07-08-2006, 09:01 AM
Commilito
I would add a caveat on the question of ‘Celtic/Italian style body shield’
The ’thyreos’ does indeed come into use in the Greek/Hellenistic world from the 4th/3rd century BC onward, but I don’t think one can casually assume the every thyreos was synonymous with the scutum or large Celtic and Iberian cousins. The Achaean seemed to have used the thyreos equipped infantry under Aratus and according to both Pausanias and Plutarch – Philopoemen felt that it was and inferior shield for heavy infantry rather more of a pelta than a ‘body’ shield.
I would add a caveat on the question of ‘Celtic/Italian style body shield’
The ’thyreos’ does indeed come into use in the Greek/Hellenistic world from the 4th/3rd century BC onward, but I don’t think one can casually assume the every thyreos was synonymous with the scutum or large Celtic and Iberian cousins. The Achaean seemed to have used the thyreos equipped infantry under Aratus and according to both Pausanias and Plutarch – Philopoemen felt that it was and inferior shield for heavy infantry rather more of a pelta than a ‘body’ shield.
Paul Klos
\'One day when I fly with my hands -
up down the sky,
like a bird\'
\'One day when I fly with my hands -
up down the sky,
like a bird\'
