Musculata Images

[Alexand96]

I know I'm going to be ridiculed for this by some. But, I actually have two musculata, one in brass and one in leather.

No ridicule coming from us! Hey, I've seen your leather musculata and now your brass one (in avatar) and they both look beautiful (even if I'm not convinced that they were made of leather).

And besides, if I may sidetrack for just a bit from our image-gathering activities, I do believe experimental archaeology/historical recreation is a valid exercise in helping us understand the past. If the brass musculata is very difficult to wear, whereas a leather one is much more comfortable, I by no means believe this proves that the Romans wore leather musculata, but it presents us with valuable information just the same.

If the most often portrayed (at least on the emperors) anatomical-style musculata, made from metal, was extremely immobile and uncomfortable to wear, and at this point in time we only have archaeological evidence for metal musculata (I believe there is at least one Roman musculata found on a shipwreck featured in D'Amato's Arms and Armour of the Imperial Roman Soldier)...I would venture to guess that the armor was much more seldom seen on the battlefield than artistic depictions would have us believe. Unless of course we do someday drag a nicely preserved anatomical-style leather musculata out of some bog or desert someday.

If you look close the ones that seem to show active troops like calvary and people that are not generals they tended to be very very short musculata so that you could bend over.

Sulla, I've noticed this short-style of musculata depicted almost as often as the anatomical-style in Roman art, and although I still believe that this would have been made out of metal (due to lack of archaeological evidence to suggest otherwise), I would venture to bet that this style of musculata would be more prominently featured on the ancient battlefield, for practicality's sake.

Of course these are opinions, and I could be entirely wrong. :-)

It's still great to have access to all of these great images at one's fingertips!