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Porpax
#1
Hi , Can you tell me if the Porpax on an aspis had to be made out of Bronze / Brass ? What other material could it be made out of if any ?


Julius .
Julius Verax
Timetalkers

( AKA Paul )
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#2
Greetings!

Well... the question is, what do you want to do later with your Aspis?!

If you want to cary your Aspis in your living room around, you can work with wood. For my sake, paint the wooden porpax with bronzemetall color and youre done.

I would never do this, i preffer historicaly correctness Wink

But:

The thing is, you have to attach your porpax very tight to the Aspis. Expecialy when your aspis is heavy (8-9 Kilogram).
Its easy to fasten your (bronze) porpax with nails, on the upper side of your aspis with bended naills. Heres a nice site:
http://www.larp.com/hoplite/hoplon.html

A wooden porpax has to be relative thick (uncorrect) in comparisson to a bronze/Brass to be able to work under pressure. And a shield among other things, in a classical hoplite xiphos/kopis-fight, has to be very resilient.

I saw some beautyfull preserved porpaxes in the museum of delphi (greece). But theyre all heavy and made of thick branze.

If the resilient point is not relevant for you, i suggest you try other metal stripes like a steel plate/copper and bend them to a greek Omega (Ω)-shape.

Heres another one nice manual. (Sadly) in german but very illustrated:
http://hetairoi.de/pages/Porpax/porpax.html

Cheers!

PS: I forgot to say: The porpax made on the second link(german site), is a panel sheet.
AGESILAOS
a.k.a.: Agesilaos Agorastos
Heteroi de ton auton touton tas archas deka legousin einai
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#3
Only bronze or at least brass for the porpax. It isn't difficult to make and in fact i bet easier than a wooden one. But for your job you want something usuable so go for the real thing.
Khaire
Giannis
Giannis K. Hoplite
a.k.a.:Giannis Kadoglou
a.k.a.:Thorax
[Image: -side-1.gif]
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#4
Thanks lads , I was just wondering thats all . I like and need things done historicaly correct also esspecially with the job Iam in , as do we all.



Julius.
Julius Verax
Timetalkers

( AKA Paul )
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#5
I know it's only a movie but in "300" I believe they were made of leather.
Sure would be more flexible than brass/bronze but not historically correct.
I made mine from a brass door kick and was fairly successful the first try.
I haven't attatched it to my aspis yet, though, as I'm a bit shy about nailing into my shield after all the very difficult work on it.
(sorry about the earlier inaccurate statement. I remembered thinking .015
would be too flimsy)
Andy Booker

Gaivs Antonivs Satvrninvs

Andronikos of Athens
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#6
No leather porpax,that's for sure. BUT leather lined bronze porpax is very accurte. In fact late classical porpakes that seem like a very thin ring of bronze were actually lined with leather or felt or both in the shape of the earlier wider porpax.
Khaire
Giannis
Giannis K. Hoplite
a.k.a.:Giannis Kadoglou
a.k.a.:Thorax
[Image: -side-1.gif]
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