Polybius\' description and the Fayum scutum

[Macedon]

a palaeste is 1/4 of a Greek foot so about 7.8 cm or 3 inches. The word "thickness" is not in the original [hence the () ] and it is actually the main topic of Treolar's article (1971), who maintains that the point in question should be read as the depth of the curvature or else the shield would be unwieldy, which is very true. However, the text is not as clear as we would like to here.