Greaves and Vambraces in the rank and file

[L. Marius Victor]

Matthew Amt wrote:

What about them? Hold your shield up and hunker down.

If this was the reasoning of the time, then why use helmets or loricas at all.

But legionaries in this era owned their gear. We do have artifacts with the names of several owners...

Even today we "mark" our gear. Our first and middle initial and last name has to be marked on specified areas of our personal equipment. I own a Vietnam era flak jacket a Marine used in that war, and his name is still marked inside. I also own an M1 helmet dated 1943 with the soldiers name written inside the helmet liner. Does this mean that they owned the gear? Absolutely not. Soldiers have always marked their gear as a means to identify it as being the gear you are financially responsible for. The fact that there are artifacts with several names marked on them reinforces this theory.

Well, sorry, but the guys who were there at the time apparently disagree with you! We learn history from the EVIDENCE, not from modern opinion.

Which guys? The artists. Artists are, well, artists. You know, artistic license. Modern Hollywood directors are artists, too. I think that's all I have to say on that. And many of the "Historians" of the period are one or two centuries removed....not all of them, but many are. Much of the modern information on this period is based on theory and conjecture. There are far too many missing pieces to put your foot down and claim it as fact.

And have US Marines worn greaves in every battle since 1775? Aren't they be an obvious necessity?

ummmm....if you can create a greave that can stop bullets and shrapnel, then you've got something. Also, the tactics we use today are nothing like the tactics used in the 1st century AD. Try carrying all the equipment we have today, running from cover to cover, jumping down to the prone position, them jumping up and moving on....well, you get the picture. I don't think greaves would be applicable today.