05-14-2012, 06:52 PM
Quote:I understood there to be a find of Seg and other stuff associated with an Auxilliary.The copper alloy fittings (hinges, lobate and otherwise; buckles; hooks) are reasonably common finds from Roman fort sites, so much so that Gunter Ulbert (reporting specifically on his excavations at Rißtissen in 1970) suggested that auxiliaries were wearing the 'lorica segmentata'. It was fashionable in the 1970s and 1980s to adopt this theory. My impression is that it's less fashionable now -- largely down to the good Doctors Bishop & Coulston, I think.
The basic problem is that -- discounting Trajan's Column -- there is still no definite iconography proving the theory that only legionaries wore this type of armour and auxiliaries didn't. (Of course, we simply assume that all the men on TC who are not wearing the 'lorica segmentata' are auxiliaries, and all the men who are wearing the 'lorica segmentata' are legionaries, but there's no proof.)
