02-13-2009, 12:05 AM
Quote:But there is that passage from Polybios specifically stating that the Roman cavalry abandoned the smaller popanum type in favour of the Greek-style shield as soon as they realized these were superior. As I stated in the book, I imagine the two styles (and the various styles of armour) actually co-existed side by side in various combinations with any transition being slow.
The problem is that it seems from evidence that the popanum shield was used all the way into Augustan times, as a relief from Thessaloniki shows. I don't know exactly when the round cavalry shield was dropped in favour of the scutum, but I would imagine the situation was something more along the lines of the popanum shield becoming less popular while the "Celtic" shield came into fashion and then the two coexisted, with the latter being preferred over the former.
Quote:That's interesting. Could you point me towards somewhere I can see some examples of these, preferably online?
Not online, no, but Pfuhl and Möbius' "Die ostgriechischen Grabreliefs" illustrates several dozen funerary stelai of Hellenistic cavalrymen from the Ionian coast, many of which show feature greaves along with the other elements of the horseman's panoply.
Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
