04-03-2012, 03:11 AM
Nice pictures. Good idea to have a march in kit as a warm up event for the year. It would certainly make a change from the two weekends of drilling we do prior to the beginning of the re-enactment season each year.
I feel I should make a point about shield carriage. I notice that most of the men in the pictures appear to be carrying their shields on their backs by a harness featuring two shoulder straps. I have no doubt that this works well, but it is at odds with what little evidence we do have about shield carriage on the march. These are one of the Mainz column bases, Soldiers shown on Trajan's arch at Puteoli, Trajan's Column, and probably the stele of P. Flavoleius Cordus. All of these show shields carried around the left shoulder and Cordus' stele and the Puteli figures show what appears to be a single vertical strap over the left shoulder. Experimentation has shown that when combined with a horizontal strap across the chest (which may or may not be shown on the Mainz image) this vertical strap is sufficient to do the job fairly comfortably.
Here is mine, although the segmentata shoulders hide the vertical strap. The shield naturally hangs slightly further forward and I was holding it back somewhat when the photo was taken in order to better show the supporting strap (the photo was taken about five years ago to illustrate a point on a different thread).
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b73/Cr...imbase.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b73/Cr...zzouli.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b73/Cr...cordus.jpg
One more thing. Can we PLEASE start a serious movement to get rid of the short straps people keep on using to attach their pugios to their belts. It is based on precisely NO evidence.
Crispvs
I feel I should make a point about shield carriage. I notice that most of the men in the pictures appear to be carrying their shields on their backs by a harness featuring two shoulder straps. I have no doubt that this works well, but it is at odds with what little evidence we do have about shield carriage on the march. These are one of the Mainz column bases, Soldiers shown on Trajan's arch at Puteoli, Trajan's Column, and probably the stele of P. Flavoleius Cordus. All of these show shields carried around the left shoulder and Cordus' stele and the Puteli figures show what appears to be a single vertical strap over the left shoulder. Experimentation has shown that when combined with a horizontal strap across the chest (which may or may not be shown on the Mainz image) this vertical strap is sufficient to do the job fairly comfortably.
Here is mine, although the segmentata shoulders hide the vertical strap. The shield naturally hangs slightly further forward and I was holding it back somewhat when the photo was taken in order to better show the supporting strap (the photo was taken about five years ago to illustrate a point on a different thread).
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b73/Cr...imbase.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b73/Cr...zzouli.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b73/Cr...cordus.jpg
One more thing. Can we PLEASE start a serious movement to get rid of the short straps people keep on using to attach their pugios to their belts. It is based on precisely NO evidence.
Crispvs
Who is called \'\'Paul\'\' by no-one other than his wife, parents and brothers. :!: <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_exclaim.gif" alt=":!:" title="Exclamation" />:!:
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.romanarmy.net">www.romanarmy.net
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.romanarmy.net">www.romanarmy.net