Late Roman use of Bronze musculata

[Theodosius the Great]

So, to our Late Romans out there, I know I have made a number of assumptions from a second-hand (well, third-hand actually) source but it certainly seems possible to me that our Renaissance Artist actually painted what he saw, and rank-and-file could be equipped with musculata..........or is this thought just too radical?

We may not have to stoop to using Renaissance reproductions to arrive at your conclusion. There is a sculpture from Housesteads depicting an Auxiliary (!) soldier wearing a musculata. I presume it is a funerary monument and that it dates to approximately the early to mid-third century (the author irritatingly doesn't give more details.) The double rows of pteruges on both shoulders and waist, the broad baldric, the scabbard, the circular concave shield, and the hasta all suggest to me a mid to late period timeframe.
[attachment=0:32bq9iqe]<!-- ia0 Housesteads Musculata.JPG<!-- ia0 [/attachment:32bq9iqe]
The soldier's goofy headdress may raise doubts about the truthful representation of his armor but the rest of his kit seems very period, non-anachronistic. I wonder what the musculata skeptics will have to say since they give much more credence to funerary monuments than to imperial art. hmm....

~Theo