Legionary Impression

[Julius Verax]

Salvete !
I was asked by someone the other day what a legionary stationed in Judea at the time of Jesus would have looked like ? Iam curious myself now so if any one does this impression I would love to see it .
Thanks,

Julius.

[Matthew Amt]

Ave!

Well, he'd look pretty much like any other legionary of that era, only with more Judean/Syrian/Greek influences creeping in rather than Gallic or Illyrian, etc. The problem is that there were no *legions* stationed in Judea at that time, only auxiliary units. It was an equestrian province, so the governor was not of high enough status to command a legion. The nearest legions were in Syria. So the Judean garrison would look more or less like any other auxiliaries, though again with local influence to varying degrees.

Vale,

Matthew

[Julius Verax]

Mathew , Thanks for that. I didnt realise there were no legions stations there.

Julius.

[Julius Verax]

When did the legions stop useing the pilum ? and what was it replaced with ? Sorry for all these questions Iam just trying to soak up as much info as possible off you guys , hope you dont mind ?

Julius .

[Marcus Aemilius Longinus]

Its thought that the pilum fell out of use around the early 4th century AD.
It was replaced with the more traditional spears and javelins although the basic shape of these spears had quite a lot of variety between them and that the pilum and spears/javelins had both been in use by legionarioes for quite some time.

[Julius Verax]

Thanks Marcus, I had a feeling it was around that time but wasnt quite sure .

Julius .