Just to add a little, the COH XV Voluntariorum was with absolute certainty NOT an auxiliary cohort. Therefore the leather shield cover fragments found cannot prove that auxilia wore rectangular shields. However, the disctinction between Auxilia with flat oval shields and Legionaries wearing the rectangular shield is a modern one mainly based on the pictorial evidence. I have not seen primary literary sources making this distinct division.
Interesting. That reminds me about something I read from Graham Sumner's excellent article from Ancient Warfare on Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard.
In the New Testament, Acts 10, there's mention of the 'Italian cohort' living in Caesarea. Now, would these auxiliaries carry the curved, rectangular scutum? If they were raised in Italy then using the curved scutum would have been in keeping with their 'native' style of fighting. Even if this cohort was no longer made up of ethnic Italians isn't it likely the practice of using the curved scutum would have continued?
Sumner also mentions the citizen auxiliary COHORT I CIVIUM ROMANORUM/INGENUORUM being based in Raetia.
Theo, there are no auxiliary forces made up of Roman citizens in the first century AD. The only time that Italian people served as non citizen auxiliarii was during the Bello Socii. When Romes hegemony was in full force on the Italian mainland all ingenui serving in the Roman army were Legionaries. That some vexillationes and Cohortes were stationed across the empire does not make them auxilia.
Correction: Sumner doesn't state that COHORT I CIVIUM ROMANORUM/INGENUORUM was an auxiliary force, just a citizen one.
Marcvs, I was unaware legionary vexillations were used during the principate before the civil wars. Since Judea had no legionary forces before the Jewish Wars I figured this Italian cohort was an auxiliary unit. So, I guess this cohort was sent from Syria to bolster the auxiliary garrison?
Getting back to the Fayum shield: Sekunda says that the shield was found in a section of an ancient cemetary where some buildings where mixed among the graves. The shield was found in one of these buildings along with papyrus fragments dateable to the late second century BC. He goes on to say that it cannot have been deposited by a Roman soldier as no Roman units entered Egypt before the middle of the first century. (Hellenistic Infantry Reform in the 160s, pg. 81-82)
Here is something else, a marble trophy recovered from Greece now in the BM. It is thought to date from the 80s BC during the First Mithradaic War. Notice the shield is curved.
