Vambraces

[tlclark]

For some reason, the supplemental pieces: thigh guards, vambraces, etc. seem to have survived in Italy for a much longer period, perhaps through the 4th century. In later eras the manica and segmented thigh guards served the same purpose, though the latter seem to have been confined to horsemen. A plaster relief from Pompeii shows the lower end of such a thigh guard peeping out from beneath the tunic of a mounted equites.

Thanks. Does this mean that the Romans are later to adopt the phalanx or shield formations?

Come to think of it, there is one place that you DO see thigh guards, manica and vambraces in italy through the late empire, the gladiators.