02-12-2009, 12:13 PM
The only thing that can be said with much certainty is that the shield was a small round one. There are a lot of references to round shields in the early books of livy as well as in art.
As chainmail was being used by the roman elite around this time and was not yet common amongst their enemies (hence Hannibal's looting of Roman equipmen and reequipping of his troops) I expect that a cavalry commander would have worn maile. I don't know much about the sword that might have been used as it was copying the Spanish sword of Hannibal's army during this war which gave the Romans their classic sword design. The other popular cavalry sword, the falcata, or machaera, was only being adopted by the Roman late in this conflict too.
As chainmail was being used by the roman elite around this time and was not yet common amongst their enemies (hence Hannibal's looting of Roman equipmen and reequipping of his troops) I expect that a cavalry commander would have worn maile. I don't know much about the sword that might have been used as it was copying the Spanish sword of Hannibal's army during this war which gave the Romans their classic sword design. The other popular cavalry sword, the falcata, or machaera, was only being adopted by the Roman late in this conflict too.
Colin
