Late Roman troops: \"normal\" vs. elite

[Nathan Ross]

Perhaps only the Palatine legions wore the cuirasses whilst the comitatensis units wore the mail/scale hauberks?

I wondered that. Relief showing soldiers in the cuirass seem to suggest that they are bodyguard or front line troops (as do, I believe, the arch of Constantine and the smaller Ludovisi sarcophagus) - but these reliefs tend to have an understandably emperor-centric focus!

Valentinian I's helmet... 'shone with scintilating light' from the gems on it.

So did Constantine's helmet at Milvian Bridge, which according to the panegyric was 'glittering with gems flashing light'. A painting at Aquileia showed a girl (Fausta?) offering him a gilded helmet set with gems and the 'plumes of a beautiful bird'.