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02-18-2004, 12:45 PM

Firstly, I have been reading Josephus' 'Jewish War', and I have been wondering about the appearence of the Jewish forces - arms equipment etc. Any ideas on this, or suggestions of where I might look? 
 
Secondly, a couple of years ago I found, and then lost again, the technical/Latin term for the oval auxiliary shield (1st/2nd century AD). Could anyone tell me what this is? 
 
Thanks.

Crispvs · 02-18-2004, 08:18 PM

The shield you want is known as a 'clipeus'. 
 
Crispvs

mcbishop · 02-18-2004, 10:21 PM

The shield you want is known as a 'clipeus'. 
 
Sorry, but that is, so far as I know, a factoid :-( Any shield is a scutum. A clipeus (or clypeus) is one of those circular shields upon which you see Victories writing their shopping lists. So, whilst it is indeed often known nowadays as a 'clipeus', it is no more genuine as a technical term than 'lorica segmentata'. 
 
Mike Bishop

Flavius · 02-19-2004, 10:18 AM

Saluete! 
If I remember well, clipeus was the term used by Livy (liber VIII) to indicate the circular shield used by the roman hoplites before the "manipular reform", when the taller and narrower scutum took his place. 
Anyway I'm not sure if any ancient author has ever used a specific term for the auxiliary oval shield. 
Valete. 
--------- 
Fecisti patriam diversis gentibus unam; 
profuit iniustis te dominante capi; 
dumque offers victis proprii consortia iuris, 
Urbem fecisti, quod prius orbis erat. 
(Rutilius Namatianus - De Reditu Suo, I, 63-66)

Matthew Amt · 02-19-2004, 03:13 PM

Ave! 
Good place to start for clothing and equipment of the Jews in the revolt is Peter Connolly's "The Holy Land". I hope that's the current title--it seems to have gone through several. My copy is called "Living in the Time of Jesus of Nazareth". Anyway, it's listed on the Legio XX Bibliography page, 
 
www.larp.com/legioxx/bibliog.html 
 
The Jews wore their everyday clothing, which was pretty much Romanized: baggy square tunic with clavi (2 vertical stripes), sandals, and a rectangular cloak which had L-shaped markings at the corners, and purple tassles at each corner. They probably had very little armor, mostly captured Roman stuff. We know they were stocking up on weaponry, including weapons which had been produced for the Roman army but deliberately made as "rejects", which they would then keep and squirrel away rather than destroy or recycle. It seems they used a lot of bows and javelins, which make sense when you don't really want to get into close combat with legionaries. 
 
That help? Good luck and Vale, 
 
Matthew/Quintus, Leg.XX

**Robert Vermaat** · 02-19-2004, 03:53 PM

Clipei is used for the shield designs in the Notitia Dignitatum, but I have not a clue if that is based on any text or on later usage of the name. 
 
Valete, 
Valerius/Robert

**Robert Vermaat** · 02-19-2004, 03:57 PM

Angus McBride did a reconstruction of Herodian infantry as well as a Sicarii assassin for the Osprey volume Rome's Enemies-The Desert frontier. 
 
I have scanned/altered them a bit: 
<img src="http://www.fectio.org.uk/sites/masadainfantrys.jpg" style="border:0;"/> 
and 
<img src="http://www.fectio.org.uk/sites/masadasicariuss.jpg" style="border:0;"/> 
 
Valete, 
Valerius/Robert

02-20-2004, 08:19 AM

Err, Robert, that armoured guy is actually meant to be a Palmyran. 
 
The other Judaean in the book is that odd Herodian horse-archer, a not-too-convincing synthesis of several sources.

02-20-2004, 10:38 AM

Thanks all who replied. You've been very helpful. 
 
Regards, 
 
Carus.

**Robert Vermaat** · 02-22-2004, 03:55 PM

Hi Duncan, 
Yep, you're right, my 'Heriodian'is meant to be a Palmyran, but as (indeed) the herodian in the book looked rather silly, I assumed the Palmyran looked very Hellenistic, as Heriodian slodiers would no doubt have done as well. So yes, I forgot where i got him from, but the guy seems pretty interchangeable to me 
 
Valete, 
Valerius/Robert

Daniel S Peterson · 02-22-2004, 08:44 PM

Robert, 
Some Nottitia Dignitatum listed units have been given the designation "Scutarii", and and their shields are round, so the names may be interchangeable. Perhaps late oval version, was reserved for legionary heavy infantry (and cavalry with the scutarii title) and this is the late scuta, while the round shield of the Auxillia was a Clipeus in late Roman terminology. 
 
Dan

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