Show here your Roman soldier impression

[Antonius Insulae]

I was trying to help you switch from making costumes to making a reenactment kit.
You see, I've seen way too many people spend money on things they soon wished they'd never bought. My own mistakes cost me more than those 200€. The main reason behind my post was to help you stop spending money on things you'd soon want to replace.

I understand your intentions, you tried to help me not to waste too much money, and that is appreciated. But I want to learn how to actually make the things, and first I have to start from something easier, and then I can gradually move to harder and more authentic materials. I am not a guy who would buy a whole kit from the cheapest internet store just to get it as soon as possible. I do appreciate authenticity, and will carefully check the things if I will buy them.

Ummm, my bad, I'd never guess the tunic is one meter wide. I can even see your naked shoulder, so...

The tunica really is 1 meter wide, it doesn't have added sleeves, and the "sleeves" it now has tended to "roll up" sometimes when I moved around, while wearing a subarmalis, a cuirass and a cloak.

The main reason behind a subarmalis is to cushion any blows that hit you. The second main reason is to make wearing armor long-term (think at least eight hours a day, three days in a row) possible and comfortable. I've seen people suffer even with a subarmalis made of four layer of linen and two layers of woolen blanket, so three subarmales, none of whis is padded, are exactly the kind of wasted money I talked about.

I know why they used subarmalis, but I'm not going to receive hits from weapons, so I don't need the padding that much. I left it off, since it doesn't show under the armour and it would have been extremely hot in the summer. It is still possible to add padding to my linen subarmales if so wanted. As it is to the leather subarmalis, inside it, and that didn't even cost me anything, I found the material from a dumpster, and just practised my skills with it.
I have worn armours for three days in a row, and I can say that padding is useful at least under the shoulder guards of lorica segmentata, and around the neck, since both segmentata and musculata armours chafed my neck a bit. Or then a focale scarf would be useful, but again very hot in the summer.

Except for the fact that such a high-ranking officer is quite unlikely to wear caligae.

Yes I know, but I made caligae now, maybe next time I try to make calcei, cothurni or something.

Yes, the scabbard is probably the best piece of your kit. But again, not the kind of a weapon a high-ranking officer would likely carry.

What would a high ranking republican officer carry, if not a gladius hispaniensis? A Greek spatha?

And don't concern yourself with the copper/bronze/brass question.

Phew, good to know!

Or you could make a leather musculata.

But do we have any evidence to support leather loricas? Since we haven't found any remains of leather lorica musculatas, and it's impossible to tell from sculptural evidence, if the armour was meant to be metal or leather. I personally don't think they were made of leather, since, even boiled, leather is not nearly as tough as metal is. Maybe, just maybe, leather cuirasses were used in the navy, if soldiers didn't want to drown with their heavy metal armour, although I haven't tried swimming with an armour, so I don't know if it's possible or not. But not everybody could swim back then...hmm...

I'm afraid this is the Internet. You need thick hide to survive here.
That said, yes, go ahead and post the pictures. Most people here, I hope myself included, are trrying to be helpful. You might not like the advice. Trust me, we've been in your place too. And you don't have to follow the advice you're given. In the end, use your own head.

Thanks, I will listen your advice, but make my own decisions.

A centurion would be, in my opinion, a far better choice. I guess you hope to found a reenactment group and a centurion can be much more useful than a high-ranking officer commanding a handful of fresh and poorly-equipped recruits.

Well, I didn't consider being a high-ranking officer any less reasonable than a lower rank officer or a miles, because there isn't any Roman reenactment groups in Finland which I could join anyway. I am not able to join a group in some other country in this phase of my life. I hope someone would start a Roman group in Finland someday in the future.

Don't worry, I'd guesstimate than more than half the world's segmentatas were made by Deepeeka. I've seen aluminium rivets in some of those segs too.

Okay, I have to think about that. My lorica segmentata is the earliest Kalkriese type, from Teutoburg forest battle, it has leather belts and buckles for fastening instead of laces or hooks. My own possible "reconstruction".


My main goal here is to become a better craftsman and possibly make all the kit myself. The weapon and helmet might be too big tasks for now, but nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Welcome into the brotherhood, and no matter how harsh some of us might seem, we do wish you luck.

Thank you!