Ptergis and Segmentata at the Turn of the Millenia AD

[Matt Lukes]

I think i was confusing in my use of the term junior officer, probibly should have used NCO, since I was referring to an optio impression, and it is fairly common to see Optio's in segmentata. That said, the segmentata find at Kalkriese was very ornate, with alot of extra detail such as brass piping around the edges, a more refined turned up neck guard, unlike the later more mass produced looking coorbridge seggies, so the owner would have had to put out some extra money for the armor. But really thats not the argument, the dual belt situation seems pretty resolved, but having the ptergis under a seggy still seems to be up for discussion

You're under a bit of a misconception there Kevin- yes there was a little bit of copper alloy edge binding on it, but overall the Kalkriese armour is hardly ornate in comparison to the Corbridge. Virtually every iron helmet has copper alloy edge binding- they're not considered 'speical' for it, right? And there's really nothing in its construction that would suggest more money was spent on the Kalriese armour than 'the norm'- the collar looks cleaner because it's very thick (~3mm) whereas that of the Corbridge is thinner- plus the it's also quite well-preserved. In truth one could argue that the extremly simple hinges or the lack of decorative florate rivet bosses, for example, in comparison the Corbridge, makes the Kalkriese rather less ornate; moreover the fact that these rather decorative elements of the Corbridge were definitely standard suggests none of these minor details were extra costs to be sure. The Kalkriese artifacts would seem to simply represent an average cuirass. The only thing that its reasonably good construction might suggest is that the type wasn't made in such numbers as the later Corbridge- the evidence is more that the later Corbridge could be rather poor perhaps due to more lax standards, not that the Kalkriese is 'better'.

Also, there's only one grave stela I know of depicting an Optio, that of Caecilius Avitus, and while he's not wearing a segmentata, he might have peryges- the carving isn't of the highest quality and the photo on the Imagebase isn't so clear. It's reminscent of what the Signifer C Valerius Secundus has and those really could be pteryges, since they look quite a lot like what the Cenurio Marcus Caelius has, which are definitely pteryges. There are two standard bearers and three, perhaps four Centuriones with them- but none are wearing segmentatae; the only depictions I know of showing pteryges are with scale or mail armour. That being said, there are no grave stelae I know of showing anyone wearing a segmentata. The Adamklissi Meotopes show a few cases of peryges, but they're all mail or scale too.