Roman military personal equipment

[2] Other historians and writers have stated that the Roman army's need for large quantities of "mass produced" equipment after the so-called "Marian Reforms" and subsequent civil wars led to a decline in the quality of Roman equipment compared to the earlier Republican era: The production of these kinds of helmets of Italic tradition decreased in quality because of the demands of equipping huge armies, especially during civil wars...The bad quality of these helmets is recorded by the sources describing how sometimes they were covered by wicker protections (viminea tegimenta), like those of Pompeius' soldiers during the siege of Dyrrachium in 48 BC, which were seriously damaged by the missiles of Caesar's slingers and archers.

[3]It would appear that armour quality suffered at times when mass production methods were being used to meet the increased demand which was very high (from the Civil and Social Wars, and following the Marian and Augustan reforms) the reduced size cuirasses would also have been quicker and cheaper to produce, which may have been a deciding factor at times of financial crisis, or where large bodies of men were required to be mobilized at short notice, possibly reflected in the poor-quality, mass produced iron helmets of Imperial Italic type C, as found, for example, in the River Po at Cremona, associated with the Civil Wars of AD 69 AD; Russell Robinson, 1975, 67[4]Up until then, the quality of helmets had been fairly consistent and the bowls well decorated and finished.

However, after the Marian Reforms, with their resultant influx of the poorest citizens into the army, there must inevitably have been a massive demand for cheaper equipment, a situation which can only have been exacerbated by the Civil Wars...[5]Initially, they used weapons based on Greek and Etruscan models.

This in itself caused no great change to the pugio's appearance, but some of these later blades were narrower (under 3.5 cm wide), had little or no waisting, and had reduced or vestigial midribs.

Other types of javelins were adopted by the late Roman army, such as the lancea and the spiculum, which were heavily influenced by the weapons of Italic warriors.

Some believed that the iron shank would bend upon impact, weighing down the enemy's shield and also preventing the pilum from being immediately re-used.

However, recent evidence suggests that many types of pilum did not bend at all, but reduced the effectiveness of enemy shields by simply getting stuck due to the shape of its larger head and thin shank.

In fact, there were many cases where the whole shank was hardened, making the pilum more suitable as a close quarters melee weapon, while also rendering it usable by enemy soldiers.

[16] The sagittarius was armed with a composite bow (arcus), shooting an arrow (sagitta),[17] made of horn, wood, and sinew held together with hide glue.

While most scholars agree that one or more of these terms refer to handheld mechanical weapons, there is disagreement whether these were flexion bows or torsion powered like the recent Xanten find.

[21] Late infantrymen often carried a half-dozen lead-weighted throwing-darts called plumbatae (from plumbum, meaning "lead"), with an effective range of c. 30 m, well beyond that of a javelin.

For example, illustrations in the Notitia show that the army's fabricae (arms factories) were producing mail armour at the end of the 4th century.

[26] Lorica segmentata was a type of body armour primarily used in the early Roman Empire, but the Latin name was first used in the 16th century (the ancient form is unknown).

The strips were arranged horizontally on the body, overlapping downwards, and they surrounded the torso in two halves, being fastened at the front and back by means of brass hooks, which were joined by leather laces.

There is also a little-known fourth type, known only from a statue found at Alba Julia in Romania, where there appears to have been a hybrid form, the shoulders being protected by scale armour and the torso hoops being fewer in number and deeper.

However, even during the 2nd century AD, the segmentata never replaced the lorica hamata—thus the hamata mail was still standard issue for both heavy infantry and auxiliaries alike.

Alternatively, all forms of armour may have fallen into disuse as the need for heavy infantry waned in favour of the speed of mounted troops.

It is typically seen on depictions of standard bearers, musicians, centurions, cavalry troops, and even auxiliary infantry, but could be worn by regular legionaries as well.

[27] No examples of an entire lorica squamata have been found, but there have been several archaeological finds of fragments of such shirts and individual scales are quite common finds—even in non-military contexts.

The scutum (Classical Latin: [ˈskuːt̪ʊ̃]; plural scuta) was a type of shield used among Italic peoples in antiquity, most notably by the army of ancient Rome starting about the fourth century BC.

Originally it was oblong and convex, but by the first century BC it had developed into the rectangular, semi-cylindrical shield that is popularly associated with the scutum in modern times.

Its strength came from its design of gluing multiple layers of wood together while stretching leather across it to eliminate the shields' vulnerability to water.

Early Roman legionaries would wear a single greave on the left leg which was more exposed under the shield, as it was fashion in Italic cultures.

[31] The scorpio was a torsion-powered catapult-type weapon, similar to a smaller ballista, which fired bolts capable of piercing enemy shields and armour.

The onager was a torsion-powered siege engine in which a sinew or horse hair spring mounted on a wooden frame swung an arm vertically against a stop, hurling projectiles in a high arc.

It was originally designed as a tube measuring some 11 to 12 feet in length, of narrow cylindrical bore, and played by means of a cup-shaped mouthpiece.

A tribulus (caltrop) was a weapon made up of four sharp nails or spines arranged in such a manner that one of them always pointed upward from a stable base (for example, a tetrahedron).

[32] The late-Roman writer Vegetius, in his work De Re Militari, wrote: The scythed chariots used in war by Antiochus and Mithridates at first terrified the Romans, but they afterwards made a jest of them.

The Roman soldiers rendered them useless chiefly by the following contrivance: at the instant the engagement began, they strewed the field of battle with caltrops, and the horses that drew the chariots, running full speed on them, were infallibly destroyed.

A caltrop is a machine composed of four spikes or points arranged so that in whatever manner it is thrown on the ground, it rests on three and presents the fourth upright.