Caesar\'s equipment

[Andy]

Which gladius and helmet would have been common in Caesar's armies on the continent approx 57BC.
I know the armour was hamatta, finding it hard to get this other info.

Many thanks in advance.

[Virilis]

Which gladius and helmet would have been common in Caesar's armies on the continent approx 57BC.
I know the armour was hamatta, finding it hard to get this other info.

Many thanks in advance.

Hi Andy! I think that the most common helmet would have been the Montefortino type. The gladius would have been a Hispaniensis type although the first Mainz types could have been in use also...

[Tarbicus]

This sums it up; http://www.antikmakler.de/catalog/produ ... ts_id/9273

And this; http://www.romancoins.info/MilitaryEqui ... elmet.html

[Q. Vipsanivs Praetextatvs]

In Caesar's army the soldiers wore brachae?

Thank's :wink:

[M. Demetrius]

Some say they did, patterning after the Gauls. Caesar is said to have worn a long sleeved tunic, red, after the fashion of the same Gauls.

[Q. Vipsanivs Praetextatvs]

Do you know some book or web page that explains it? (in Spanish or French better).

Thank you very much :wink:

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Andy,

The sword used in that moment were the gladius Hispaniensis. Some sword founded in France itself seems to belong to that period. The famous Delos sword or the river Lubljanica are close to that moment.

Here a reconstruction (only the top one, the other caesarisch are really a augustean sword):
http://www.binsfeld-replikate.de/gladius3.htm

The helmets were montefortino, the coolus manheim (extremely cheap helmet, basically a dome without cheekpieces), and sure some captured helmets of the galic warriors, the types Port and Agen, "fathers" of the gallic imperial types.

[Hugh Fuller]

Patrick Barta makes an interesting version of the Gladius Hispaniensis that he sells as his no. 125 Gladius Hispaniensis (late republican) sword. It is an interesting combination of the Ljubljanica scabbard and the Delos hilt combined with a blade from a grave in Zemplin, Slovakia. Please see: http://www.templ.net/english/weapons-an ... ispanensis and note the odd hilt with its many rivets on the pommel. The Delos sword was believed lost by a legionary during Pompey's great pirate campaign in 67 BCE. Depeeka makes what they call a Delos Sword but I differ in that. It may make an excellent Late Republican Gladius Hispaniensis but I would not call it a Delos Sword. You can see a picture of it and the debate that I had with Tarbicus/Jim Bowers at: http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic. ... sc&start=0
I will say that Depeeka got the blade right. Not all Gladii Hispanienses had wasp waists, some were straight sided as in the Delos sword and the sword found in Mouries, France.

[Hugh Fuller]

BTW, they also used the large oval scutum, not the later squared-off version of the Empire.

[Andy]

This is marvellous help, thank you all.

[Tarbicus]

BTW, they also used the large oval scutum, not the later squared-off version of the Empire.

The jury's out on that. I'm sure Mike Bishop and others have pointed to a relief that shows Caesarian era legionaries carrying the rectangular scutum, with spina. The spina seems to have seen extensive use even into the 1st-C AD.

[Andy]

Are there any pictures of these Caesarian era legionaries?
I have gone through the RAT data base of images.

I would really like to know and have a picture for what the average legionare would have looked like in Caesar's time. I was aware they wore the Hamata and not the Lorica Segmentata, but not so much using the Hispeniensis Gladius or wearing the Montifortino Helm.

How about belts and shoes? Tunic colours? I have found one image in the data base here of a relief 46BC depicting closed foot boots, others bare feet appear common.

[L C Cinna]

Here's a nice picture from forum member Johnny Shumate's page:

click

[Andy]

Heres a picture of the rectangular scutum.

[Tarbicus]

Here's Mike's post:
http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic. ... 628#117628