The infantry shield shown on the Aemilius Paulus Monument do not correspond in certain details to the roman shield as described by Polybius.
They are exceptionally large and hexagonal in shape and do not have the protective metal rim at top and bottom mentioned by Polybius.
After Nicholas Secunda, this shield would be the Ligure shield 'scutum ligusticum', but according to Duncan Head the Ligure shield seem to have been the same as the Gallic flat oval or square ended scutum ..?
Also as two figures from a part of the frieze showing the start of the battle, (the figures with muscle – cuirass ) wear the exceptionally large and hexagonal in shape shield that I have described above , Nicholas Secunda concludes that it would be Ligure shields.
Indeed the Roman forces raised for the year 171 BC for the Third Macedonian War included 2,000 Ligurian light infantrymen (Livy 42.35.5-6) and in Pydna alone Plutarch speaks of the presence of a Ligurian contingent of 700 men who opposes the beginning of the battle after him, the light cavalry of 800 Thracian (Odrysai ?) horsemen commanded by Alexandros * attacking the first line of Roman defense …
But according to Livy, the first line of Roman defense did not include Ligurians who may not have been present for a long time in the Roman army in Macedonia …
The armies had been there for two days, separated by the torrent of the Leukos which was hardly more than 1 m deep, when, on June 22; Around three in the afternoon, a horse from the train escapes from the Roman camp to cross the torrent where on both sides, a post monitored the passage.
On the right bank were two Allied cohorts, the Marrucina and the Paeliyna, with two turmes of Samnite cavalry.
The whole body was placed under the orders of the legate Mr. Sergius Silus, the grandfather: of Catilina.
Behind this outpost, to link it to the camp and support it if necessary, the legate C. Cluvius commanded three other cohorts, the Firmana, Vestina and Cremonensis; and two other turmes ,the Placentina and Vaesernina …
On the left bank, the Perseus outpost was formed by 800 Thracian (Odrysai ?) horsemen, commanded by Alexandros*.
Three Romans enter the river to catch up with the horse.
Two Thracians dispute it with them; one of them is killed and the horse is taken over by the Romans.
To avenge the dead, his comrades come to the rescue and; the whole Thracian body (of cavalry ?) soon crossed the river.
The battle is on and this is the story of Tite-Live (Liv., XLIV, 40, 4-9.).
Opposed to this Roman version, a version of Macedonian origin, preserved by Plutarch (Plut., AEm .. 18.).
It is no longer an escaped horse that is involved; they are Roman foragers that the 800 Thracian (Odrysai ?) horsemen* would have surprised; 700 Ligurians would have rushed against them; by the arrival of successive reinforcements, the commitment would not have been long in becoming general.
While Lucius Aemilius Paulus was hurrying his army into battle, Scipion Nasica would immediately observe what was happening on the Leukos.
The Macedonian army had already crossed the river: the "free"Thracians mercenaries walked ahead with their large and oval white thureos, their greaves, their black tunics, swinging on the shoulder
right their heavy rhomphaiai; followed a body of mercenaries from different sources (and various armaments?), Agrianes, Thracians and Paionians settled in macedon; behind advanced the 3000 ordinary Macedonian peltasts with golden shields and scarlet chlamydia, sarrisai stopped…
A short distance away: came the 'tight rows' of the phalanx, the regiment of the chalkaspides at the head "filling the plain with the brightness and the clatter of their iron and bronze weapons".
Informed by Nasica of the imminent danger, the consul rushes in turn.
To give time to the Roman army, taken unexpectedly, to go online, the avant-garde, with its six allied cohorts and four allied Turmes, had to hold out the longest. possible.
To hire him of honor, the chief of the Pelignians, Salvius, perhaps remembering the example given by another chief of the Pelignians, Vibius, in Capua, seized the standard of his cohort and threw him in the middle of the Macedonians.
The Italians, so as not to leave it between their; hands, rushing desperately on the sarissai of the peltasts who pierced their shields and their breastplates.
When their debris began to flee, the Roman army was ready.
Once it entered the line, the battle became too extensive for a sculptor, especially as mediocre as that of the Pydna frieze, to have found it easy to represent it in bas-relief.
The very first engagement; on the contrary, with its two main episodes, the escaped horse and the launched standard , lent itself easily to monumental sculpture. It was, at the same time, for the Romans, the most honorable episode of the day.
Two to three thousand men had held it in check all the Macedonian army, while, the legions once
committed, their only numerical superiority was to give the victory for the Romans.
According to Adolphe Joseph Reinach, at this stage the war the cohorts are 400 men and the Turmes 10 men, so the Italians would have been 2,400 infantrymen and 40 horsemen ?
Also, one should not hesitate, I believe, to recognize this episode in the frieze.
This identification does not, as has been said, raise many, problems.
First; it results from the bas-relief that, in the aftermath of the battle, the official version in explained the beginning, not by a surprise of foragers; but by the episode of the escaped horse.
We know from Plutarch that the Romans boasted of having let go the horse to force Perseus to fight.
It is obvious that this is an invention made long after the fact and with little success, as evidenced by the absence of any mention of it in the stratagemata.
But it is no less obvious that this episode would not have represented the same year of the battle, if it had not been proven.
The version of Livy can be found thus confirmed on this point; but I don't believe that may say, that "the monument of Delphi" seems to decide the question; in favor of the general's initiative " .
Our; sources also differ, as we have seen, for the troops between which the battle would have been fought around the horse.
On the side of Perseus, .Livy speaks of 800 Thracians *, and Plutarch, if he does not specify the number, give, at least, the name of their chief ,Alexandros; neither one neither tell us if they are infantrymen or riders, and it was sometimes accepted that these were infantry**; Ed ;, Meyer even thinks that the Thracians rhomphaiophores that Scipio Nasica sees advancing in mind of the macedonian army are identical to the Thracians who initiated action on the Leukos.
Which is wrong because it seems improbable that such heavy troops were employed for an outpost service.
They can only be light infantrymen (javelinmen) or light horsemen.
However, in the very episode of the horse, while no other troop of Macedonian cavalry had yet had time to intervene, the reliefs show cavalrymen, while the only infantrymen opposed to Romans are designated by their shields as Macedonian chalkaspids.
So it seems that the Thracians of Alexandros formed a light cavalry corps and one will be better explained as they have gone through too easily a torrent which still had 1 m. of water.
For the Roman body which, opposite to them, we have seen that Plutarch. talks about of 700 Ligures and Livy of Allied cohorts and Turms.
The contingents of the Marrucins, Péligniens, Vestins and Samnites are sent, by virtue of their foedus; it is as Latin colonies that Aesernina, in the Samnium, Firmum in the Picentin, Cremona and
Plaisance in Gaul Cispadane send theirs.
The name de Ligures cannot therefore be applied to any of these troops.
On the other hand, we know that 2,000 Ligurians had been raised in the Roman army but in in 171 BC not in 168 BC.
Only Plutarch said that the Ligurians took goes to the battle of Pydna.
But they were no longer 2000 but 700 …
Besides, the number of troops of certain contingents given for the battle of Pydna are those of 171 BC not 168 BC.
But, since the forces which formed the outposts of the two armies are detailed by Livy, is it permissible to add without proof the Ligurians who were not there?
I don't think so, nor do I believe more than the presence of "Ligurian shields" implies that of Ligurians.
The soldiers in cuirass- 3 out of 5 on the frieze – are italian allies of Rome, and if they use Ligure shield 'scutum ligusticum' that does not make them Ligurians.
As far as we can judge these scuta ligustina or byrsoi consisted of a rigid skin, stretched over a wooden frame, trimmed with bronze ornaments.
The oval shape is that generally affected by shields of this type; and, if we remember that the Ligurians were best known as light infantry, we admit that their shield covered the body at most from the neck to the lower legs…
*The only Thracian horsemen present in the Macedonian army were the 1000 Odrysai of King Kotys and they were accompanied by 1000 light infantrymen, me I thought that these horsemen were heavy horsemen ?
** King Kotys Odrysai cavalrymen had 1000 light infantrymen to support them in 169 BC, why are they not mentioned ?
Paskal