Roman Archer shields?

[Caius Titius Verus]

Hello,

In our group there are going to be a couple of men portraying roman archers. We do early second century reenactment.

Now we have a question left about archers, did they use shields? And if so what kind of shields? Or did they work in pairs, ie one with a shield, the other one with a bow?

On Trajan's collum it looks as if they have shields...or do we observe this wrong?

Thanks,

[Lysandra]

Are you looking at Auxilliary archers?? Because that will change a lot in terms of shield pattern

also, It is my opinion (I have little data to back this) that an archer would not carry a shield. You need two hands to work a bow, and I personnaly would drop the shield as soon as I got into a battle situation.

[Caius Titius Verus]

Yes, sorry I should have specified; I'm speaking of auxilia archers.

Were there "regular " Roman archers? Or were they all auxilia?

greets,

[derek forrest]

Legionaries are trained to use bows as with slings but probably not to use as a regular weapon. Archers seem to be auxilia. I have never seen archers with bows and shields. Originally groups turned out archers with pointed helms and long tunics and mail but Guard bowmen are dressed like the rest of the auxilia and can drop their bow and pick up a shield.

[Lysandra]

Also Auxilliary tended to be used to scouting, hunting etc. since archers had bows I'm geussing that hunting was left to them, large shields would make such tasks difficult and why produce something that would rarely get used?

[Quintius Clavus]

Archers in most periods, Roman included, were exceptionally vulnerable to determined attack by either enemy infantry or cavalry. The accounts I have read of Roman archers (and I mean for you to read this as Roman AUXILIARY archers, when I say "Roman archers") in action, say that they would either cut and run if charged, or else they had a screen of regular infantry ready to intervene. They were massacred if they couldn't get away or the infantry troops acting as a screen didn't hold.
At most, you might carry a small round shield, which could be attached to your belt, or hung from a baldric, on your left side. The key is to keep obstacles out of the way and clear for drawing the bow. A standard auxiliary shield would be far too big.
Arrian, in his account of facing Sarmatian cavalry, placed his archers behind eight ranks (if I recall correctly) of legionary troops. They were to "shoot" over the heads of the infantry into the attacking Sarmatian cavalry. At the same time, they were well protected by those same eight ranks of legionaries.

Marcus Quintius Clavus/Quinton

[Caius Titius Verus]

Thanks you all!!!

This helps!