whose family will use it to buy weapons to also try to kill you.

It's more that they aren't big on letting you take them home.

Beyond that, my vet friend tells me it was very rare that he ever actually saw the enemy, range of modern combat being what it was.

I kept the nicest and most beautiful ones.

One in particular I kept after the locals lied to us and tried to send us into a ravine full of Talihoos.

Dumb fuckin' sand-niggers, we could see their heads pokin' above the crags. We circled back and flanked 'em and waited for them to leave. Got nine of the cunts and nobody even had to slap another mag in.

That's true mostly. Only Rangers and the like came 'cross those boys.

Hell, to get my goods home I carved out my boots and sewed the jewelery into my drawers to be safe. On the jet home my brothers kept laughin' cuz I jingle-jangled when I walked.

In islamic law, loots are shared after the battle by your rank.

the first idea I had as a boy upon reading about these great battles was how nice it would be to take things off the field

>Soldiers were generally reviled on all sides
wut
also there were no proper soldiers most of the time

Well, arms and armor were the most expensive things throughout most of history, A knights armor was his most expensive thing in possession.

I wouldn't put a (nowadays) price tag on it, because the economy nowadays is much different - the rich and poor gap is gigantic compared to back then.

But if today the richest man in the world would have 10 million net worth, than a suit of armor would cost 500.000.

I like to roleplay too

youre trying really hard

kek. Like that law was ever adhered to.

Well if you can imagine that a panoply of armour, in any period, is probably at least the equivalent of owning a car, then people will want to steal it. If someone died, and their car would belong to the first person to get inside it, then everyone would rush to it.

can't get your ilevel up if you don't do any looting

What if the looted armor doesn't fit you?

weapons and armor were both scarce and valuable user.
im surprised you are surprised.

You sell/banter it, bro.

>what are marauders

like hermit crabs in a shell

Looting was even a thing in WWII except they stole watches instead of armor from obvious reasons.

The heroic Homeric style looting was very much part of its time. It was part of the prestige to seize booty from your enemy and it gained glory for yourself. It's why Achilleus got so pissed when Agamemnon took his war prize from him, it was a direct insult to his honour.

>Were people really so keen on looting the bodies of enemies quickly on site
yes. if you didn't do it ASAP somebody else did and left you nothing.

The thing I am surprised about is how it is depicted that during battle when someone died they would be quickly pulled aside an stripped of armor and weapons

>you will never be a mongol
>you won't ever pillage half of the known world and rape women of all kinds of ethnic groups
jdimsa