A Legionary of the Marcomannic Wars.

[Crispvs]

"The centurion is identified by his long-sleeved red tunic."

Ahh - I see Nick Fuente's article is still knocking around and influencing people. :evil:


"The theilenhofen comes with a brow guard though, and is also a good candidate for the Trajanic period I think."

The Theilenhofen helmet (both of them in fact - the other is a cavalry helmet) is a bit late for a Trajanic impression and is probably closer to the middle two quarters of the second century AD.

In the absence of other evidence I would think that the Imperial Italic 'H' helmet is suitable for the latter part of the Marcomannic Wars and it is possible that the baldric arrangement from Lyon may have been around in the early 180s (the Lyon burial is not exactly dated but is generally though to be some time in the 190s [AFAIK]). I would love to see the evidence for leather gaiters replacing greaves. Of course, our information on the appearance of soldiers at that period is extremely limited and as far as I know there is no secure information to tell us what a centurio would have looked like at the time. I believe that the suggestion that transverse crests were no longer worn comes from the fact that the cross-bracing seen on second century helmets would not allow the use of central crest holders. Of course, there may have been some other way to do it. We are hardly awash with infantry helmets from the mid to late second century (four Imperial Italic 'H' helmets, one of which survives only in the outline revealed by its surviving brass edge binding and one of which retained no fittings).

The infantryman in the second picture seems to be a reasonable reconstruction of a soldier perhaps of the 120s to the 150s (although his armour is the now out of date Robinson Newstead reconstruction), but the cavalryman is wearing a helmet which is probably several decades later and may actually be an infantry helmet.

As I said above, our knowledge of the appearance of soldiers in the mid to late second century AD is extremely limited, but we know that mail, scale and segmentata armours were all still being worn in the period. Spathas such as the one from the Lyon grave would probably be common, if not typical, although some soldiers may still have been using ring pommel type swords. I believe that scabbards of the period would typically have 'box' chapes made from bone or copper-alloy and scabbards would be suspended by the use of scabbard slides, four ring suspension being a thing of the past by then. His helmet could be of iron or copper-alloy (three of the surviving Italic 'H' helmets were of iron and the well known one from Niedermoemter was of copper-alloy). Conical helmets are also a possibility, especially for soldiers stationed in the East. Greaves are also a strong possibility and manicae are also possible. Pila were still being used, as of course were spears, as well as lanciae. At this time there was still a distinction between citizen and non-citizen units so perhaps auxilia might not have been equipped with pila. The fact that straight sided scuta were found in a mid third century AD context at Dura shows that the form must still have been current in the 180s, although large oval scuta are also likely. Subarmali with pteruges are likely.
Clothing in the period may already have developed into the style seen from the third century on, with narrower long sleeved tunics and trousers, but then again many people may still have been wearing the older style of Roman tunic. The knee length femenalia type trousers are a strong possibility, but long brachae may have been becoming more common by that time. By that time caligae seem to have fallen out of use as footwear and so a more enclosed type of shoe or boot might be more appropriate.

I hope this helps a bit.

Crispvs