Roman Shields

by Hilary & John Travis

Overview

The Roman military is an iconic, ancient institution; everybody is familiar with the image of fearsome Roman soldiers marching in their famous columns. In this book, Roman military experts John and Hilary Travis turn their attention to the shields used by the historic Roman stalwarts, drawing on their expertise, their wealth of illustrated material and the world of re-enactments.In its study of the panoply of shields used by the Roman army, this book differs from those preceding in that it has combined the reams of published information on sculptural imagery and archaeological hard evidence with an in-depth look at the artefacts themselves, their component parts and physical manufacture, going further by reconstructing and subjecting them to regular use in combat conditions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781445655239
Publisher:	Amberley Publishing
Publication date:	01/15/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Hilary Travis holds a Masters and Honours Degrees in Archaeology. In addition to over 20 years experience as an archaeologist, she also has over 20 years combat experience in Japanese martial arts, and over 10 years in reconstruction of Roman and medieval period artefacts. John Travis is an established author, his first book, Coal in Roman Britain, was based on his PhD thesis. He holds a Masters Degree and Doctorate in Roman Archaeology from the University of Liverpool. He is an archaeologist with over 30 years experience, and an Associate member of the Institute of Field Archaeologists (AIFA). Both Hilary and John are active re-enactors, as members of both the Chester Guard (Deva VV) Roman Society and the Thomas Stanley Retinue (Wars of the Roses Medieval group).

Table of Contents

List of Tables 6

List of Illustrations 7

List of Colour Plates 10

Acknowledgements 12

I Introduction 13

II Development of Roman Shields 33

III Republican Period Shields 46

IV Shields of the Early Imperial Period 50

V Shields of the Later Empire 63

VI Shield Bosses 72

VII Decoration 80

VIII Construction of the Shield Board 100

IX Destructive Field Testing of the Reconstructed Board 107

X The Shield in Use 117

XI Reassessing the Evidence 125

Appendix I The Origins 8c Development of the Roman Army 131

Appendix II Equipment &c Fabricae 138

Appendix III Wood 145

Appendix IV Leather 151

Appendix V Metal 160

Appendix VI Size, Gesso, Paine, Pigment and Dyes 180

Bibliography 185

Index 191