Gladiatorial Armor

[Gregory J. Liebau]

The deepeka thracian helm like so many of their helms, is not completly accurate. As with any replica you can pick holes, the thing to look for though, unless you have a big budget, are the ones which avoid the bog problems. I would suggest that the big issue with the one you have shown above is the cheek plates, for a while depeeka screwed the 'florette' looking things to the ceek plates as opposed to embossing them which is more period. The crest changes shape on the existing helms, so its difficult to pinpoint, but unless you are planning on spending a lot of money you will be stuck there. Be sure that the helmet has the embossing not the screw fix florette. I also prefer the loger crest box which reaches teh skirt at the neck rather than the one which pops out the top of the helmet, but this is more of a balance issue.

Thanks for pointing out the major inaccuracies in the helmet, sir! I don't have a very large budget, really, but I am hoping to make a custom order for a similar helmet from a very good armorer by the name of Parker Brown, here in the states. He runs Crescent Moon Armoury.

www.crescentmoonarmoury.com

His backlog is nearly a year, so I think I may purchase the Deepeeka Thracian helmet before then, just so that I have something to wear! It'd be a Christmas present, so it won't burn a hole in my own pocket

In every depiction of the gladiator I have found the greave covers the front leg, sometimes its heavily padded and sometimes his back foot has some very small padding on it. The thigh length greaves are almost exclusively for parmalarii (small shield fighters)

Thracians are small shield fighters, so I suppose I'll go with a Thracian depiction my first time around! I like the idea of using a sica, anyway. So, things should work out...

Left handed gladiators where universally feared, loathed and sort. You train against right handers all the time, whereas they rarely train against left handed fighters so suddenly their training can almost work against them. Much like boxers preparing for left handed fighters today seek specific training.

Wow, that's really cool! I feel special, now!

The depeeka murmillo helmet is about the most accurate out there, the bowl can be a bit high sometimes but that can be cut out and rewlded if you know a welder.

Hope this helps a bit more.

My dad does plenty of welding, so that probably wouldn't be a problem. I think I'm going to have to go with the Thracian helmet, though. Thank you for all of the help! It does indeed do me service!

Cheers!

-Gregory-