Shield cover depicted on monument??

[Crispvs]

For what it is worth, I am inclined to think that the detail Peronis points out is probably meant to indicate shield covers. However, the question must be asked whether shield covers actually looked like this or whether this is simply a sculptor's impression of something which had been described to him.

As far as I know, the surviving evidence for shield covers indicates a more or less continuous 'rolled edge' forming a tube around the outside which would have accommodated a drawstring or drawstrings. Now it may be that the shield covers used in the west were different from those used in the east, or it may equally be that the common method of using a rolled edge to identify a fragment of shield cover is flawed. Either way we do not know enough to state anything catagorically. However, some shield covers have survived reasonably intact and these do indate that some covers at least featured a continuous tubular edge.

I have a good deal of material on the subject of shield covers but unfortunately I am not permitted to quote it or give anyone copies. I will bring it to the Lunt this weekend for anyone who will be there and would like to see.

In the meantime, as I said, I think it is probably that the sculpture may be intended to depict shield covers, but I would caution against anyone trying to make one to match what we seem to be seeing on the column.

Regarding the shield grips on the column, I suspect that the sculptors may have had better knowledge of the captured equipment which would have been paraded through Rome and may have taken some of their inspiration from this. Certainly the sculptor who did the base of the column seems to have had some idea of what some of the captured equipment looked like.

Crispvs