Roman Use of the Attic Helmet

[Paullus Scipio]

Ruben wrote:-

I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that that piece is often ambiguously cited (in books and on this forum) about the Republican Romans as evidence for how Roman officers looked, usually without mentioning that it is simply a panoply for a Rhodian officer. It has no direct relation to the Romans.

....Ruben is quite correct, the link between that staue and Roman Officers is quite tenuous, not direct. Republican Officers are said to have worn 'similar dress to Hellenistic Officers', usually on the basis of the link between Imperial sculptures thus dressed back to the figure in the centre of the Ahenobarbus relief presiding over the 'suovetaurilia' sacrifice, ususally identified as the God Mars, but sometimes called a Tribune, wearing the sash tied in a Hercules knot. The figure's helmet, a little uncertain, is sometimes seen as 'Hellenistic' ( e.g. Connolly) and sometimes Apulo-Corinthian. We don't have any earlier depictions, so by analogy the Rhodian staue ( showing similar(?) helmet cuirass with double layer pteruges etc from the 3rd centuryB.C.) is used to illustrate earlier Roman Officers dress, but as Ruben points out, there is no direct link. (Interestingly, Connolly uses this same panoply as the basis of his reconstruction of a Carthaginian General ( Hannibal).......but all this does is demonstrate how thin our evidence is at all for the 3rd century B.C.