07-08-2012, 09:02 PM
Pavel AMELIANVS wrote:
I think that Red For legionary and green for auxiliary probably comes originally from much influential earlier illustrations of Mr.Peter Connolly.
Nathan Ross replied "Actually it possibly comes from the even earlier illustrations of Ronald Embleton":
There is not much in it but Connolly's pictures come first. His book 'The Roman Army', was published in 1975, while H. Russell Robinson's book 'What the Soldiers wore on Hadrian's Wall' which Embleton illustrated was published in 1976.
Embleton would later work on the Frank Graham Hadrian's Wall series of books published from 1978 onwards up to the compilation volume in 1984. He has Auxiliaries with red, blue and green shields but the legionaries generally with red ones.
Connolly of course had also worked with Robinson on 'The Armour of Imperial Rome', also published 1975, with the legionaries with red shields. Robinson was a reference for Michael Simkins whose Osprey book 'The Roman Army from Caesar to Trajan' had recently just been published in 1974 illustrated by Michael Youens. It too has all the Legionaries with red shields and the Auxiliary infantryman does as well.
However Legionaries with red shields go back much further at least to the Illustrated costume book by Racinet published in 1888. He has an Auxiliary with a blue shield. His illustrations were very influential for later illustrators like Amedee Forestier and Fortunino Matania, film-makers and even early model kits like those from Airfix, the Julius Caesar figure that they produced was a direct copy of a Racinet illustration of a Roman officer.
Ultimately of course these illustrations influenced early re-enactors and there is I presume a direct link with the Connolly illustration of an Auxiliary infantryman in his 'The Roman Army' book and the shield design adopted by the Batavian re-enactors in Britain which Adrian Wink from RAT is part of.
Illustrations of later period soldiers tend to use shield patterns from the Notita Dignitatum and Embleton was one of the illustrators whose work bought those to popular attention in the Hadrian's Wall series as well as the follow up to Simkin's book which he illustrated 'The Roman Army from Hadrian to Constantine'. The earlier Osprey book was also revised in 1984 and Embleton did the artwork for that too. The Auxiliaries in that now have green shields but the Legionaries have yellow and blue as well as red shields!
Graham.
I think that Red For legionary and green for auxiliary probably comes originally from much influential earlier illustrations of Mr.Peter Connolly.
Nathan Ross replied "Actually it possibly comes from the even earlier illustrations of Ronald Embleton":
There is not much in it but Connolly's pictures come first. His book 'The Roman Army', was published in 1975, while H. Russell Robinson's book 'What the Soldiers wore on Hadrian's Wall' which Embleton illustrated was published in 1976.
Embleton would later work on the Frank Graham Hadrian's Wall series of books published from 1978 onwards up to the compilation volume in 1984. He has Auxiliaries with red, blue and green shields but the legionaries generally with red ones.
Connolly of course had also worked with Robinson on 'The Armour of Imperial Rome', also published 1975, with the legionaries with red shields. Robinson was a reference for Michael Simkins whose Osprey book 'The Roman Army from Caesar to Trajan' had recently just been published in 1974 illustrated by Michael Youens. It too has all the Legionaries with red shields and the Auxiliary infantryman does as well.
However Legionaries with red shields go back much further at least to the Illustrated costume book by Racinet published in 1888. He has an Auxiliary with a blue shield. His illustrations were very influential for later illustrators like Amedee Forestier and Fortunino Matania, film-makers and even early model kits like those from Airfix, the Julius Caesar figure that they produced was a direct copy of a Racinet illustration of a Roman officer.
Ultimately of course these illustrations influenced early re-enactors and there is I presume a direct link with the Connolly illustration of an Auxiliary infantryman in his 'The Roman Army' book and the shield design adopted by the Batavian re-enactors in Britain which Adrian Wink from RAT is part of.
Illustrations of later period soldiers tend to use shield patterns from the Notita Dignitatum and Embleton was one of the illustrators whose work bought those to popular attention in the Hadrian's Wall series as well as the follow up to Simkin's book which he illustrated 'The Roman Army from Hadrian to Constantine'. The earlier Osprey book was also revised in 1984 and Embleton did the artwork for that too. The Auxiliaries in that now have green shields but the Legionaries have yellow and blue as well as red shields!
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
