officer\'s armor

[Marcu Lucius Scipio]

I have found a number of different features for officers armor ranging from the simple lorica segmentata to rather ornately decorated formed body armor. There seems to be no specific uniformity there. I wonder though, did more senior officers walking alongside the centurions have metal chest armor or leather body armor with built in cingulum? Surely there had to be more distinctive body armor about for more senior officers. Before I make any kind of purchase on anything I would like to know specifically about these things or is it more creative license.

[Marcus Mummius]

A lot of info on the lorica musculata can be found here:

http://astro.temple.edu/~tlclark/lorica/

Most tribunes and higher officers are depicted in this type of armour, but none has been found until now so there is quite a lot of speculation...

[Q. Vipsanivs Praetextatvs]

I have found a number of different features for officers armor ranging from the simple lorica segmentata to rather ornately decorated formed body armor. There seems to be no specific uniformity there. I wonder though, did more senior officers walking alongside the centurions have metal chest armor or leather body armor with built in cingulum? Surely there had to be more distinctive body armor about for more senior officers. Before I make any kind of purchase on anything I would like to know specifically about these things or is it more creative license.

In Roman army there wasn't uniformity like nowadays.
You can suppose that a Roman officer would wear a more rich armour than a legionary, like a lorica musculata, but no more, you can't say: A Roman officer wore that, that and that.

Vale :wink:

[Marcus Julius]

Most statues show the highers up to be wearing the musculata (which I'm assuming is what you refer to by "rather ornately decorated formed body armor")

As you read into this subject further, you're going to find that the community can't even decide on whether such formed armor was leather or metal, due to the lack of archeological evidence. Leaning on sculptural evidence, is sketchy as well, without archeological back up. Other parts of these "classic" styled kits, such as the "falcata" style sword have been found, but even those are rare. Either way, whether it was the full kit, or just the sculpture, every commander saw himself as the next Alexander (or possibly Alexander reborn), which is why they would be decorated in such classic Greek fashion.

[Matthew Amt]

I have found a number of different features for officers armor ranging from the simple lorica segmentata to rather ornately decorated formed body armor.

Well, first it may help to define "officer". I've certainly never seen any suggestion that any of the aristocratic officers, i.e. tribunes and legates, ever wore lorica segmentata. An optio or tessararius certainly could have, but they're at the bottom end of the spectrum. The debate is still open about centurions! Particularly since they had their own hierarchy. So it might be best to limit the term "officer" to the tribunes and legates, who were all members of the upper classes (equestrians and Senators). It also helps to try to narrow the time frame down--I'm most familiar with the late Republic and early Empire (basically first century BC/AD), so that's what I tend to stick with.

There seems to be no specific uniformity there. I wonder though, did more senior officers walking alongside the centurions have metal chest armor or leather body armor with built in cingulum?

All indications seem to be that aristocratic officers wore the lorica musculata of some type, and their armor and dress followed strict Hellenistic fashion. Now, it's not *uniform*, it's FASHION, and the Romans were very much slaves to fashion. On the other hand, we know very little about things like color, and there were several styles of musculata available, so there seems to have been quite a bit leeway within the general style.

Not sure what you mean by "built in cingulum"--do you mean the pteruges, the rows of narrow flaps at waist and shoulder? Those seem to have been built into the subarmalis or garment worn under the armor, and have no relation to the "apron" or strips hanging down from the front of a legionary's belt (balteus).

There are several huge discussions about lorica musculata and the construction of pteruges, so dig around and do some searching of the various parts of this board, and you'll find a TON of great information!

Good luck and Vale,

Matthew