Scutum shield, and other issues

[Woadwarrior]

listen dont be so hard on me i live in a really small town with very little resources, and i dont have internet at home, and my school banes alot of sites
i would look this up if i could
if u find an older thread that answers these please send it to me

republican soldiers and casars soldiers wore lorica hamatA? what kind of shields did they use? the red traditional scutum?

once lorica segmentata was introduced (hadrains time?) did every soldier use that same uniformed armour?

did every soldier have a RED shield?

this may seem dumb, but how high was a centurions horsehair plume?



i am reading a book by seutonius about the twleve casars
julius cesar not only fought in gaul, but in germania, against mithradates of pontus, against parthia, in egypt, in northern africa
8 YEARS IN SIcily
fighting pompey, in northern greece and spain
is this suetonius account true?
how many years did casar actually fight?
it seems he spent his entire life fighting, for only a month as dicator.
could a single soldier fight in allo fo those wars?
were all the battles as big as say pharasalus, and actium?

[jvrjenivs]

Please send one question, or only related questions in one thread. Otherwise it isn't readable.

There are several types of shields, with different paintings (based on the legion the soldier was from, and maybe also the issue (parade schields)) The most common color was Red, althroug bleu was also a comman color.

[Praefectusclassis]

Hi Francis,
As to Caesar, yes, that's about right. He campaigned for a large part of his life. Parthia, iirc, was a planned campaign, which never came to fruition and where did you find the account of Sicily. As far as I know, one of his lieutenants conquered Sicily after Caesar had invaded Italy, but that did not take nearly that long.

[Arne Joakim]

>republican soldiers and Caesars soldiers wore lorica hamatA?
Yes and no. Before ca. 100B.C. only the wealthier soldiers wore mail, other wore a square bronze plate about 20*20 cm^2 By Caesars time most soldiers wore mail.

>what kind of shields did they use? the red traditional scutum?
Kind of, but i don't think they always were red.

>once lorica segmentata was introduced
>(hadrains time?)
No, much earlier...
>did every soldier use that same uniformed armour?
No, definitly not. Some wore segmentatas, some wore mail and some wore scale armour.

>did every soldier have a RED shield?
Probably not.

>this may seem dumb, but how high was a centurions horsehair plume?
My guess would be about 0.2m
(typo corrected)

I hope this helps
:wink:

[Andrew Brozyna]

Francis,

I recommend you go to your local library and check out "The Roman Army," by Peter Connolly. Just about every library I've been to has a copy, so it shouldn't be hard to find. This book is often shelved in the juvenile section, but it's well detailed and a great resource. It would be a good starting point for further research.

[Woadwarrior]

my local library has about 100 books

[John M McDermott]

By all means continue scanning the RAT, because online resources crop up all the time.

All the questions you raise have been discussed in various topics, often at great length.

There are general rules about shields, but, the more you learn about Romans, the more you become aware that no rule really stands up all the time.

It has long been thought that Caesarian soldiers used the El-Fayum type long shield, but I saw a coin on the RAT recently from Caesar's time showing troops using the shortened shield that everyone has sort of "agreed" was only used during the Augustan period. Even Russell Robinson's seminal book shows legionaires of the period using shields of strange shapes.

If this confuses you, welcome to the club. There's lots more issues just like that.

As a guide, I would follow the general rules until you get more knowledgable as to when you can violate them.

[Caius Fabius]

my local library has about 100 books

Does your local library have a librarian? if so, ask if the local library can get books using the inter-library loan system. That can get you connections to all over the area and many different libraries and their books, right in your own library!

Can you join and look at yahoogroups from your school connection?
There are some groups with lots of photos that might be helpful to you.
ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/FtLafe43AD/photos
has some interesting photos, if you can become a member.

[Woadwarrior]

nope yahoo is banned too

is it possible to copy those pics, and paste them on this site

[Chuck Russell]

yahoo is banned?

i think i see the problem with schools and sites. we use the words like war, sword etc.

i'll work on some pics form our last event for u when i get home this eve

[Woadwarrior]

kk thanx a lot

alot of boards even on this site get baneed at my school

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

The Republican scutum was a curved oval, which was later modified to the augustan scutum, which was the rep scu with the top and bottom cut off, but with curced sides. this was followed by the more widely recognizable "traditional scutum"

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Lorica segmentata was actually in use by as early as 9ad, which was Augustus' period, and possibly even earlier. Remains were found at the site of the slaughter of Varus' lthree legions in the tuetoburger (Kalkriese in Germany) when Arminius a renagade auxiliary officer betrayed the romans and led them into an ambush, which efectively stopped roman expansion.

[John M McDermott]

Why only possibly earlier than 9 AD? Was the first one invented in 9 AD and then lost at Teutoberger Wald? Seems doubtful.

[Tarbicus]

9BC isn't it, the earliest dated piece? No doubt it had been in use for some time previous to that.