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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eben" data-source="post: 192894" data-attributes="member: 1379">It's been pointed out in other threads, but I'll repeat it. A great resource for info on anciens warfare is John Warry's Warfare in the Ancient World.As to Roman arms and armour: what period?In the early republic there would have been a lot of influence from Etruscan, Samnite and Greek  cities. The Romans that fought Hannibal would bear no armour, a square metal breastplated or a chainmail shirt. (The latter being rather unique and only worn by the real veterans.) At this time the soldier was a Roman citizen and provided his own equipement. (An interesting foot note is that the cain shirt was probably a celtic influence: it was worn by the Gauls and onther Celtic peoples long before the Romans adapted it. The difference was of cource that Rome managed to produce chain on a larger scale.)The reforms of Marius made a more uniform legion. Soldiers would no longer have to be citizens and would be unifomly equiped with a chain shirt, gladius, pugio and pilum. The oval (clipped?) shield would be worn on the back, protected by a hide cover while on the march. Legionaries at this time referred to themselves as "Marius' mules" because the would have to wear a full kit on their backs, so as to minimize baggage trains slowing down the legions on the march.The archetypical legionairs are the soldiers Trajanus used in his conquest of  Dacia (roughly modern Roumenia.)(note: during this campaing most soldiers reïnforced their helmets with a metal band running acros it. The Dacian falx (cross between a two handed sword and a halberd) would otherwise slash right throug it.) Most legionaries would wear a lorrica segmenta. In D&D terms this could be seen as a sort of banded mail: metal strips fastened together to provide rear, torso and upper arm protection. They would wear a shawl to protect the neck against the metal cutting them. Pictorial evidence suggests that this shawl became somewhat of a fashion rage among the auxilia troops who were still wearing mail. The lorrica segmenta probably never fully replaced the chainmail (economic of scale.) These are the legionaries you see in the move Gladiotor.In the later Imperial period there was a lot of influence from barbarian immigrants. The legions were replaced by low grade frontier troops: limitanei and the elite mobile forces: comitatense. There is no real agreement over the troop quality in this period. There is also a lot of debate concerning the amount of armour worn in this period. The pilum seems to have become obsolete and replaced by a spear and spatha (originally a Germanic weapon if I'm not mistaken.) Round shields had become the norm.If you want further details, ask away, but I would probably have to look it up first.Cheers.</blockquote>

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