Painting Guide: Marian Romans

My most invincible army are my Marian Romans. The blades can cut through even the toughest foe. Anyway, here is a - very simple - guide to painting the legions of Caesar.

Helmet: These were mainly still the bronze Gallic type found in the Polybian army. They are a simple helmet shape with cheek flaps. There is no neckguard as yet. Most authorities believe that the legionaries at this time had a red horsehair crest on the top of the helmet. This, however, is questionable, as any sort of uniformity at this time is highly debatable. Many of the legionaries, in my view, should have no crest at all, others may have crests of colours other than red. It is known that Polybian period romans wore three feathers on top of the helmet, black or purple, and this tradition may have survived. Other possibilities include all-black crests, different helmet types, or no helmet at all - if Caesar would have tolerated such sloppiness. In other words, the Romans didn't chuck out their equipment once a new type came in. I guess a second hand helmet would be cheap - "Old pseudo-corinthian helmet only 20 sestertii ma'am!" - or many soldiers used their old Dad's helmet for luck. Still another possibility is the capturing of enemy helmets a la Obelix, or maybe the use of a Cavalry helmet that someone dropped.

Shields: These weren't the rectangular shields seen in Spartacus, Quo Vadis, Ben-Hur or Asterix the Gaul - most Romans still used the Celtic big oval shield, though, again, they often used old stuff. The main thing is that they all used rather big, tall shields in order to do the Testudo maneuver everyone go's on about. Also, they almost certainly had uniform shield blazons. An advancing Marian Roman Army would be mainly an advancing line of uniformly couloured shields. The designs were celtic or with the famous wings and thunderbolts. Insides of shields were dull red.

Tunic: Any colour, though some say they were uniform red, others say uniform white, others say all sorts of mixed colours. Same arguments as above apply.

Armour: Not the fancy plate armour that Obelix couldn't get on...at the time of Asterix, as far as is known, the Romans used Celtic chain mail with leather edging, sometimes with nicely decorated shoulder flaps. Decorations of this sort were white or naturally coloured snakes on a brown background.

Sword: Again, Celtic in origin (no I'm not in the Welsh Nationalist Party!) The gladius was made of high grade iron, in a scabbard often with remarkable tin and bronze decorations meant to look like gold and silver!

Overall, I'd say Hollywood has done more to cock up our views of Roman equipment than anyone else. Uniformity is a hotly debated issue...how could regularity freaks like the Romans allow their armies to dress casual? etcetera, but it is up to the individual painter to decide if he wants prettiness, or possible greater historical accuracy.