Face mask or face guard in late roman period

[Robert Vermaat]

It's fairly common in illustration, I think. Christa Hook (in Late Roman Cavalryman, Osprey) pictured 4th C Roman cataphracts wearing ridge helmets with 'Sutton Hoo' style facemasks, as did Angus McBride on a couple of occasions.

I know this is a description from Ammianus aboiut Constantine's parade. The images are of course completely based on the Sutton Hoo helmet. And we all know that, although that one resembles the ridge helmets of the Roman army, it's of course NOT a Roman helmet. The origins of the Sutton Hoo helemt are far more likely to have been in the Middle East. We know of Turkish cavalry helmets with face masks, but so far, no examples of such Roman helemts have been found, in the ground or in art.