"Late Roman spear shafts" Topic

Were late Roman spear shafts left natural wood or painted. If painted what color,if so were they?

Stephen

They could be painted- certainly were at times- and in complicated patterns. There is a pic of some in the "Late Roman Cavalry" Osprey. Sometimes I paint mine, other times (mostly) I don't bother. Perhaps such painting would be more common with the elite units?

Nice work!

You can see spearshafts painted in bands or spirals on various of the illustrations of the Notitia – picture for instance and the Ravenna mosaic – link

Others appear to be plain – picture

I imagine the more a unit expected to fight, the less they would bother painting their (breakable) gear

It might also be that those painted spears are parade items, with plain wood spears used for campaigning.

Maybe they are parade items, as Shardik and TKindred point out. However, it also may have been a simple way to tell units apart, either for tactical or esprit de corps purposes. You shouldn't discard the morale benefit that carrying a distinctive item of equipment might have had.

Regardless what their actual purposes were, they look beautiful in a wargaming unit. If you have the time and the painting skills needed to make them look well, I would say go for it.

I agree with basileus66.

Thank-you for the input/information/links.

Stephen