As I was just finishing putting together my authentic Roman centurions armor collection, I stumbled onto one of my worst problems. As a centurion in the XIX Legio Germanica, I train and fight with my men, but my equipment differs much from them. As my soldiers wear lorica segementa, I wear a custom made centurion breastplate in brass, with leather decoration and lion hinges. As they battle away with their awesome gladii made by Albion, I have my spatha designed by Matt Amt of Legio XX (Victorious Black Eagles) Any way, my last piece of the set is the scutum, and following Amt's advice, I am going to get an infantry scutum, not a calvary scutum as sometimes depicted. However, since my equipment and armor is so expensive, having a regular designed scutum will not do. My question to you all is, do any of you know of, or have a picture that you wouldnt mind me having so that I could custom make my own scutum?

I tried looking online for some pictures of good looking scutums. Sadly I found little. The only decent scutum I found was the Dura Europas shield. However, the time period is off (Dura Europas is around 250 AD) and when people see that shield, they think of that...

Again, if any one has a picture of a good looking shield with wings and thunder bolts so it fits in around 80-160 AD time period, please let me know.

Pictures scanned for me by Andrew Brozyna
http://www.redrampant.com

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Shield from Trajan's Column.

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Shield from Trajan's Column.

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Shield from Trajan's Column.

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Promising? It looks like a higher decorated shield then most. Does any one know exactly what time period this one is?

Hi Enlil, this is another item that we're going to be working on in the fall for Albion . Anything you track down on this or that
anyone has on the topic would be eagerly viewed by us .

Enlil , any documentation on wheather the designs on the shield shown in relief were actually pieces attached to the front
of the shield and therefore have depth or if showing the designs on the shield in relief was just the sculptors way of
illustrating what may have been painted on the front of it ?

Great ! Thanks Enlil . Any information on things Roman helps ( we have two copies of The Armour Of Imperial Rome but
it doesn't cover everything and alot of research has been done since ) .

Damn, every time I think I get someplace, I just get shut right down. The design above is already in use by the Legio
III Cyrenaica up in New England. Not that we cant use it, they dont own it or anything, and I'm sure they wouldnt mind, I just need to get my own design...

Oh and another note, I now have information from a "reliable source" that the scutums of soldiers and centurions would be the same, but the centurion may of had plating of silver or brass (gold if he was really hitting it good) on top of his design to designate his higher place in the 60 ranks of centurions, which by the way, does any one know?....

A bit late for me, any comments on it...

Picture scanned for me by Andrew Brozyna
http://www.redrampant.com

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Around 100 A.D.

also, according to "Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome" from Oxford, the design on the scutums were painted.

Andrew

Thanks for those pictures. I'll see what I can extract from them, but I think im going to have to be alittle creative in scutum designs...