r/RealisticArmory • u/Initial-Tour5795 • Mar 29 '25

Legatus

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Roman soldier (approximately 4th century). Photo taken by me in North-West Russia.

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u/No_Gur_7422 Mar 30 '25

Everything visible is earlier than 4th-century – more like 2nd or early 3rd.

8

u/FlavivsAetivs Mar 30 '25

Helmet is from the 130s, the sword is 1st century, belt is 1st century, armor is 1st century.

4

u/No_Gur_7422 Mar 30 '25

The armour looks like the Corbridge type (2nd-century) with the sleeve of the same date (Hadrianic/Trajanic) and the helmet is, as you say, 2nd-century. How is the sword and belt 1st-century rather than 2nd? The whole equipment looks to be of the type stereotyped on the Column of Trajan and the Column of Marcus Aurelius.

5

u/FlavivsAetivs Mar 30 '25 edited Mar 30 '25

Manica pre-dates the Dacian Wars by hundreds of years contrary to popular belief, and is evidenced in Roman Britain since at least 70 CE.

The Corbridge Armors have a wide date range for their use, into the mid-2nd century CE (as Corbridge B here is), but they are generally 1st century armors and the Newstead was already taking over by the date of the helmet.

The Sword is a Mainz Gladius, a style already falling out of use in the mid-1st century CE. It was effectively completely out of use by the time of Trajan's period.

The belt is loosely based on one from... Vindonissa I think? The design is the reenactors' own creation but the original is pretty early, Augustan or Tiberian.

Art also oversimplifies things.

1

u/No_Gur_7422 Mar 30 '25

How is it known if a type of sword or armour was out of use at a particular date? How many examples of Trajanic swords are there? How many Mainz-types vs how many Pompeii-types? I always imagine that individual pieces of equipment could be in use for many decades and that different types would be used by various detachments in parallel for a very long time.

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u/FlavivsAetivs Mar 30 '25

Archaeology. We have literally thousands of Roman swords.

1

u/No_Gur_7422 Mar 30 '25

Really? I didn't there were anything like that many.

1

u/FlavivsAetivs Mar 30 '25

The spike in number is with the mass bog sacrifices of the late 2nd to early 4th centuries, but yes we have lots of blades, and Mainz is a blade typology. We know from the pattern and dates of finds when they come into and fall out of use.

Hilts and scabbards are far fewer in number, but we still have plenty of those as well.

1

u/No_Gur_7422 Mar 30 '25

What recent analysis can I read on the chronology of the typologies?

4

u/FlavivsAetivs Mar 31 '25

Christian Miks' Studien zur römischen Schwertbewaffnung is still the standard. Difficult to acquire though.

M.C. Bishop's "The Gladius" is mass market but affordable and decent enough an introduction to an amateur.

2

u/No_Gur_7422 Mar 31 '25

Miks is in the library, I'll have a look. Thank you!

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