02-19-2013, 02:48 PM
Face masks were not only used in the Middle East, but also in Central Asia and Mongolia, and we are sure the Mongols used them in combat. Therefore, a mask is not necesarily "parade armour".
Various kinds of Roman face masks have been found and are depicted from the principate to the early Byzantine period. They were used before that period (Etruscan face-mask cheekplates) and after that period (Sutton Ho). Ammianus describes them in the 4th century CE.
Persian face masks have not been found, and are not shown. Admittedly, we have found little, and the pictorial record too is not as rich as that of the Romans, but still, we only have Roman descriptions of these Persian face masks to go on.
Could it not be that, not only during the principate but during the entire Roman period, face-masks were characteristic of the oriental part of the Roman Empire, and this spectacular armour stimulated the Romans into describing Persians as personati, since they were orientals too? In other words, the connection between these clichées and fancifull descriptions and reality might not be Persian armour, but East Roman armour.
Various kinds of Roman face masks have been found and are depicted from the principate to the early Byzantine period. They were used before that period (Etruscan face-mask cheekplates) and after that period (Sutton Ho). Ammianus describes them in the 4th century CE.
Persian face masks have not been found, and are not shown. Admittedly, we have found little, and the pictorial record too is not as rich as that of the Romans, but still, we only have Roman descriptions of these Persian face masks to go on.
Could it not be that, not only during the principate but during the entire Roman period, face-masks were characteristic of the oriental part of the Roman Empire, and this spectacular armour stimulated the Romans into describing Persians as personati, since they were orientals too? In other words, the connection between these clichées and fancifull descriptions and reality might not be Persian armour, but East Roman armour.
