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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Henrix" data-source="post: 192927" data-attributes="member: 3587">The best source is of course <a href="http://www.ospreypublishing.com/" target="_blank">Osprey Publishing</a>.They have several very good books about the Roman army (well, about any army, basically), detailing equipment and tactics. And they're generally well up to date with the latest in ancient history.The lorica segmentata (which is not the Roman name for it, but from the renaissance) did probably not see much use in reality. It was heavy, cheap, and survives well in the ground, and so is overrepresented in the archaological findings.It saw most of it's use in Britain and germany, and seems to be a speedy replacement for all the armour that was lost when Varus lost all those legions in the Teutoburger forest, in 9 AD.The chain shirt is originally of gallic make, and seems to heve been in use as early as the third century BC. The same goes for the scale mail, albeit it was cheaper, and saw much use, especially in the eastern mediterranean region.The reinforced helmet, or gallic imperial, was adopted from the gauls after Ceasar (Julius) conquered them. It saw wide use from the beginning of thefirst century.Other helmets were used earlier, often a much simpler helmet, similar, but without reinforcements.The square shield is another early imperial innovation. Earlier the shields were more rounded, but of the same general size, and flat (not semi-cylindrical as the square shields).The swords. The gladius was a Celtiberian sword (i.e. from Spain/Portugal). Iberia was conquered during the Punic wars and the gladius and the gladius became the primary side arm of the romans, around 200 BC. The best gladiuses came from spain for as long as they were used.The Spatha is, yet again, a gallic innovation. The romans used it as a cavalry sword, I think from, say, first century BC.Many other weapons and armours were used by the legions themselves throughout the Roman era, and in particular by all the various auxiliary troops.</blockquote>

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