"Late Roman Shield Design" Topic

I am planning on painting up my small contingent of BTD Late Roman infantry, so I have been trying to settle on a shield design. I keep coming across pictures of Roman soldiers from the late Empire with one particular shield design that piqued my curiosity.

Sometimes the colors vary, but here is the design: picture

I want to learn more about the design but cannot find much without a name or other information about it. Can any of the learned folk here tell me the name of this design? I am sure I can turn something up with a name.

Jason

Opposed dragon and lion heads are common in late Roman buckles; Laycock suggests that they may be related to shield patterns:

link

link

Oddly, he only relates that particular type of shield motif to dolphin buckles:

link

Allen

The Notitia Dignatatum has oodles of shield designs to choose from. The one you have is from a friend of mine Robert Vermaat a late roman reenactor.

link

This is my shield design for the Exculcatores Britannica

picture

I'm the one in the white outfit.

My apologies, Jason. I must have misread your question, as I did not think you wanted to know the specific units or units for which that might be a pattern. I'm sure you had already seen from the site that the re-enactment group created a fictitious unit.

Somehow I thought you were looking for information about the pattern itself. Again, I apologize. It's really irritating when someone provides an answer for a different question than the one asked.

Allen

Not at all, Allen. I hadn't seen the site yet and found it quite interesting. My question was somewhat ambiguous in itself, and your link helped me feel less crazy for seeing two dolphins in the pattern when I was examining it! You always provide helpful and interesting insights.

Soldat, thanks for the links. The catalog of shield design is quite a treasure trove. Now it's going to be even harder to choose a design. Harrumph!!

There are just too many intriguing options for these late Romans and their shields, not to mention investigating the histories of these units (which I have not had opportunity to do yet). Now I need MORE Romans!!

Here is one more question for you knowledgeable gents, if I may further impose upon you: What late Roman units are favorites of yours based on their service records, exploits, ect.? You don't have to recount their histories. Just throw me some numerals or unit names and I can ferret them out from there. Since I am just getting into this period it's a little hard knowing where to start.

Many thanks from the newbie!!

That would depend on which empire interests you more the Eastern or the Western. I have the WAB LR book Fall of the west as well as an Osprey for the Late Roman army. The osprey has battle dates which may interest you in what units you would like to use.

You may want to do a search for late roman at amazon and see what you come up with.

I suspect more people model the West, if only because the Notitia omits the cavalry shield designs for the East! That's not such a terrible problem, as you can borrow Western designs, especially for related units.

One way to select an army is to look at what was available to the field armies and the regional commanders. (And it's worth pointing out that none of the shield designs of the limitanei--roughly, local or border garrison troops--are documented in the Notitia, which sort of limits their appeal for most gamers. There's just more information to paint the field armies.)

The easiest place to look is in Phil Barker's WRG reference "Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome", where he lists the units from the Notitia by command, clearly and concisely. But you can also read the same from Luke's site or this one:

link

Look at the assets available to any given magister, or comes, or dux. (Ignore for the moment any discussion of whether that commander actually had these at any given time, or whether the units are really something else, and so on!) When you see a combination that gives you:

- a good selection of troop types for your chosen ruleset and army list (legiones or various designations, auxilia platina, equites, etc.),

- units for which you can actually find models,

- and shield designs that appeal to you,

…then go with that command.

For example, the Comes Brittanorum (Count of Britain) is shown with a manageable number of units:

link

There are three legions, some with possibly very interesting genealogies, including the "Victores iuniores Britanniciani", which Luke equates with Soldat's squashers, the "Exculcatores iuniores Britanniciani", to give them their correct title.

There is a potentially interesting array of types in the six cavalry regiments. But there are no auxilia palatina, which depending on your rules, would sometimes be the best troops in the army.

And then, of course, the question of what was actually available to the Count of Britain and when is a fairly thorny problem, as the article indicates.

So look through the commands; see what is well documented; see what suits your army list; see what appeals to you as a painter; and forge ahead. All of course under the assumption that the Notitia actually represents actual patterns, and isn't just the product of a scribe's imagination!

Allen

That design was common amongst several units of Auxilia Palatina and also some cavalry. It does not, however, seem to have ever been used by Legionaries.
There were variations:
Sometimes it could be a crescent moon on the top and a simple spike at the bottom, in other examples it may have been two dragon's heads curving in to face each other.
I have examples of how I have painted some of mine at legio-wargames.com
I also link to a site that has all the shield designs in the Notitia Dignitatum
Simon

Simon is quite right, and that's another reason to do a bit of careful analysis, if that's a pattern you like. There are a couple of similar "facing beast" motifs in pseudocomitatenses, limitanei drafted to the field armies: one in Africa, and one in the east.

Simon's link is to Luke's analysis, so that's three recommendations for it!

Allen

I tended to look first for units in the Western Empire, and then narrowed the list down to units whose shield designs were simple enough to paint. There are shield transfers (decals) that several companies make, which makes shield design easier (but I always have problems getting the decals to "seat" properly).

I am not sure how many units you are intending to paint. A good start, however, would be the Cornuti and Brachiati. These two Auxilia Palatina were usually brigaded together and they pop up all over the place from Julian's campaign against the Alamanni to Adrianople. They were the most senior units of the Auxilia Palatina and both had variations of the design you show. Each would have been about 500 men at full strength.
I like to field a wargames unit representing two such Auxilia brigaded together. Half have one shield design and half the other.
You do not need to take the Notitia Dignitatum designs literally as the copy we have was made in medieval times and mistakes will have been made in the copying. Also it is quite likely that variations on the basic design would have been used in different periods.
One thing does stand out and that is that units which were brigaded together have very similar shield patterns. I am convinced that the scribe who copied them for us made a mistake in the 4 senior Auxilia Palatina in the West: Cornuti, Brachiati, Petulantes and Celtae.
The colours for the Brachiati and Petulantes he gives in the Notitia are the exact reverse of each other (one with a yellow figure on blue and the other with blue figure on yellow). I have chosen to give the Petulantes and Celtae (who were brigaded together) these colours and I have painted the Cornuti with red over white and the Brachiati with yellow over red. You can see the results in the photo section of my website (second row, third pic at link
I have modified the design following an actual 4th C painting from the Via Maria Catacomb in Syracuse which shows a soldier in a red tunic carrying a white shield with red post at the bottom leading up to the boss and a red half moon on the top half of the shield. The boss is surrounded with various curved lines as I have painted them in the photo.
You can chose to paint the more simple version you show. It is easy enough to do that transfers are not really necessary and to be honest I do not think they ever look as good as a painted shield. Don't worry if the results do not look perfect. Remember the soldiers painted the designs on themselves and they were hardly artists!
Simon

Allen and Simon, thanks for all the great ideas, links, and leads! I'm actually printing out this thread for quick reference while I sort through it. Will definitely be giving the Notitia Dignatatum a close look, as I will the links to these great websites you have both provided.

It looks like I will definitely be doing a Western Empire army…at least for now.

I meant to respond to your posts yesterday, but the wife and I managed to break into some of the high-alcohol Christmas gifts, and the rest is a bit hazy.

It looks like I will be investing in some reference books soon. I never quite realized how much information existed on the units of the period. I can see how collecting, painting, and gaming with well-researched units can add a layer of richness to the whole experience that I have not really experienced thus far. I've usually gravitated toward middle/late Dark Ages armies that don't have nearly the resources available (at least inasmuch as I discovered). So this looks to be very intriguing project.

All this trouble because I picked up a small bag of figures I didn't need from another TMP'er!

Thanks again for all the help.

Yes, its a resurrectted thread but….has anyone had a go at doing their own shields for Eastern cavalry units and if so, what ideas/concepts did you use?

That is very good advice from aecurtis.
My own 6mm legion is based on the 26th Flavia Firma as it was based in the east so a good foil for my Sassanids.

I went for eastern legions for my impetus army

link

^^

Like the 3 colour Draco, I may copy that.

I also use unarmoured hairy guys for my PseudoComitatenses units, the OG Arthurian sets are also superb figs for that. (I like that hooded figure though, will get me some)

Just done the Equites Clibinarii Parthii…with the Eastern Med anti-evil eye charm colours for shield patterns :)