04-18-2008, 02:12 AM
The Legio VIII website has some good photos, including the two Peroni and I posted, but they do not show all the metopes......
To answer your question,Mike, the impression one gets from the monuments and tombstones, is that throughout the first and second centuries AD the 'doubler' type is gradually superceded by the 'simple' variety for both legionaries and auxiliaries, including cavalry...but as Peroni posted, the 'doubler' and 'cape' type seem to last into the mid-second century before disappearing.
Turning now to the question of wearing swords right or left, I went through the metopes, and we have Senior Officers wearing swords both ways ! Praetorians and singulares on the left, legionaries and musicians ( in 20 or so scenes) invariably right side, standard bearers right side, save for two unarmoured vexillifers in one scene who have them on the left, and auxiliaries and cavalry, including a standard bearer, who invariably have them on the left .....
Incidently, both 'Mainz' and 'Pompeii' type swords are clearly depicted....
To answer your question,Mike, the impression one gets from the monuments and tombstones, is that throughout the first and second centuries AD the 'doubler' type is gradually superceded by the 'simple' variety for both legionaries and auxiliaries, including cavalry...but as Peroni posted, the 'doubler' and 'cape' type seem to last into the mid-second century before disappearing.
Turning now to the question of wearing swords right or left, I went through the metopes, and we have Senior Officers wearing swords both ways ! Praetorians and singulares on the left, legionaries and musicians ( in 20 or so scenes) invariably right side, standard bearers right side, save for two unarmoured vexillifers in one scene who have them on the left, and auxiliaries and cavalry, including a standard bearer, who invariably have them on the left .....
Incidently, both 'Mainz' and 'Pompeii' type swords are clearly depicted....
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
