Customizing Helmets and gear

[ANTONIVS MAGNVS]

Hi everyone this is my first post here. I've enjoyed reading and seeing everyone's gear. There are some great artisans here. Unfortunately I found this site too late and purchased an Indian Gallic helmet which is incorrect in several ways. I'll probably never get involved in re-enactment but I will customize the helmet to make it more authentic. I'll post pictures later. I also collect Roman coins specifically from the late Republic/Imperatorial period up to the Flavians with a soft spot for Mark Antony. Click here www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/index.php?cat=18312 for my coins.


But for now a question:

Do we know if Roman legionaries decorated and customized their helmets and gear? The reason I ask is that I occasionally race cars on track days and one of the first things everyone does is customize their race helmet and Nomex suits. Is there any evidence that the Romans did the same or was it all standardized? Did they have any leeway in customization?

Thanks! Look forward to hearing the comments and conversation.

[Titus Marius Secundus]

Hello Jay and welcome to RAT!

Equipment would have been standardized to a point. Not every man in a 5,000 manned legion wore the same armor etc, as was wrongly said in another topic. Hamata never got out of use, nor squamata, and was quite popular. Lorica segmentata was equally popular in the eras it was around. It was cheaper, but like hamata, with serious pros and cons!
Romans polished and tinned their equipment to look nicer.Swords would be of the same style, but with different designs. Some very plain, some very intricate. Those of higher rank would have been able to afford more labor intensive equipment.
A legionary might have requested a certain design to be modified to his scabbard, or have his shield painted a different design, but in general all their equipment, of the same type was more or less the same. One hamata would look very much the same as another hamata, same with segmentata. Only small things like a sword's locket plate would look diffenent, and the large surface of a shield. Even a shield is up for debate, as as far as everything goes, we have only found so many examples, and those cannot speak for thousands of others.
Decor was in itself standardized too, but really one type of helmet would look very like it's sister helmet. If the helmet was unlucky, it would have two sisters that look the same, or, 50!
The Romans wouldn't go around with slogans on any of their equipment, but if likely for noticeable differences, I'd bet on it being the shield.
Nice collection btw

Sam

[damianlz]

Hello Jay and welcome to RAT!

The Romans wouldn't go around with slogans on any of their equipment, but if likely for noticeable differences, I'd bet on it being the shield.
Nice collection btw

Sam

I feel a serious urge to paint an "Aliens" inspired quote on mine. Peace through superior Maniples or Gual Stompers - We endanger Crispis ,something along those lines.

[Theodosius the Great]

We have helmets with the original owners' name etched on the neck guard (both on the outside and inside, I believe).

You can probably add decorative rivet bosses like these from Armamentaria on the cheeks and brow.

Some can even have inlaid corals like this helmet. Notice the helmet has a fancy beaded edge on the brass brow plate. Other helmets have a simple beaded motif on the brass edging on the cheeks, neck guard, and even on the bowl (Italic 'H')

If you decorate within these restrictions I'd say you're probably on safe ground as far as accuracy goes and depending on what kind of soldier the helmet is intended for. It's worth your while to check out the RAT helmet database here to view images of originals:
http://www.romanarmy.com/cms/component/o...Itemid,96/

~Theo

[ANTONIVS MAGNVS]

Thanks everyone for the welcome. I was thinking of changing my brow plate and beading around the cheek and neck guards. It's really a part of human nature to customize things isn't it? I also have to change my plume mount to a fork type. I'm going to attempt to make one myself out of brass. Like I mentioned I bought the wrong helmet So at least I can make it as "right" as I can while personalizing it within a historical context.

[markusaurelius]

From the archeological record there certainly appears to be a high level of customization, as very few twins exist. Although there is some level of style similarities, such as the shape of a cheek guard or how a neck is done. That being said there is a huge vareity of small and some larger differences. From the decoration on a scabbard plate to the type and shape of the bronze accents.

This continued through to the late empire as we are finding out that there were countless different styles based on the same original design. There also must have been regional variations and styles that would have allowed a soldier from Hispania to tell that anothe one was from Britian.

Some of Theo's ideas are a great start, and so it punching in your latin name onto the top of the brow or neck area.

[ANTONIVS MAGNVS]

Thanks Markus. The names would have been punched in or scratched in? I have an letter punch set. I may just give that a try.

[Crispvs]

Of course, in an economy where everything has to be handmade, no two items are ever going to be exactly the same even from the same craftsman. Differences would increase between different workshops and even further between different regions. Thus what for the Romans might have been the same basic pattern might seem to us like a multitude of similar patterns.

There is some possible evidence though for soldiers customising their equipment. An imperial Gallic type 'F' helmet from Sisak was fitted to take a transverse crest so was he property of a centurio. Its surface had been tinned but sometime later the tinning had evidently worn thin and it was tinned again. Later still it was covered with silver foil decorated with punched designs.

The belt plates from the Velsen burial had also been customised. Some had been shortened by having an end folded over and the worn tinning had been covered with a rather inept layer of silver foil.

A third item which might fit the criteria for a customised item would be a type 'B' front plate from a pugio sheath from Xanten. This had evidently been removed from its sheath after the next style of decoration was introduced and was turned over for a more up to date style of decoration to be applied before (presumably) being reattached to its sheath with the original decorated surface now forming the back of the plate.

An example of a probable repair which might also count as a customisation would be the Imperial Gallic type 'D' helmet which was destroyed in the Second World War. Some of the decorative washers appeared to have been replaced on one side of the neck guard and had been filled with red coral rather than the red enamel used on the other parts pf the helmet.

I hope that helps a little with your question.


Regarding punching versus scratching to mark names and units on equipment, both methods were used by Roman soldiers, often very untidily!

Crispvs

[PhilusEstilius]

The neck guard of the Gallic D only had a replacement rossete at the right end which may indeed simply have been the original becoming lost, and the left cheek plate was also a replacement that only had bronze concentric circle rossetes as oppossed to the decorative silver ones all over the rest of the helmet. The left cheek plate also did not have the rope work edging as the rest of the helmet which bears out the fact of it being a replacement piece.

[PhilusEstilius]

The Gallic D helmet has been thought to be a centurians and would have been custom built to a senior soldiers requirement rather than anything to do with customisation in any general sense.

[Crispvs]

Which is why I mentioned it as a repaired item. When I came to thinking of items which had been customised or modified the four items I mentioned were simply the first examples I thought of. Further examples of possible customisation might be the Berzobis helmet, with its retro-fitted cross re-enforcements (although this is probably an example of a standard upgrade being made to numerous helmets at the time, possibly as a result of a general order), the helmets from Florence helmet and Krefeld whose neck guards were cut away by later users and a Montifortino type 'C' which Celer mentioned to me which had had a brow guard/peak added at some later stage (although again this might have been part of a standard upgrade of the type I suggested above).

Crispvs

[PhilusEstilius]

I think the idea of the customisation that Jay is refering to is the personal alteration of Helmets and gear by the ordinary soldier himself, ie some kind of alteration to make their helmet or piece of kit stand out to their own requirement even attraction.

The Gallic D however did have an actual replacement left cheek plate fitted as observed by Lindenschmit when he published his paper on this helmet, in fact he also gave the suggestion of it being a centurians helmet due to the style of its crest holder.
However all of its very decorative appearance was made to the requirements of a very wealthy centurian who also had even a unique type of fastening installed (or possibly a fastening that only comes to light with the discovery of this helmet)

[franciscus]

I need the "specialists-advice" before I start on customizing my Gallic A (Deepeeka)... Would it be historical-correct if I would add brass edgings on the cheeks, neck guard, and even on the bowl ? Is this possible with a miles impression of the Caesar Augustus era ? Or are those "bling-bling things" something of a later period ?

[jvrjenivs]

I need the "specialists-advice" before I start on customizing my Gallic A (Deepeeka)... Would it be historical-correct if I would add brass edgings on the cheeks, neck guard, and even on the bowl ? Is this possible with a miles impression of the Caesar Augustus era ? Or are those "bling-bling things" something of a later period ?

Bling-bling is not something especially of the later period, but as far as I know the gallic A helmets were all found without edging, as do most of those earlier helmets.

[franciscus]

Gratias tibi ago, jurjen