Ptolemaic armies vs. Roman Legions (circa 50 b.C.)

[Theodosius the Great]

The shield almost certainly was picked up from the Galatians (as evidenced by the fact that the thureos was widespread throughout the Near East and Asia Minor by the end of the third century BC at the latest), while the armour is less certain but may have been. And the context of the use of mail armour among the Galatians is no indicator of its use among those who adopted it: as is so often the case, they merely would have adopted the technology.

Interesting. So it seems Roman and Hellenistic armies' equipment were already starting to resemble each other without direct influence between the two. Based on what you've said the Romans seem less unique in their willingness to adopt technology of vanquished foes, which is a little surprising given the Greeks' traditional chauvinism.

The main feature the Eastern kingdoms were keen to adopt from the Romans was their legionary organization and not so much their equipment, it sounds. A bit ironic that professional armies should ape a militia organization.

Its possible that there are some Roman and some Ptolemaic soldiers on the mosaic, or they may all be Ptolemaic.

The whole lot is mighty confusing, and I almost always omit this find from any sort of discussion simply because using it to support any identification so fraught with difficulty.

Yes, while interesting / confusing the mosaic has been over-analysed on other threads to no good end. Good idea, Ruben. Best to drop it from further discussion here.

~Theo