To Balteus, or not to Balteus...

[drsrob]

But Rob, those details you've added just support the suggestion that there's no evidence of a shoulder baldric prior to the mid- 1st century AD, right? They don't speak to the issue of your statement about the possibility of a shoudler baldric during the time of the Gallic Wars- what reason have you for that?

Well, that's true in a way. My argument is based on logic and on an theory by Prof. Dr. Otto Koenig on the development of uniform and dress.
In short, this theory holds that Dollo's Law on the development of species works the same way as the development of dress. For instance features are not dropped when they become useless. Instead they survive as embellishments and gradually deform by becoming smaller of larger. They disappear quickly only when they become a nuisance or a liability. Also, once dropped a feature does not simply reappear.

Before the adoption of the gladius hispaniensis the Romans used Greek swords. A statue of a general in republican armour shows just such a sword, suspended from a baldric and carried slanting at the left hip. Both ends of the baldric are attached to one side of the scabbard.
Facilis and other centurions use a gladius hispaniensis like common legionaries, but at the left hip. Also, the scabbard is carried slanting and the front end of the baldric is attached to the top edge of the scabbard. The attachment method is imo the same as that of a Greek sword.
The above theory says that it is impossible that this suspension method suddenly reappears for no apparent reason. Therefore it must have survived from republican times.
The way that can have come about if Knights e.a. or the officer class retained it as a distinction, when the common legionaries adopted the Celtic method of suspension.