Legionary Equipment During Reign of Marcus Aurelius

[Nathan Ross]

However, would the tunic have had long sleeves?  ... would the sword have been worn on the right?  The magazine "Ancient Warfare" depicts legionairies wearing their sword on their right in one picture, but on their left in another.

I would argue that the long sleeved tunic (as discussed on a previous thread) was not general wear for Roman legionaries until some time around AD220

However, we know that various barbarian types were wearing long sleeves long before this, so unless there was some regulation that legionaries could not dress like barbarians (and some of them appear to have done so on occasion!) we probably couldn't rule it out.

The sword was probably still worn on the right in the Antonine era, as it was still the shorter style. I think in the last AW illustration the senior officers and the cornicens are carrying weapons on the left, and the legionary in the foreground is a vexillifer - these men would not have carried shields, so would not have needed to use the 'right side' draw method. It's arguable whether legionary soldiers who did not use shields would have changed the side on which they carried their swords though...