11-04-2002, 06:16 PM
Suzy:<br>
My blowup shows helmets roughly Pompeii/provocator in shape but no sign of the characteristic brow reinforce. Visor detail is sketchy but the helms seem roughly spherical, which may be an exaggerration. The crest boxes appear to be metal and permanently affixed, as on the thraex and murmillo helms, topped with very bushy feathers that appear greenish in most color repros I've seen.<br>
Conal:<br>
I'm with you on the shield. I think it's an equites shield. In art, the hoplomachus shield is usually the "salad-bowl" style, very deeply convex. I used to think this was strictly an arena shield since I'd neverseen the design elsewhere, but in the Osprey "Republican Roman Army" book, on p. 43, there is a photo of the base of a momnument said to have been erected to a consul of 29, featuring trophies of arms. The middle shield is a hoplo salad bowl, so maybe it saw military use as well. Most depictions suggest a center grip, but the hoplomachus on the Umbricius Scaurus monument from Pompeii shows a rare inner view, and the gladiator is gripping it at the rim like a Greek hoplon (I have issues with details of this monument, which is known only from 18th century drawings, but that's a subject for another thread.) <p></p><i></i>
My blowup shows helmets roughly Pompeii/provocator in shape but no sign of the characteristic brow reinforce. Visor detail is sketchy but the helms seem roughly spherical, which may be an exaggerration. The crest boxes appear to be metal and permanently affixed, as on the thraex and murmillo helms, topped with very bushy feathers that appear greenish in most color repros I've seen.<br>
Conal:<br>
I'm with you on the shield. I think it's an equites shield. In art, the hoplomachus shield is usually the "salad-bowl" style, very deeply convex. I used to think this was strictly an arena shield since I'd neverseen the design elsewhere, but in the Osprey "Republican Roman Army" book, on p. 43, there is a photo of the base of a momnument said to have been erected to a consul of 29, featuring trophies of arms. The middle shield is a hoplo salad bowl, so maybe it saw military use as well. Most depictions suggest a center grip, but the hoplomachus on the Umbricius Scaurus monument from Pompeii shows a rare inner view, and the gladiator is gripping it at the rim like a Greek hoplon (I have issues with details of this monument, which is known only from 18th century drawings, but that's a subject for another thread.) <p></p><i></i>
