The Boiotian Shield

[Paullus Scipio]

So, then, you rely solely on the opinions of Boardman, who only ever went so far as to allow that 'Boeotian shields may have existed......and again you don't say when he thought this - his later opinions as of 2001 I have previously quoted. What of the professor (whom Boardman cited with approval) that I also quoted, who stated they never existed ?(BTW, it was he who updated Beazley's work, lest anyone doubt his expertise). Granted, these are only opinions in the end - and based only on the pottery evidence at that, unless in arriving at these views they were aware of the lack of archaeological evidence......
In any case, Boardman's statement:

"The general conclusion is one which becomes increasingly apparent in many departments of Greek art and life-that they were prepared to anachronize, archaize, mythologize behaviour, but not equipment-always 'in modern dress', except, rarely and not completely efficiently, in Homer when it comes to the use of bronze or tower shields which may have become set in the story long before and so do not affect the generalization as applied to later authors and artists. It becomes, then, increasingly difficult to believe that the 'Boeotian' shield is a solitary and incredibly long-lived and widespread exception."

The latter part is demonstrably incorrect – for example warriors continue to mount and dismount from chariots, long after they disappear from the battlefield, Heracles and Teucer continue to wield bows long after the bow disappears from Greek battlefields ( not to mention Heracles club)….and others too. The Boeotian is far from the ‘solitary…exception'.