shield reinforcing

[Tarbicus]

Avete!

As I recall from the Dura Europas report, the bracing strips on the scutum were very flimsy things, held on simply by wooden pegs! So I would hesitate to think of them as doing some sort of heavy reinforcing job...

Glue holds the rest of the shield together just fine, so it should be sufficient for the bracing strips as well. Matthew

Absolutely- pegs and glue are what was really used, so presumably they worked well enough for the Romans. I'm not even convinced the strips on the reverse were any kind of significant bracing- a 3-ply scutum is a very solid thing, and the 'bracing' seemed to me to be almost superfluous when I'd finished making mine.

Makes me wonder if arrows were the main weapon they were used against.