Auxilia shields what options are there?

[Folkert van Wijk]

What options are there for auxilia shields let's say 50/150 AD?

So what shapes are there to start with? I quess oval would be the most common, but are there other shapes that are somehow related to Auxilia units of that time?

And the design "painted" upon the shield? any idea's any pictures/drawings...



O and I am also currieus where the famous batavian oval green shield design comes from? You know what I mean with the yellow painting.

[jvrjenivs]

Hi Folkert, look at the 'Help Jasper to eqquip some batavians' topic for more on the famous shield pattern of Adrian. As I'm right the design is from Trajans column and the color pattern by Ade.

[Marcus Iulius Chattus]

In our cohort, the shields are oval with the measurements 125cm to 75cm. Our emblem comes from trajans column, Scene LXVI.
There are some different forms aside the ´standart´oval-forms. Hexagonal, maybe for (Praetorian) Cavalry and/or marines (Trajan column), rectangular like the one from the tombstone of Annaius Daverzus, or the rectangular shield from Valkenburg with rounded lower and upper sides.
I have got a book with all emblems on auxillary shields that are depicted on trajans column!

[TCF]

Way to go Folkert, i was thinking the same just a bit later then you did.

I have got a book with all emblems on auxiliary shields that are depicted on trajans column!

Dear Optio Marcus Athenobarbus,

Could you post the name and author of the book you referred to, so i can try to find it in the Dutch National Library.

Many Thanx

[caiusbeerquitius]

Might be this book:
L. Rossi, Trajan's Column and the Dacian Wars, London, 1971.

Folkert, it might be sensible to specify the period a bit more exactly than within a hundred years timespan.
Anyway, you may build a rectangular or an oval shield. Since the only findings of oval or round shield boards we have from Roman times are dished, you might want to consider building a dished shield. These findings derive from Dura Europos (around 260 AD) Thorsb(j)erg ~(3rd century) and the Fayum (Trier collection).
There is a 1st-century shield from Doncaster, which was found in a quite bad state, and may have been (IMO) either oval or rectangular, but the excavation report is a bit unclear in many ways. The shield is usually, following the excavation report´s suggestion, reconstructed like this:


However, I´d be careful with this reconstruction.
You may want to have a look at this site:
www.romanarmy.net/artshields.htm
and at this article from our very own Peroni & Madoc:
www.vicus.org.uk/documents/Auxiliashield.htm

IMO it might be a good idea to actually use a rectangular shield in an Auxiliary display, just to make something else than everybode else does.
(As is, I´m still missing a group of mid 1stc. AD Legionaries with oval shields... ) If your display is during the Dacian Wars, you may very well use a shield design from Trajan´s column.

[Andrew Brozyna]

I should note that the details of many of Rossi's drawings are in error. It would be better if you looked at photographs of the column.

[Paullus Scipio]

Andrew wrote:-

I should note that the details of many of Rossi's drawings are in error. It would be better if you looked at photographs of the column.

I would second this. If you can get "Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome"(4th edition) - must be this edition - P. Barker, pub: Wargames Researchg Group 1981, on p.85, you will find 42 Auxiliary shield patterns, accurately copied by me from Trajan's Column ( I actually copied them all back in the early seventies, but there was no room to publish all......)

If you can't get hold of this, or if you prefer, I'll scan the relevant page and send it to you....
Dimensions of one Oval shield, taken from a shield cover at Valkenburg, would be 128cm x 66 cm.

[Peroni]

As Christian kindly posted, I have written a short article on the shield shapes of the Roman auxiliary soldier. This is by no means exhaustive!( http://www.romanarmy.net/artshields.htm )

(As is, I´m still missing a group of mid 1stc. AD Legionaries with oval shields... )

It's coming! one of the UK groups is planning to completely re-equip with shields reconstructed from the Caerleon shield cover remains!

I am also currieus where the famous batavian oval green shield design comes from? You know what I mean with the yellow painting.

It is taken from Trajan's Column... But a very similar design is seen on a grave altar of a Batavian quartermaster. We used green and yellow because our group's tunics were already green and our focale yellow. (not because of Connolly's painting!)

[Paullus Scipio]

Peroni wrote:-

But a very similar design is seen on a grave altar of a Batavian quartermaster. We used green and yellow because our group's tunics were already green and our focale yellow. (not because of Connolly's painting!)

...I have often seen you refer to this grave altar ( not tombstone?) of a Batavian quartermaster of the Equites Singularis, but I don't think I've seen it. Could you post an image, or perhaps direct me to one. Also, on another thread I asked what site your excellent photos of T's column came from ?

Thanking you in anticipation.

[M. CVRIVS ALEXANDER]

Paullus,

I am not sure about Adrian's source, but this site is excellent.

[Paullus Scipio]

Thanks, Alexander....I know that site well, and it is indeed excellent, but Peroni's images, I am all but certain, did not come from here....

[Praefectusclassis]

I think the shield Adrian to which Adrian refers is the grave altar CIL VI 2177=ILS 2196 = Speidel, Denkmäler der Kaiserreiter 83. On the side of that altar is a shield with a pattern that looks sort of like the one above and has been connected to scene XCVII of Trajan's column. Speidel emphatically denies that they are the same, however. Interestingly, Speidel seems to suggest that the design on TC actually does occur elsewhere. But where?
This guy is actually not a Batavian, but instead possibly a custos armorum, belonging to the Equites Singulares Augusti serving in the 2nd quarter of the 2nd century.

[Marcus Iulius Chattus]

@TCF
"Das Römische Heer auf der Trajanssäule", Danae Richter, Studien zu Metallarbeiten und Toreutik der Antike Band 3, Bibliopolis

[Peroni]

...I have often seen you refer to this grave altar ( not tombstone?) of a Batavian quartermaster of the Equites Singularis, but I don't think I've seen it. Could you post an image, or perhaps direct me to one

here it is...CIL VI 2177=ILS 2196 = Speidel, Denkmäler der Kaiserreiter 83.

but Peroni's images, I am all but certain, did not come from here....

Oh yes they did! :wink: They have a huge library of photos on that site!

[Paullus Scipio]

Many thanks, Peroni, and others. One point of note that may help the identification of the shield design is that the figure on the Column seems to have a 'paintbrush' crest - otherwise only seen on Praetorians on the Column IIRC - I will have to check.....perhaps indicating Guard status .. Against this, a Trajanic frieze seems to show two cavalrymen guards with hexagonal shields - one with the scorpions often identified with Praetorians/Guards and the other with a thunderbolt design which are often taken to indicate that one represents Praetorian Guard Cavalry and the other Equites Singularis, but as to which is which.......