Oval shields c. 190 C.E.

[Crispvs]

Don't forget that the figures on the column of Marcus Aurelius are probably not directly modelled on real soldiers and equipment but are modelled much more on other sculptures close by. Its relationships with the nearby Trajan column are well known, even to the point of depicting the emperor at more or less the same points on the frieze. The sculptors clearly had an eye for aesthetic style as they executed the figures and there are lots of examples where soldiers marching in lines are shown in alternating armour types, with one man wearing segmentata, the next wearing mail, the next scale, the next segmentata, the next mail and so on. In this context I think it would be unwise to put too much faith in the depiction of shields on the column.

Crispvs