Quote:Oh! Fancy.... Yelow tunic, deerskin leather shoes, Celto-Iberian Coolus helmet, Roman style mail, good sturdy shield. Just what position in the nobility does your friend happen to be?
Uhummm....
Dear Arthuro,
the helmet isn't actually a Coolus at all (and, anyway... Coolus is not a "Celtiberian Helmet"... AFIK Celtiberians relied rarely on helmets, and most of them where modified Montefortino types without cheekguards), but a Gallo-Italic, an evolution of the Berru helmet, and as you probably can desume from the name, it was concieved by the Gauls in Italy, precisely in the IV B.C.
An helmet quite common in central Europe in the III B.C., quite charachteristic in Cisalpine Gaul for Insubrians and Cenomanes and, in a minor way, for Senones.
This is a Coolus Helmet (precisely a Coolus-Mannheim):
This is a Gallo-Italic Helmet:
They are quite different.
Also, I don't see a particular "Roman" style on the chain mail... we have celtic armors with varoius kind of humeralia (doublers): straight, as the one depicted in Athena Nikhephoros', or oblique, as the one on various statues in gaul....
Actually, the only "foreing" element in the impression is the greave on the left leg, but it was used on purpose, for the strong tights between Cenomanes and Romans (lots of Cenomanes fougt as Roman allies during the republican period, and were the only Cisalpine Gauls that remained faithful tho Rome during Hannibal's invasion: Livy wrote about the Cenomanes tribe "ea sola in fide manserat Gallica gens")
About the tunic, that kind of strong yellow can be obtaind using broom (Genista tinctoria), a plant that was used for dyeing early in Europe.
For the shoes I cannot say If they are in deerskin or not... I'll ask to my friend Andrea "Agorix" (actually the guy in the impression)... but, however, is that important?