08-15-2003, 01:48 PM
The date of changeover from oval to semi-oval to rectangular scuta is much debated and there could have been a great deal of overlap. The earliest use of rectangular scuta is unknown. A relief of two odd-looking gladiators (bustuarii, actually, since they are depicted in a funeral scene) dating from around 100 BC shows them using rectangular scuta with the central spina of the oval shield. This may have been a strictly gladiatorial type at the time, but who knows? Most think the semi-oval type came in during Augustan times and the rectangle a generation or two later, but again this is guesswork. <p></p><i></i>