Help with choosing gladius

[Crispvs]

"There are two in our unit. "

Which I am deeply unhappy about and have been trying to discourage for quite some time. Cross braced helmets should not be present in what is otherwise a mid first century display! :evil:

On the subject of cross bracing, this is generally believed to have been introduced during Trajan's Dacian campaigns in response to the Dacian falx. The helmet found at Berzobis proves that some helmets at least were modified in the field by 'retro-fitting' crude cross bracing to them during the Dacian campaigns. This bracing is round section and is unlike the interlocking flat section bracing to be found on the helmet from Florence reconstructed by Robinson as 'Auxiliary type 'C'. The Florence bracing is more like the bracing fitted to the late second / early third century helmets which Robinson defined as Cavalry types 'D','E' and 'F'. The earliest datable examples of this type of bracing come from Antonine period levels at Corbridge and Xanten. The bracing fitted to the Berzobis helmet during the Dacian campaign is much more like the cross bracing on the Hebron helmet (Robinson's Imperial Italic type 'G'), which has been convincingly argued to have been deposited during the Bar Kochbar Revolt during the reign of Hadrian. Whilst the Hebron helmet was presumably already in existence prior to the revolt, its decoration of four lunar shaped ornaments, one in each quarter, demonstrates that cross bracing was an original feature of the helmet (therefore possibly dating it to after the Dacian wars). This feature is shared by a helmet from Wiesbaden (Robinson's Imperial Gallic type 'K') showing it to have been a common feature during the period following the Dacian wars. If this may have lost some of you by now, the point really is to show that the so called 'Auxiliary type 'C' helmet should be seen as an Antonine period helmet or later, rather than a Trajanic period helmet.
It should also be considered that Robinson's reconstruction of the Florence helmet was speculative rather than authoritative. In order to suggest how the helmet might have looked, he looked at the probably simplified images of cross braced helmets on Trajan's column to provide possibilities for the form of the missing neck guard and occipital area. However, as the form of the cross bracing strongly suggests that the helmet dates from the latter half of the second century, I would suggest that it may originally have had a deeper occipital area, possibly with several steps, and a wide, sloping neck guard similar to those on the Niedermoemter and Guttmann helmets (Imperial Italic type 'H'). It may even have had large cheek guards which covered the ears. Obviously this is speculative as well but I think no less likely. Incidentally, Robinson did not state that it was an early second century helmet. He merely used an early second century source for possibilities as to what the lower half of a cross braced helmet might look like. It was Connolly (also in 1975) who, incorrectly in my view, stated that the Florence helmet dated to the early second century (presumably also from looking at Trajan's column).

Now to Mainz type swords (finally). The latest example of a Mainz type sword that I am aware of is a sword which was deposited with a military belt under the floor of a barrack room (I think) at Vindonissa sometime around AD69 or 70 (or so I am led to believe).

Len Morgan makes very good Mainz type gladii. There are several in our unit (and I do not object to those).

Crispvs