Legionary shield markings...

[Crispvs]

Thanks for that.

I am pretty sure from memory that the photographs I used were actually of casts. I should have mentioned this in my earlier post. The library book I found them in may have been (or may not have been - it was after all a little over fifteen years ago) 'The Dacian Stones Speak', whose author I forget offhand.

I too, felt that the blazons suggested each Praetorian cohort had its own blazon. There are always three Praetorian standards and the same three shield blazons associated with them.

With regard to the clipeii, I do remember that I found it very difficult to establish what had been depicted on some shields and some of my rough drawings showed only partial blazons. I also found that there were a number of instances where it was difficult to tell if a shield was being carried by a Dacian or a Roman auxiliary in 'native' dress. The Dacians are also generally depicted with the same clipeius style of shield, meaning that some blazons are presumably intended to represent Dacian blazons. Where I thought a shield was being carried by a Dacian warrior I did not include it in my list.

Anyway, I no longer have the list and the drawings I did then, so this is all based on my memory of what I found.

Crispvs