Why did the scutum have a horizontal grip?

[Matthew Amt]

As Travis says, the horizontal grip is much better in several ways. I'm not sure what you mean about facing your opponent--with the horizontal grip your left side and leg are forward, the shield braced firmly against the shoulder, and the head turned to that side. It's a very strong and aggressive stance, allowing a lot of force to be put behind the shield when charging. The Greek hoplon or aspis gives a similar effect, but the scutum is more mobile.

It's easy to maneuver the scutum, though it generally doesn't have to do much more than go up and down. Very simple to do. It's much easier to hold it up over the head of the man in front of you with the horizontal grip, as shown on the Mainz column base.

By "toggling", presumably you mean that the top of the shield swings out when the bottom part is hit? I saw that happen when a clever kid kicked a scutum--the top edge whacked him in the head! We laughed. (Perfect illustration of why karate didn't rule battlefields.) But there are folks who have found that bracing the left leg against the shield as well as the shoulder makes it rock-solid. Can't do that with a vertical grip.

Note that it does seem that at least a few Roman shields had vertical grips. Horizontal is definitely the rule, though.

Valete,

Matthew