Makedonian Armour

[Sean Manning]

I can't think of any certain evidence off the top of my head, but I think it might well have been done. There are a lot of helmets on vases that were likely painted, being decorated with checkered patterns or the like (although some of them may have been of composite construction). Some helmets on the Alexander Sarcophagus were painted blue and yellow.

Some helmets were painted, yes, but I'd be very careful with those Alexander Sarcophagus helmets- blue was often used to represent iron in ancient art and yellow bronze, so they most likely actually weren't painted.

Regarding colour on the sarcophagus, I follow the opinion of those who have looked at all the colour sources for it, such as Sekunda and McBride. But it is a pity that we have no weapons on the sarcophagus to compare colours with!

IIRC the famous painting of a Alexander-era cavalryman (a prodromoi?) wears some purple too. However, the Alexander sarcophagus largely depicts nobles, and we know Alexander captured and issued great quantities of Tyrian purple cloth. So even if there was some other decent purple dye, I suspect the purple on the sarcophagus was Tyrian.

Thinking about one-piece iron cuirasses, the main reason I doubt they existed was that I don't think large enough iron plates could be reliably produced anywhere in the world before 1400 or so in Europe. One-piece iron helms are hard enough to make with earlier technology!

I haven't heard of that painting you refer to- perhaps I will Google it.