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JohnnyShumate β Trajanic Legio
Published: 2013-07-23 19:15:20 +0000 UTC; Views: 16772; Favourites: 286; Downloads: 0
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The leg's protection is different, as the torax protection. Are those pieces Dacian?
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Leg protection is directly Roman.His segmented helm("Spangenhelm")is probably of Iranian/Persian origin brought by Sarmatins to Dacians(it is based on helmets depicted on Trajanus column).His scale armour is of the Sarmatian type however Romans also normaly usedΒ scale on their armours.Image is based on Adamclissy monument which shows less clichΓ©-like legionaries(and auxiliaries) of the Trajanic army.
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Thanks again Amelianvs!!
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He's wearing a Dacian helmet because it was salvaged to replace the legionaries' own damaged helmet?
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Could be a Germanic conscript. They were quite common in the late empire. Also, he has a ginger/blonde beard (can't see well, it's in shadow) which is not a common trait for Romans.
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Romans wore Gallic helmets during the conquest of Gaul (and partially based future helmets off of them).
A large portion of the Roman Principate forces were German recruits (and Celtic and Arab and African, etc) by that point, albiet rather Romanised (and Italy becoming less politically/militarly important as the Empire reached its rough full extent during the annexation of Dacia).
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The gallic-inspired helmet was the standard for quite a long time, but the armour became less uniform later during the Empire. This is probably the reason why his equipment is quite different. He has a Dacian helmet, a lammelar armour of some sort and leg protection which was uncommon for the Republic and the early Empire troops as they had large shields. But again, I am probably wrong as I am not really an expert, at least not yet.
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During late antiquity Roman army equipment was in fact as much "uniform"as it was in previous periods of earlier Empire-maybe even more standardized than in early Empire because it was only during late antiquity when Roman state established first monopol state factories focused on producment of equipment and dress for the Roman army only.Depicted legionary is a soldier in the army of Trajanus which can hardly by considered as "Late Roman"(personally I prefer to use "late antiquity" instead of just "late" because it would artifficialy ignored existence of the eastern half of the Roman empire for another 1000 years after fall of the western part).
As a legionary he cant be a Germanic conscript at this time(Germanics could surely enter the Legions but only in case they had Roman citizenship not without it).Although red or blond hair shades might be typical for the northern barbarians it would be a kind of clichΓ© to think this was not present among Romans at all.In fact some of the most famous Romans were blond and red haired.
His armour is not lamellar but the scale armour of Sarmatin type.His leg protection is normal leg protection for the 2nd century Roman soldier and it is directly from the Roman armouries.Who was wearing such leg protection and if only on one leg or on both this was always based in the Roman army on position in battle line and speciffic combat tasks.Soldiers who were to be stationed in the frontline of battle were from the rule equiped more heavily than the others and did have additional protective gear like this at least on that leg they were projecting in the front.It have no connection with size of the shiled(moreover shield depicted here is in fact the same type of rectangular shield so well known from popculture as that which you probably had on mind.Only this particular model have slightly oval corners which is completely correct-not all rectangular shields were completely square-like in shape,more types were in use.And Oval shields of the type which started to be the most popular in the Roman army by late 2nd century was not anyhow smaller in size or less protective than shield rectangular in shape.In fact some of those oval shields were bigger in size than those rectangular.
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I knew I was wrong, but this much... I should just quit studying history altogether. Goddamn stupid Romans...
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Why you should stop studying it?That would be a pity isn't it?
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Let's just say the history I'm studying isn't the one I wanted to study
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