Republican square pectoral plate

[Marcus Mummius]

Salvete,

I have a question about the square pectoral plate worn by Roman soldiers during the republican period.

Did this type of armour consist out of a front (chest) and backplate (back), or only one plate, on the chest?

I can not find the original source that mentiones the dimensions of this kind of armour. Can someone help me with this?

Thanks for your help,
Valete,
Jef

[M. CVRIVS ALEXANDER]

Polybius, Histories 6.23.12 "The common soldiers wear in addition a breastplate of brass a span [c. 230 mm, RME p. 63] square, which they place in front of the heart and call the heart-protector (pectorale), this completing their accouterments; but those who are rated above ten thousand drachmas wear instead of this a coat of chain-mail..."

The Greek, actually, does not say "square," it says, "????? ??????" "everywhere," "in all directions." That is, the pectorale could have been round, a span in diameter - see pictures (taken from http://forum.xlegio.ru/forums/thread-vi ... 20&start=1 for those of you, who can read Russian; one pic is from RME). The size, according to the finds from Numantia, was 17-25 cm (RME, p. 63).

[Matthew Amt]

The Greek, actually, does not say "square," it says, "????? ??????" "everywhere," "in all directions." That is, the pectorale could have been round, a span in diameter...

Oho! Thank you very much for that! We have again been mislead by translations, it seems.

Connolly shows a number of rectangular pectorals, but they all seem to be earlier than the Punic Wars. The ones from Numantia are round (as are many earlier ones, as well). So my guess is that round is the safer way to go. Pain in the neck, cuz the rectangular ones are often decorated with raised dots, which are EASY, while the round ones have lots of concentric rings and other difficult embossing. Rats...

I'd also guess that a front and backplate are correct. That is clearly shown in the famous Samnite warrior figurine (Capestrano?), and a number of other types such as the triple-disc style are often found complete with front and back plates.

Well, maybe I'll modify my nice RECTANGULAR pectoral into a Villanovan style! Gotta finish that second helmet to go with it.

Valete,

Matthew

[Paullus Scipio]

We do not have much information at all on this type of Roman armour, and there are no contemporary depictions of it in a definite Roman context that I know of.
Polybius in his famous description of the Roman Army ( which was probably the army around 216 BC, during the second Punic War) at VI.23 says :

"The common soldiers wear in addition a breastplate of brass a span square [a handspan, or half a cubit : 9 inches/23 cm aprox] which they place in front of the heart and call the heart- protector (lat: pectorale; Gk: kardiophylax), this completing their accoutrements; but those rated above 10,000 drachmas wear instead a coat of mail ( lat:lorica) "

You'll notice Polybius doesn't mention a corresponding backplate, but the Italian pectorale, which came in a number of shapes - circular, square,'muscled', tri-globular etc was invariably a breast-and-back, and used throughout Italy. The Roman version was therefore almost certainly a breast-and-back too.

[Paullus Scipio]

Whoops ! I see others have beaten me to it......

Still, one should be cautious in concluding that the Roman pectorale was round. For example the first photo shows a statue from Spain, found at Elche (probably part of the same statue group as the famous "Lady of Elche") and is dated 4-3 C BC (the Romans did not arrive in Spain until Hannibal's War, c.218 BC). The wolf was a popular symbol with both Italian and Spanish peoples.
The third photo is another spanish statue from near Jaen of a cavalryman - his small spanish caetra shield is clearly visible, and he has a spanish dagger at his side rather than a sword.

This in turn means it is possible that the circular pectorale from Numantia could have belonged to a Roman, or an Italian ally, or a Spanish ally or a Spanish Celt-Iberian foe.....

The earliest pectorales found in Latium go back to Villanovan times, and were square or rectangular ( for the back-plate) and 15-22 cm in size. Subsequently, the Etruscans arrived, and many round disc-type pectorales are found, as depicted in Etruscan art. This armour became popular with the peoples of central Italy - such as the Aequi, Hernici and Volsci whom the early Romans fought. So Rome, from an early date, was familiar with both square and circular pectorales. This may explain why Polybius uses the odd expression " a span in all directions" rather than , for example "round, a span across" or similar.

At the end of the day, both square and round may have been used - we simply don't know, although from numbers found circular might be a little more probable........ :? ?

[M. CVRIVS ALEXANDER]

Thank you, Paullus, great info.

[Marcus Mummius]

Thanks everyone, very valuable information.

Keep discussing and adding to it!

Best regards

[martijn.wijnhoven]

Not quite your period, but maybe interesting to look up:
Italische Panzerplatten und Panzerscheiben by Gehrhard Tomedi (link)

Sections of the book can be found at Google Books

Regards,

Martijn