Roman helmets: Imperial Gallic/Italic and Ridge - comparisons and sources

[Nathan Ross]

The Imperial Italic Helmets, which replaced the Imperial Gallic, are considered to be an innovation made mainly for the Dacian wars

Italic helmets didn't replace Gallic ones (the distinction between them might not be that genuine anyway) - the Krefeld Italic D was found in a ditch almost certainly cut in relation to the Battle of Gelduba in AD69. The Hofheim Italic E was probably discarded between AD90 and AD122 - it had been stripped of its ornaments and so would have been an old helmet at that point. The Mainz Italic D was deposited in the Rhine, probably before the bridge was built c.AD83.

So the Italics probably predate the Dacian wars, and were used alongside the Gallics until the end of the 1st century (at least).

We have no firm information about helmet types in use from the mid second century until c.200 - the Italic H Neidermormter probably fits in there somewhere, as do the earlier 'cavalry' Niederbiebers and maybe the 'infantry' Thielenhofen. We have very limited archeological information on infantry helmets in the third century, aside from some Niederbieber bits from Dura, until the first composite helmets appear, probably under Diocletian.

So we should be very wary about assigning fixed dates to particular styles of helmet, or assuming that one type necessarily superceded another. Historians used to believe that the Corbridge style of lorica segmentata was replaced by the Newstead type in the early second century - until pieces of both styles turned up in the same deposits at Leon, dated to the late third century. Archeology is constantly updating what we think we know about the past!