07-30-2015, 11:38 PM
In Caesar's De Bellum Gallicum he states that on one occasion the army was attacked so suddenly that: "The soldiers had no time to remove the covers from their shields nor add the plumes to their helmets". This is usually taken to mean that (at least in the mid 1st century BC) it was normal practice for plumes to be worn on helmets, except when on the march. Both the Montefortino and Coolus types of helmet had crest knobs for attaching feathers. The former seems to have used lead as a means of securing the feathers in place. I think that somewhere in Livy it's mentioned that the soldiers wore three feathers in their helmets, two black and one purple.
Feathers on the sides of the helmet are assumed usually (can't give you a literary reference for this, though - but there are helmets known where the fitments at the sides to hold the feathers can clearly be seen, as a mark of rank for the junior officer of a century (the optio). There is one such in the British Museum, for example. Of course they were also a 'badge' of rank for the centurion, where they were worn transversely across the helmet. There are at least three tombstones where this last can be seen.
Mike Thomas
(Caratacus)
Feathers on the sides of the helmet are assumed usually (can't give you a literary reference for this, though - but there are helmets known where the fitments at the sides to hold the feathers can clearly be seen, as a mark of rank for the junior officer of a century (the optio). There is one such in the British Museum, for example. Of course they were also a 'badge' of rank for the centurion, where they were worn transversely across the helmet. There are at least three tombstones where this last can be seen.
Mike Thomas
(Caratacus)
visne scire quod credam? credo orbes volantes exstare.
