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Roman helmets with Wickerworks cover?
#1
Did Roman soldiers ever wear wickerworks helmet covers?
First correct answer supported by an Ancient source citation wins $5.00 from me by PAYPAL or If not wanted I'll donate it to RAT!
John Kaler MSG, USA Retired
Member Legio V (Tenn, USA)
Staff Member Ludus Militus https://www.facebook.com/groups/671041919589478/
Owner Vicus and Village: https://www.facebook.com/groups/361968853851510/
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#2
Yes, according to Caesar's 'Civil War' III.62....Pompey orders his men to make wicker coverings for their helmets.

Please donate $5.00 Smile D to RAT....
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)

"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
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#3
Quote:Yes, according to Caesar's 'Civil War' III.62....Pompey orders his men to make wicker coverings for their helmets.

Please donate $5.00 Smile D to RAT....

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Here the whole quote:
"caes.civ.3.62": [3.62] Upon receiving this intelligence, Pompey, who had already formed the design of attempting a sally, as before mentioned, ordered the soldiers to make ozier coverings for their helmets, and to provide fascines. These things being prepared, he embarked on board small boats and row galleys by night, a considerable number of light infantry and archers, with all their fascines, and immediately after midnight, he marched sixty cohorts drafted from the greater camp and the outposts, to that part of our works which extended toward the sea, and were at the furthest distance from Caesar's greater camp. To the same place he sent the ships, which he had freighted with the fascines and light-armed troops; and all the ships of war that lay at Dyrrachium; and to each he gave particular instructions: at this part of the lines Caesar had posted Lentulus Marcellinus, the quaestor, with the ninth legion, and as he was not in a good state of health, Fulvius Costhumus was sent to assist him in the command.
And Later:
caes.civ.3.63": [3.63] At this place, fronting the enemy, there was a ditch fifteen feet wide, and a rampart ten feet high, and the top of the rampart was ten feet in breadth. At an interval of six hundred feet from that there was another rampart turned the contrary way, with the works lower. For some days before, Caesar, apprehending that our men might be surrounded by sea, had made a double rampart there, that if he should be attacked on both sides, he might have the means of defending himself. But the extent of the lines, and the incessant labor for so many days, because he had inclosed a circuit of seventeen miles with his works, did not allow time to finish them. Therefore the transverse rampart which should make a communication between the other two, was not yet completed. This circumstance was known to Pompey, being told to him by the Allobrogian deserters, and proved of great disadvantage to us. For when our cohorts of the ninth legion were on guard by the sea-side, Pompey's army arrived suddenly by break of day, and their approach was a surprise to our men, and at the same time, the soldiers that came by sea, cast their darts on the front rampart; and the ditches were filled with fascines: and the legionary soldiers terrified those that defended the inner rampart, by applying the scaling ladders, and by engines and weapons of all sorts, and a vast multitude of archers poured round upon them from every side. Besides, the coverings of oziers, which they had laid over their helmets, were a great security to them against the blows of stones which were the only weapons that our soldiers had. And therefore, when our men were oppressed in every manner, and were scarcely able to make resistance, the defect in our works was observed, and Pompey's soldiers, landing between the two ramparts, where the work was unfinished, attacked our men in the rear, and having beat them from both sides of the fortification, obliged them to flee.
John Kaler MSG, USA Retired
Member Legio V (Tenn, USA)
Staff Member Ludus Militus https://www.facebook.com/groups/671041919589478/
Owner Vicus and Village: https://www.facebook.com/groups/361968853851510/
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#4
The significance of their use is that doubtless Pompey knew from the deserters that Caesar's men had no missile troops available, as the author says....so the Caesarians were reduced to stockpiles on the ramparts of 'suitable stones' ( usually means fist sized). Hurled down, these would dent a helmet and kill/concuss the wearer.

The woven-wicker/basket-work osiers served as 'shock absorber' thus making the stones relatively harmless, and the shielded troops with only their heads exposed, were able to cross the 'fire-zone' all but immune to Caesar's men, until they were up close and in pila range...

That was fun !.....want to go again ? :wink:
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)

"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
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#5
This is interesting, can someone tell me if Vegetius in his Epitoma Rei Militari uses the same word for his description of the wickerwork shields used to train at the Palus?
Sorry for the off topic.
Olaf Küppers - Histotainment, Event und Promotion - Germany
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#6
Quote:The significance of their use is that doubtless Pompey knew from the deserters that Caesar's men had no missile troops available, as the author says....so the Caesarians were reduced to stockpiles on the ramparts of 'suitable stones' ( usually means fist sized). Hurled down, these would dent a helmet and kill/concuss the wearer.

The woven-wicker/basket-work osiers served as 'shock absorber' thus making the stones relatively harmless, and the shielded troops with only their heads exposed, were able to cross the 'fire-zone' all but immune to Caesar's men, until they were up close and in pila range...

That was fun !.....want to go again ? :wink:

The word ozier has been used in German to mean a style of basket weave pottery decoration and in English for a willow like plant used in baskets.

I am thinking about a scavenger hunt post in Reenactment next so watch for it. And others could start research challenge threads also! Big Grin
John Kaler MSG, USA Retired
Member Legio V (Tenn, USA)
Staff Member Ludus Militus https://www.facebook.com/groups/671041919589478/
Owner Vicus and Village: https://www.facebook.com/groups/361968853851510/
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#7
Ave Fratres,

Read this with great Interest ! So what did these look like? Did each soldier weave his own ?...and I guess to be effective there had to be some stand off from the helmet shell. I just have this recurring mental picture of legions attacking with the wicker waste basket I used to have in my office in Kyiv attached to their helmets,.....did these things conform to the helmet shape, just placed over the crown?? ,...I guess another point is since,... that their use is mentioned rather as a matter of course in the text, this was something well known?........or is this one of those" we will never know" items that are both tantalizing and ever so frustrating...

Regards from a cold and clear Balkans, with a forecast for Snow Arminius Primus aka Al
ARMINIVS PRIMVS

MACEDONICA PRIMA

aka ( Al Fuerst)




FESTINA LENTE
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