Legionaire light infantry

[drsrob]

Rob,

On what basis do you assume that Flavoleius Cordus and Castricius Victor were light infantry? Castricius Victor is after all wearing a mail shirt and helmet. Flavoleius Cordus is unarmoured admittedly, but that hardly makes him unusual in the context of funerary sculpture and he is certainly carring a pilum rather than light javelins. Castricius Victor's triple crested helmet is comparable to the three helmets so far known, or suspected, to have belonged to the Adiutrix legions, each of which had fittings for mounting a central crest and side feathers, suggesting this was a unit identification rather than the sign of a light infantryman. If the sole identifier of them as light infantry is the fact that both are equipped with oval shields then how reliable is the identification? How do we know that the shields are shown in scale with the men depicted and what makes us think that the Romans had standardised shield shapes for certain types of soldiers? Come to that, how many sculptures show attested soldiers of Legio XIIII with any shield shape other than oval?

Crispvs

Flavoleius definitely carries a throwing javelin. If you look closely at the right hand, you'll see a strap running downwards from the index finger and a band round the shaft, just below the hand. The way he holds his hand by itself implies the presence of such a strap. That strap is an amentum, making the weapon a javelin and the man a light infantryman.

Castricius holds longer spears, but there are two, which also implies light infantry. Sure Polybius said that each legionary carried two spears (Note: he did not use the word pilum), but no other legionary gravestone shows two pila. Also, these seem to be pila of the light variety, while most other gravestones show heavy ones.
This is why I consider them light infantrymen or antesignani. That Castricius wears a mail shirt is not significant, as Vegetius stated that the antesignani did so; it was just lighter than that of the ordinary legionary.
To me the oval shields are not proof of their status, their status proofs the use of oval shields by light infantry. After all, Sander did once supply us with quotes about antesignani adopting a particular pattern of shield, the Bruttian.

I also have thought that the bronze triple crested helmets were a peculiarity of the Adiutrices, but from the Guttmann collection a found out that:

• not all bronze Imp. Gallic helmets were triple crested
  all of them used a crest knob similar to those of late Coolus helmets

As many Coolus helmets are also triple crested, the bronze Imp. Gallic helmets are not so unique as they seem.
The Mainz praetorium has sculptures of several legionaries with rectangular shields and Imp. Gallic helmets and one with an oval shield and Coolus helmet. The latter is also armed with three javelins and is therefore clearly a light infantryman.
Finally, older Coolus helmets had no crest-supports whatsoever.

So my hypothesis is this:

• heavy infantry (postsignani) carried a rectangular shield, heavy pilum and heavy armour, including Imperial Gallic iron helmet with raised horsehair crest.
  light infantry (antesignani) carried an oval shield, light javelins and light armour, including a bronze helmet.
  • at first a crestless Coolus with animal skin (viz. Vegetius)
    later an (usually, but not invariably triple-)crested Coolus
    finally an (again not always triple-)crested bronze imperial Gallic helmet

The central crest supports of these bronze helmets are almost all the same, but entirely different from those of the iron imp. Gallic helmets.