Author Topic: Roman Armour  (Read 3645 times)

ahowl11

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Roman Armour
« on: April 11, 2014, 04:39:31 PM »
Okay guys, I have been talking to bucellarii from TWC, a renowned historian with old RTR. Here is something he PMed me:

"By the way I trust you are aware that the RTR Roman unit roster/skins for the bellum Pyrrhicum (i.e. the opening of the mod) was a known issue within the team.

Take for example the RTR depiction of the Roman heavy infantry all wearing the lorica hamata (mail cuirass). Here is an excerpt of a larger post I made on the subject:"

Quote
The manufacture of mail, which involves interlinking rows of iron or copper-alloy rings, is relatively uncomplicated. However, alternating punched rings with riveted rings and linking each one to its four neighbours is a time-consuming process. One reconstruction suggests that it took 4,813 hours (1.3 years, given a working day of approximately ten hours) to produce a single mail cuirass (Sim.D, Roman Chain-Mail: Experiments to Reproduce the Techniques of Manufacture, Britannia, Vol. 28, 1997). Whilst this estimate may be on the high side the manufacturer of lorica hamata is undoubtedly an expensive process. The use of the lorica hamata by Roman soldiers for much of the Middle and Late Republican period is accordingly restricted to members of the prima classis (first class).

those men who are rated at more than 10,000 drachmas put on a halusiddtos thorax (mail cuirass), instead of a kardiophylax (heart-protector) along with the others

Polyb. 6.23.15

It is not known what percentage of the entire citizen body is enrolled in the prima classis at any given time. The prima classis perhaps comprises a third of the heavy infantry in a manipular legion (Develin. R, The Third Century Reform of the Comitia Centuriata, Athenaeum 56, 1978); although this figure must have been significantly lower during periods of large scale mobilisation such as in the bellum Hannibalicum. It probably reduces still further during the second and first centuries BCE with the proletarianization of the Roman army (Erdkamp. P, The Transformation of the Roman Army during the Second Century BC in Ňaco and I. Arrayás (eds), War and Territory in the Roman World, Oxford, 2006; de Ligt. L, Roman Manpower Resources and the Proletarianization of the roman Army in the Second Century BC in de Blois L & Lo Cascio E, The Impact of the Roman Army (200 BC – AD 476), Brill, 2007)

To conclude, the Roman legions which fought during the bellum Pyrrhicum featured a variety of defensive body armour. However, the predominant form was the bronze pectoral (Gk. kardiophylax) and this probably remained the case until the Late Republican era and possibly beyond. Italic anatomical cuirasses must also have fairly common and it is likely the shoulder-piece corselet was also worn. In contrast use of the Greek-Style muscle cuirass was rare; whilst this type of armour might have represented an ostentatious display of the wearer’s familial wealth and status it was ill-suited to missile warfare and cannot have survived long into the third century BCE. The more widespread use of the lorica hamata only probably occurred as small-scale arms production by skilled local craftsmen was gradually replaced by more intensive methods of mass production and the establishment of state armouries (Cic. Rab. Perd. 20). However, at nearly all times during the Republican period the lorica hamata was only worn by a minority of Roman soldiers.

Thoughts?

Currently our Principes, Triarii, and Equites have Lorica Hamata as well as our Marian Cohorts and Antesignani, and Alae Cavalry lol
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b257

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Re: Roman Armour
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2014, 06:13:32 PM »
Hm, this is quite the conundrum, I did find this triarii made by vercingetorix_the_11
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=3000
Is this what bucellarii ment in regards to armor of that time?

As for the marian legions, I recall Lorica Squamata being fairley popular and being easier to produce if that helps any.

Edit: Actually he has a decent amount of units that could solve this issue for the romans:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/member.php?27050-Vercingetorix_the_11&tab=downloads2&page=1#downloads2

bucellarii

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Re: Roman Armour
« Reply #2 on: April 11, 2014, 06:44:43 PM »
The excerpt from ahowl11 comes from a longer piece that I posted about legionary body armour  which may be of interest:

Quote
Greek-Style Muscle Cuirass

On the altar lies a bronze thorax (cuirass). In my day this kind of thorax is rare, but they used to be worn in days of old. They were made of two bronze pieces, one fitting the chest and the parts about the belly, the other intended to protect the back. They were called guala (lit. ‘hollows’). One was put on in front, and the other behind; then they were fastened together by buckles.

Paus. 10.26.5

The bronze cuirass first appears in Greek iconography during the seventh century BCE with the Type I bell cuirass (c. 750/700 – 500 BCE), named for its outward flaring bottom edge. The Etruscans are among the earliest to adopt this form of armour in the Apennine peninsula, probably through their contacts with the Italiote Greeks; although they also continue to wear the circular kardiophylax (heart-protector) until at least the end of the fifth century BCE. The bell cuirass is supplanted during the fifth century by the Type III muscle cuirass, which dispenses with the outward curve at the base and increases the anatomical realism of the moulded musculature (Jarva. E, Archaiologia on Archaic Greek Body Armour, Studia Archaeologica Septentrionalia 3, Finland, 1995).

The dynamic nature of cultural-military exchange in the Apennine peninsula is evidenced by the spread of indigenous muscle cuirasses displaying both Italic and Greek features. Innovations include embossed collarbones and separate hinged shoulder-plates connecting the breast and the back plate. Pteryges (lit. ‘wings’, protective organic strips below the waist) are not favoured with uncluttered muscle cuirasses being preferred. The Greek-style muscle cuirass is frequently painted grey on Etruscan sculptures which suggests it was often silvered or tinned (Connolly, P. Greece and Rome at War; London, 1981).

The Greek-style muscle cuirass spread to Latium (cuirass, Museo Nazionale Romano inv. 115194-207, from Lanuvium; cistae, Museo Archaelogico Prenestino, pls CCXXI-CCXXV etc; bone plaques, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia 13236-7, from Praeneste) and whilst the archaeological record remains elusive the adoption of this type of armour by the Romans is securely inferred. Greek-style muscle cuirasses are rarer among the south Italic peoples if the surviving vase and tomb paintings are reliable evidence. Nevertheless, the skill and time required to make a well fitting muscle cuirass and the resulting high prices (Xen. Mem. 3.10.9-15 and Hipp. 12.1.3) restrict this armour type to high status elites regardless of regional specificities.

Italic Anatomical Cuirass

The rectangular Italic anatomical cuirass, an excellent representational example being seen on the warrior’s return tomb fresco from Nola c. 330BCE (inv 9363, Capua Vetere, Museo Campano), has either stylised or realistic anatomical features often similar to the Greek-style muscle cuirass. This type of harness armour, with the breast and back plates held together by shoulder and side plates, first appears in the middle of the fourth century. The majority of archaeological finds are primarily concentrated along the coastal regions of Campania, Lucania and Apulia.

The decoration (i.e. the stylised musculature) is undoubtedly the result of Greek influence being transferred from the muscled cuirass. However, equally certainly these cuirasses in an unmuscled form must have originated in the central highlands, for this is undoubtedly a native form. Romans were still wearing them at the time of Polybius' (Connolly, P. Greece and Rome at War; London, 1981)

The open and lighter design of the Italic anatomical cuirass allows for greater freedom of movement which makes this armour more suitable for missile armed troops than the heavier Greek-style muscle cuirass. The Samnite Wars of 343 – 290 BCE, principally fought in Campania and Lucania, is probably the period when the Romans first come into contact with this form of armour (Burns. M, South Italic military equipment: the cultural and military significance of the warrior's panoply from the 5th to the 3rd centuries B.C; PhD Thesis, London, 2005). However, it is unclear whether the Romans adopt the harnessed anatomical cuirass in addition to unmuscled kardiophylakes like the one described by Polybios (Polyb. 6.23.14), although two milites (soldiers) depicted on the north relief of the second century Aemilius Paullus Monument at Delphi (Figures 6-7) possibly wear cuirasses of this type.

Pectorale

The use of bronze pectoral (Gk. kardiophylax) type armours, reputed to have arrived in Italy via the Middle East during the 8th-7th centuries BCE, are common to all the peoples of the Apennine peninsula (Stary, P. F. Foreign Elements in Etruscan Arms and Armour: Eighth to Third Centuries BC, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 45, 1979). These pectorals, invariably with separate breast-and-back plates, are circular, rectangular or square in shape and are fitted using leather straps (Varro, Ling. 5. 116).

In addition, the multitude wear a bronze plate measuring a span in all directions (23cm), which they place in front of the chest and call the kardiophylax (heart-protector), to complete their equipment.

Polyb. 6.23.14

Use of the pectorale is of great antiquity among the Romans. It forms part of the dress of the Salii and early examples with incurving sides, measuring just under 20cm wide and a fraction over 20cm long, which date from the Latial proto-urban epoch, have been found in the Esquiline necropolis. Although no known examples of the pectoral type described by Polybios survive in the archaeological record a circular embossed copper-alloy plate, 17cm in diameter and decorated with concentric circles emanating from a central boss, has been discovered in the northern range of barrack 6/7 in the second century ‘Camp of Marcellus’ near Numantia. Fragments of other kardiophylakes have been found from the fortifications around Numantia of up to 25cm in diameter. These heart-protectors are probably the type envisaged by Polybios although it is impossible to say whether the armour originally belonged to Roman soldiers or troops provided by the socii Italici (Italian Allies).

Whilst Polybios makes no reference to a dorsal plate the pectoral type armours of the Apennine peninsula typically comprise a harnessed breast-and-back plate combination. Consequently, Roman soldiers of the late third and early second century, like their predecessors, are likely to have been equipped with a wide variety of pectorals; circular, rectangular or square shape, some with back plates and some without. This is unsurprising, partly because armour was probably passed down from father to son and is therefore potentially worn by successive generations. Greater homogenity may only have occurred later in the second century.

Shoulder-Piece Corselet

The Type IV shoulder piece-corselet, consisting of a thorax (corselet) made up of rectangular sections of leather or linen, two epomides (shoulder pieces) and pteryges (lit. ‘wings’, protective strips below the waist), first features in Greek iconographical sources during the sixth century BCE; although this type of armour probably dates back to the Late Helladic III period (Hom, Il 2. 529, 2.830; Strab, 13.1.10; Plin, NH 19.6.26).

Representations of the shoulder piece-corselet appear on Etruscan votive bronzes, sarcophagi and other material art soon after the middle of the sixth century. These are commonly the composite Type IV sub-type, supplemented wholly or in part with metal plates or scales laced onto the surface. The most well known depiction is on the late fifth or early fourth century bronze statue of the Mars of Todi where the corselet is apparently strengthened by rows of lamellar plates (inv. 693, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco Vaticano). Etruscan tomb paintings such as those found in the François Tomb, Vulci, the Tomba del Orco II at Tarquinia and the Amazon Sarcophagus, Tarquinia typically show white shoulder piece-corselets with red decoration (Gleba. G, Linen-cad Etruscan Warriors in M.-L. Nosch (ed.), Wearing the Cloak: Dressing the Soldier in Roman Times, Oxford, 2012). The ancient literature loosely corroborates the representational evidence. For example, Livy says the ‘thorace linteo’ (linen corselet) of Lars Tolumnius, the king of Veii, killed in battle by A. Cornelius Cossus in 428/437 BCE, was dedicated at the temple of Iupiter Feretrius, where it still could be seen at the time of Augustus (Liv, 4.20.1-7); whilst Silius Italicus writes that Etruscan socii (allies) from Falerii wore shoulder piece-corselets during the bellum Hannibalicum (Sil.Ital, Pun 4.223).

The handle of a lid of a cist from Praeneste showing three soldiers wearing composite corselets, perhaps dating from the end of the fourth century (Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia inv. 25210), hints at the spread of this Type IV sub-type into Latium; although the material culture in urban centres like Praeneste is strongly influenced by Etruscan art and also by the possible presence of Etruscan craftsmen. A small minority of Roman troops may still have worn shoulder piece-corselets during the war against Hannibal (Sil.Ital, Pun 9.586-588) and Roman representational sources suggest this type of armour survived into the first century BCE, although perhaps more as an informal insignia of rank. Conversely, the iconography of Apulia, Campania and Lucania indicates that the shoulder piece-corselet is relatively rare among the south Italic peoples.

The lightness and comfort of the shoulder piece-corselet makes it more practical and flexible than the Greek-style muscle cuirass. However, the Italic harnessed anatomical cuirass and pectorale offer similar advantages and consequently Type IV armour is less prominent in the Apennine peninsula than in the wider Greek world (Burns. M, South Italic military equipment: the cultural and military significance of the warrior's panoply from the 5th to the 3rd centuries B.C; PhD Thesis, London, 2005).

Lorica Hamata

Lorica ' corselet,' because they made chest-protectors from lora ' thongs ' of rawhide; afterwards the Gallic corselet of iron was included under this name, an iron tunic made of rings

Varr. LL, 5.116

Varro uses the word ‘Gallica’ to designate the ring mail cuirass and the inference that this form of Roman armour is derived from the Celts of the Cisalpina seems a sound. Following the disaster at the Allia in 390 BCE much of the fighting during the fourth century BCE appears to have been against a marauding warrior band loose in south Italy or in the mercenary employ of Dionysios II of Syrakuse, rather than against fresh Celtic incursions from the north (Polyb. Liv, 6.42.8, 7.1.3, 7.11.1-3, 7.26.9). The Romans may first observe the military properties of ring mail during these tumultuous years. However, the hard fought Celtic campaigns of the third and early second centuries probably play a greater role in influencing the Roman use of the lorica hamata (mail cuirass).

Mail armour offers the best protection; it is heavy, however, perhaps 10 kg to 15kg. Roman soldiers wear a belt to distribute the weight and centurions whose units lose their standards during the fighting with Hannibal in 209 BCE are punished by being forced to stand with swords unsheathed and belts removed (Liv. 27.13.9). Additional protection is provided by a feature known as ‘shoulder-doubling’ which defends vulnerable shoulders against hack-and-slash attacks. The representational evidence depicts two versions; either a small mail cape draped over the shoulder or a U-shaped yoke.

The manufacture of mail, which involves interlinking rows of iron or copper-alloy rings, is relatively uncomplicated. However, alternating punched rings with riveted rings and linking each one to its four neighbours is a time-consuming process. One reconstruction suggests that it took 4,813 hours (1.3 years, given a working day of approximately ten hours) to produce a single mail cuirass (Sim.D, Roman Chain-Mail: Experiments to Reproduce the Techniques of Manufacture, Britannia, Vol. 28, 1997). Whilst this estimate may be on the high side the manufacturer of lorica hamata is undoubtedly an expensive process. The use of the lorica hamata by Roman soldiers for much of the Middle and Late Republican period is accordingly restricted to members of the prima classis (first class).

those men who are rated at more than 10,000 drachmas put on a halusiddtos thorax (mail cuirass), instead of a kardiophylax (heart-protector) along with the others

Polyb. 6.23.15

It is not known what percentage of the entire citizen body is enrolled in the prima classis at any given time. The prima classis perhaps comprises a third of the heavy infantry in a manipular legion (Develin. R, The Third Century Reform of the Comitia Centuriata, Athenaeum 56, 1978); although this figure must have been significantly lower during periods of large scale mobilisation such as in the bellum Hannibalicum. It probably reduces still further during the second and first centuries BCE with the proletarianization of the Roman army (Erdkamp. P, The Transformation of the Roman Army during the Second Century BC in Ňaco and I. Arrayás (eds), War and Territory in the Roman World, Oxford, 2006; de Ligt. L, Roman Manpower Resources and the Proletarianization of the roman Army in the Second Century BC in de Blois L & Lo Cascio E, The Impact of the Roman Army (200 BC – AD 476), Brill, 2007)

To conclude, the Roman legions which fought during the bellum Pyrrhicum featured a variety of defensive body armour. However, the predominant form was the bronze pectoral (Gk. kardiophylax) and this probably remained the case until the Late Republican era and possibly beyond. Italic anatomical cuirasses must also have fairly common and it is likely the shoulder-piece corselet was also worn. In contrast use of the Greek-Style muscle cuirass was rare; whilst this type of armour might have represented an ostentatious display of the wearer’s familial wealth and status it was ill-suited to missile warfare and cannot have survived long into the third century BCE. The more widespread use of the lorica hamata only probably occurred as small-scale arms production by skilled local craftsmen was gradually replaced by more intensive methods of mass production and the establishment of state armouries (Cic. Rab. Perd. 20). However, at nearly all times during the Republican period the lorica hamata was only worn by a minority of Roman soldiers.

One final point - please remember that the members of prima classis, who according to Polybios wore the lorica hamata, were distributed randomly throughout the lines of the hastati, the principes and the triarii. Unfortunately the original RTW engine makes it difficult to accurately depict the diversity of armour within the ranks of the hastati and principes etc.

Regards

buc

Bercor

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Re: Roman Armour
« Reply #3 on: April 11, 2014, 06:52:38 PM »
What should the Marian troops use as armour, in your opinion?

bucellarii

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Re: Roman Armour
« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2014, 07:45:02 AM »
Quote
What should the Marian troops use as armour, in your opinion?

Firstly, I would say that the so-called ‘Marian Reform’ can be a misleading term that suggests  far more radical change than actually occurred.  One of my old RTR unit descriptions touches on this topic:

Quote
Although C. Marius was not responsible for the creation of the cohort his re-organization during the years 104–103 institutionalized existing trends. Marius extended the practices of Q. Caecilius Metellus in Numidia (Sall. Iug. 45.2) and reduced the baggage train by making the milites (soldiers) carry their own food and equipment, hence the sobriquet ‘muli Mariani’ or Marius’ Mules (Festus 149M, Front. Str. 4.1.7; Plut. Mar. 13.1). He also continued the weapons training introduced by the consul of 105, P. Rutilius Rufus (Val. Max. 2.3.2; Front. Str. 4.2.2.), and oversaw a modification to the pilum (Plut. Mar. 25.1-2). The adoption of the aquila (eagle) as the sole standard of the legion was also attributed to Marius (Plin. HN 10.16).

The most controversial aspect of the changes was Marius’ recruitment of the proletarii (men below the minimum property qualification for military service) following his election to consul. In total Marius may have enlisted between three and five thousand legionarii - “a rather greater number than the senate had decreed” (Sall, Iug. 86.4) - when authorised to raise a supplementum (supplement) for the two legions in Numidia. However, the enrolment of proletarii volunteers was on a limited scale and did not lead to a sudden change in the social structure of the army. The property qualification for military service was not abolished and subsequent levies probably continued to be restricted to assidui (men above the minimum property qualification for military service) until the demands for manpower imposed by the bellum Marsicum and the civil war of 83- 82 doubtless resulted in the call up of the proletarii, either as volunteers or conscripts. These years may have marked a turning point and the minimum property qualification was probably not enforced or abandoned altogether during the post-Sullan era (The Supposed Roman Manpower Shortage of the Later Second Century B.C: Rich, 1983). In any case the qualification had already become nearly meaningless by 107, since the difference between the assidui members of the fifth and lowest class of citizens and the proletarii was likely to have been very slight.

Turning to your specific question I would suggest that despite the more intensive methods of mass production and the establishment of state armouries mentioned in my previous post a significant number of Roman soldiers in the first century BCE, perhaps the majority, continued to wear more basic forms of body armour, such as  the pectorale. This is unsurprising if one considers the mass mobilisation of men during the period in question. Certainly, it is difficult to envisage the levies hastily raised during civil wars being fully kitted out with the standardized high quality equipment so commonly depicted in popular publications such as the Osprey series.

Regards

buc
« Last Edit: April 12, 2014, 10:57:13 AM by bucellarii »