Roman Helmet Crests

[Matthew Amt]

Well, as far as I've seen just about every legionary helmet up to the early second century AD has fittings for a crest, so I certainly don't think they're going out of style! Coolus helmets usually have a knob with a slot, which is generally interpreted as being used for a block-type crest. They may have been short originally, like this one,

http://www.larp.com/legioxx/crest5.jpg

but some helmets seem to include a fitting of some kind at the back, so they may have used a longer crest box.

I do NOT think that any later-style helmets such as Imperial-Gallics would have used the much older horse-tail style of crest. That was simply out of fashion by then, and almost none of the fittings on first-century AD helmets are suitable. Once in a while you run across a weird possible retrofitted crest knob or something, and there are helmets like Montefortino F which is dated pretty late. The thing is that Montefortinos have a vertical hole in the knob which apparently accepts a pin from the crest. Coolus knobs generally don't have that, so it would seem the style of crest changed.

Were crests worn in battle after the first century BC? Don't know! It would be really cool, of course, but I usually tell folks they were more likely a parade item by then.

Vale,

Matthew