"Successor Imitation Legion shield design?" Topic

Any thoughts on what shield designs can be used for Seleucid and Ptolemaic Imitation Legion?

Cheers,
Raglan

Sekunda reckons the designs from the tomb of the Erotes are suitable i.e. a winged head.
The various stelae which he thinks show imitation legionaries tend to have plain white shields, some with a bronze strip on spine and edge.

Not everyone agrees with Sekunda's ideas about whether these actually are imitation legionaries though.

Personally I'd say that they may have had similar to Republican Roman designs. Which we don't really know much about either :)

Particularly due to the almost total absence of any examples of them. But don't let *that* detail slow anyone down.

Allen

I borrowed Hellenistic phalangite shield designs.

Plus the fact that the tomb of the Erotes seems to not be Seleucid at all (as the last thread I read seems to point to Antigonid- which makes tons more sense than Sekunda's theory) However, the designs fit the thureos, so they would fit a legionary scutum, if in fact a Seleucid Legionary was anything like a Roman one, or was just a mail armored thureophoros, maybe even organized in a copied formation……. which is the view I favor in my old age.
JJ

Sekunda's theory about the tomb of the Erotes as as circular as a particularly circular thing :)

Shields with a large central boss ridge are a real pain to apply transfers to, so I expect the ancients found the same thing and left them blank.

Thanks chaps,

It's now clearer than mud!!!

Raglan

I don't put much stock in Selunda's interpretations.

Mud is clearer than actual data. Facts about shield designs on troops that are not depicted in any art form are difficult to manufacture, the only route to reconstruct is to use educated guesses based on inherent military probability. It is inherently probable that the Seleucid troops that are described as being organized and possibly equipped as imitation legionaries, carried thureos or maybe even somthingh more like a scutum. Art from the Ptolemaic Nile mozaic shows combined armored soldiers, even soldier with rectangular shields with scorpion designs… which at least reveals that some designs were applied to some shields, and even some uniformity may be implied.

link

If I was to make up a shield design for a Seleucid guardsman turned imitation legionary…. hmm well I already did that…

JJ

That's some nice brush work!

Thanks I need to update the photo since I updated these awhile back--- to regular old boring 20mm bases.
JJonas