"Were late roman shields oval or round?" Topic

As I ponder painting yet another Late Roman Army in 28mm, I'm minded to do something a little different, and include many conversions. But something I have never truly formed an opinion on is this, were Late Roman shields oval or round? And if oval, were they curved or flat? All of the notita dignitatum illustrations appear round, yet most manufacturers these days make oval shields.

The consensuses is cavalry shields are round but infantry shields are oval. The shields are depicted as round because it was easier for scribes.

Or so I understand

This is an excellent source
link

I think that once upon a time they were depicted as very oval (i.e. Foundry) but some more recent ranges (eg Crusader) have been somewhat closer to round. FWIW I've also seen reenactors with rounder-style shields.

Great link dragon6. I'll be painting up a late Roman army in the near future, any more good links for Late Romans? Thanks!

My old Late Roman figs from Minifigs had round shields.

Then as noted they started produced some decidedly oval shields.

Now they are in between.

A little searching on the Roman Army Talk forum shows that oval is still the consensus with reenactors.

I tended to give people a choice… personally, I use round but think that oval is the 'right' answer!

Probably both oval and round. Cavalr would be round. Infantry were often Foederatti and so would sometimes supply their own gear. That could mean a shield of any shape…including square or round.