10-09-2009, 02:27 AM
Jurjenus wrote:
It is clear that galea in latin originally referred to leather/skin caps and/or helmets; and cassis the metal helmet, and that the galea was in use in very early Roman times, and certainly continued in hunting use much later. Even in historical times, there is evidence to suggest that leather/rawhide helmets and armour existed - in Spain during and after the Punic Wars for example, and Spanish auxiliaries serving in the Roman army may have been so equipped - but doubtless eager to acquire the increasingly common cheap bronze conical and montefortino helmets typical of Western Mediterranean armies. Certainly there is no evidence that Roman or Italian socii by this time wore anything other than bronze helmets, and thus the term 'galea' became synonymous with 'cassis' in meaning 'helmet', because ALL helmets were now metal.
Quote:And one of the most interesting arguments (to me at least) was that there is a distinction between a leather helmet and a metal one. (if I'm remember right the source for that is Varro). Okay, I can't read Latin and I didn't check the reference, but if that's true we have an interesting starting point for an scientific discussion about the use of leather as protective gear in the Roman army.
Quote:GaleaHarry Thurston Peck;Harper's Classical dictionary of antiquities 1898
(kranos, poet. korus, pêlêx). A helmet, casque. The helmet was originally made of skin or leather, whence is supposed to have arisen its appellation, kuneê, meaning properly a cap or helmet of dogskin, but applied to caps or helmets made of the hide of other animals, not necessarily worn as armour (taureiê, ktideê, Hom. Il.x. 258Hom. Il., 335; aigeiê, Homer Od.xxiv. 230; Herod.vii. 77; galea lupina, Propert. iv. 11, 19), and even to those which were entirely of bronze or iron ( Od.xviii. 377). The leathern basis of the helmet was also very commonly strengthened and adorned by the addition of either bronze or gold ( Il.xi. 352). Helmets which had a metallic basis were in Latin properly called cassides ( Germ.6), although the terms galea and cassis are often confounded.
It is clear that galea in latin originally referred to leather/skin caps and/or helmets; and cassis the metal helmet, and that the galea was in use in very early Roman times, and certainly continued in hunting use much later. Even in historical times, there is evidence to suggest that leather/rawhide helmets and armour existed - in Spain during and after the Punic Wars for example, and Spanish auxiliaries serving in the Roman army may have been so equipped - but doubtless eager to acquire the increasingly common cheap bronze conical and montefortino helmets typical of Western Mediterranean armies. Certainly there is no evidence that Roman or Italian socii by this time wore anything other than bronze helmets, and thus the term 'galea' became synonymous with 'cassis' in meaning 'helmet', because ALL helmets were now metal.
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
