11-08-2018, 02:20 AM
I do think that after a while there was somewhat standardized production, sometimes in army camps, by contractors (publican) who supplied the army and even by craftsmen who specialized in making equipment to the the homogenized standard.
On the scutum, I follow Treloar who suggested that the shield was 75 cm wide before it was curved, the actual frontage fo the shield was about 65 cm. The Fayum scutum is 63.5 cm wide.
My point about the 19th century armies was simply to raise the possibility that an aesthetic could enter into military service precisely because it was an aesthetic (and you are right to note the variation in origin of European armies, sometimes based on actual hinterland recruits, sometimes importing a distant fashion)----but in the end I don't think thats what happened here with the Romans.
I'm personally comfortable with notions of open order! But that might be a fight for another day...
On the scutum, I follow Treloar who suggested that the shield was 75 cm wide before it was curved, the actual frontage fo the shield was about 65 cm. The Fayum scutum is 63.5 cm wide.
My point about the 19th century armies was simply to raise the possibility that an aesthetic could enter into military service precisely because it was an aesthetic (and you are right to note the variation in origin of European armies, sometimes based on actual hinterland recruits, sometimes importing a distant fashion)----but in the end I don't think thats what happened here with the Romans.
I'm personally comfortable with notions of open order! But that might be a fight for another day...
