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+--- Thread: Tribune/Legate Helmet (/showthread.php?tid=30747)
Tribune/Legate Helmet - LonginusXXI - 01-18-2018
Would there be a chance of a tribune or legate wearing an Imperial Gallic helmet?
RE: Tribune/Legate Helmet - Pavllvs Horativs Torqvatvs - 01-20-2018
I dont know any source for high ranking officers to wear gallic type helmets except one. Its from Trajans column and it depicts emperor Trajan with his commanders or other high officers. ( https://ibb.co/mdcQBw ) And 2 of them have helmet which is deffinitely not attic type. Maybe gallic type? But as we know, trajans column isnt as good source as for example sources which were made up by soldiers themselves and we must to look on it with reserve. Maybe it was just failure of worker who was working on it that he confused helmet types or figure types,which he had to create.
RE: Tribune/Legate Helmet - Clavdivs - 01-20-2018
If I may be difficult, although it is certainly an interesting academic question, I am interested why you might choose to depict a tribune or legate thus. The Attic helmet, whether Grecian, Italic or Roman pseudo-Attic is such a beautiful thing and its very archaism, at least to me, suggests the mental atmosphere, if that is not pretentious, of the Principate -- the tenacious adherence to the forms of the Republic, of the past, even when, alas, republican government and republican ideals were dead.
The very presence of the Attic helmet would allow you to explain the transfer of Greek influences to Italy and to the Italic tribes (surprisingly few people have ever heard of Magna Graecia). It seems a very good reason to tell people about Evander, Carmenta, Aeneas and the Trojan War. Also, the full panoply of a legate or tribune -- PALVDAMENTVM, beaten-metal cuirass, pteruges -- is made the more striking by the addition of the Attic form, whether elegantly simple or richly ornate, and as it is well attested, it seems a little perplexing not to use it.
The reason that came to my mind is a very common one, and one I suffer from as much as any -- funding (though not nearly as expensive as a legionary, a Roman in ''civvy street'' still needs some investment!) . I am myself stony-broke, and it is easier to exhort others to spending money than finding it for oneself, but I am sure I have seen people on this forum lending helmets and other items to individuals if you have a particular event in mind.
I have not made the slightest contribution to answering your question, and I am not in fact competent to! Nevertheless, I do hope you will forgive me. There are many learned military scholars here who will be able to help.
RE: Tribune/Legate Helmet - Gaius Julius Caesar - 02-20-2018
An attic helmet was found in the river Tyne, which I postulate was lost by an officer, tribune or legate.
I can't see why they may not have also adopt d other types as well.
My own plan was to wear a decorated cavalry helmet.