Late-Roman Scuta

[Lucius Aurelius Metellus]

Ok Guys. I have touched on this topic once before earlier in this thread, but I want to bring some questions forward. There are some who say there were no curved late Roman oval shields in existence, but look at these pics. One is the famous sculpture of the general Stilicho. What does it look like he's holding in his left hand? It appears to be a curved, oval shield to me. And then there is this 5th century Roman carving from Egypt, and it depicts the lower soldiers carrying curved shields. One cannot blow it off as artistic license altogether, because look at the soldiers in the top of the sculpture, they are clearly holding dished round shields. The sculpture depicts both types and shapes of shield at the same time. Could this be evidence (even if scant) that curved oval shields did indeed exist? This carving is dated to the 5th century, which means the artist surely saw with his own eyes the soldiers who might have been models for his artwork. And these two sculptures were by two different people from two different places. How do you explain that?<br>
<img src="http://www.photobucket.com/albums/v384/Lucius68/Stilicho.jpg" style="border:0;"/><br>
<img src="http://www.photobucket.com/albums/v384/Lucius68/5thCenturyEgyptianCarving.jpg" style="border:0;"/> <p>Lucius Aurelius Metellus, miles gregarius, Secunda Brittanica</p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p200.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showUserPublicProfile?gid=luciusaureliusmetellus@romanarmytalk>Lucius Aurelius Metellus</A> <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v384/Lucius68/Lucius.jpg" BORDER=0> at: 9/22/04 4:54 am<br></i>