Making Pteruges (or at least trying to make Pteruges!)

[Tarbicus]

There are a lot of details, such as the soldiers wrapping their cingulum straps around the belt several times to shorten them while on the march, that appear on TC, but not in other places… things that an artist simply wouldn’t know to do, unless they’d all been in the army themselves. Which is doubtful. I'm not saying TC isn't idealized, only that the artists had plenty of actual troops nearby to use as inspiration.

Armour was banned from the city, but soldiers could wear their belts (and still keep their pugiones attached - thinking of the soldierly killing spree when some youths cut the straps for fun). Belts would be there for the sculptors to see.