constructing and mounting a porpax

[PMBardunias]

The problem, Giannis, is that our bronze smith expert--on of Lorica's former professors--says that there's no reason to make the rim in a single piece. I'm beginning to suspect this is just out of his experience--that a shield rim is basically like a tire

The reason for a one-piece rim, in my opinion, has to do with the function of the rim. Were it simply a bronze reinforcement for a shield's edge, as we see in many shields, then a piecemeal construction does not really change its ability to withstand blows. But it was not this. It was specifically designed to use the tensile strength of the bronze to keep the shield-rim from splitting under compressive force on the shield-face. A one-piece rim spreads this evenly, a jointed rim can work too, but it disproportionally puts the stress at the joint.

I could of course be wrong, but damn if my scheme doesn't explain a whole lot of otherwise idiosynchratic features of the panoply. :wink: