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Getting back on thread and to the original post, Dan what are your thoughts on what the riders are wearing over the shoulders? You said you had several interpretations.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
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"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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Hi again!
I've been busy with other things but saw this thread and couldn't resist.
I've come across this depiction years ago and put some thought into it. Several 1st century cavalrymen stelae show not a mail, but a scale shirt. Vonatorix is shown in a scale shirt with some kind of plate shoulder defence. He has pteruges on the shoulder. The duplicarius Longinus Sdapeze also has a scale armour.
Standard bearers rarely have detailed armour on stelae, but all show a line on the upper arm, suggesting pteruges. Assuming the the scales were painted in, they apparently also wore a similar armour.
Taking all this together I think that in the early empire a special armour for front rank cavalrymen was introduced, consisting of segmentata style shoulder defences attached to a scale shirt. The foundation of the scale shirt would then serve as a arming doublet for the shoulders, with pteruges against the chafing of the plate shoulder defences.
I'm convinced that this front rank armour was combined with a full face mask helmet. Marcus Junkerman has convincingly argued that these were originally combat helmets. Later these face mask helmets were relegated to sports use and the armour possibly dropped altogether.
drsrob a.k.a. Rob Wolters
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(03-09-2017, 11:35 PM)Graham Sumner Wrote: "I imagine the 'padded collar' is part of the subarmalis which possibly extended up to and around the neck."
I have a subarmalis with a bit of a collar. Also my cavalry tunic has sleeves with turned up cuffs.
Maybe it's time to experiment with the armour too.
"Of further interest the sculpture also appears to show long sleeved tunics with turned back cuffs.
Graham."
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
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