The Roman Balteus

The Balteus, or militaris, is the decorated belt that the Roman soldier wore over his armour. It was decorated and was to a small degree a measure of the wealth of the soldier who owned it. The style of the details is up to the preference of the owner, and the front apron details such as the terminals on the ends usually reflect the styles of the area where the soldier comes from or is stationed at. The "C" shaped terminals on the balteus shown originates from the British Isles. The discs on the apron are made of brass, or orichalcum as it was called by the Romans. The apron straps sometimes protrude from the bottom of the belt or come over the top edge of the belt as the one below is. The exact construction of the apron can only be inferred from depictions of Romans in stone carvings or ot her evidence. The plates on the belt were either cast or hammered from plate brass or bronze. The style of these plates is a simple and common disc motif, with ropes chiseled in from the back side on either side of each plate. The outer edges of the plates are rolled. The disc grooves were made using a hammer, a lead block, and various sizes of pipe couplings found at the local hardware store. The buckle is cast from bronze, but may also be brass. Brass (copper & zinc) was used almost exclusively by the Roman military for coinage and other items. Bronze (copper & tin) is stronger, and was more commonly used for everyday civilian items in ancient times. Brass cracks when overstressed and bronze can be hardened to a springy strength by cold working and was even commonly used for ancient edged weapons such as the kopis. Items found that were made from brass were often made from re-melted coins, since they are readily available source for metal, especially for replacing fittings for repairs. It is logical to assume that brass would only be used for armour fittings if bronze was not available or for munitions grade armour, although evidence shows that despite the fact that brass is inferior, it was very popular for use in military fittings. This fact tends to contradict one's sensible choice in the superiority of using bronze. Another Roman military enthusiast had this to say about the metal fittings composition issue:

"Among the military artifacts tested were numerous examples of Roman scale armor - lorica plumata - dated to the early Empire. The results showed that they tended to be of pretty mixed composition, though none could be considered bronze. Most could be considered brass, though only three examples tested with a relatively consistent zinc content, in this case between 11% and 13% zinc (one from Castleford with 11.24%, one from York with 11.22%, and a third from Dalton Parlours at 12.68%). One example from Carlisle contained just under 10% zinc, two from Vindolanda were about 20% zinc, while another from Vindolanda and a second from Carlisle were both almost pure copper (98.14% and 99.67% respectively, though I think the correct expression is "impure copper"). All the examples tested had at least one or two trace elements thrown in. The three "consistent" example were all from different sites, which might suggest the metal smiths were following some established recipe. However, the Dalton Parlours scale also contained 3.72% tin, the example from York contained 4.24% tin, and the Castleford example contained only a trace 0.14% tin. None of the other tested examples contained as much tin as the Dalton Parlours and York examples, or as little as the Castleford example (between ½ % and 1½ % tin being the average in most of the other examples). This is interesting because it contrasts with analysis of lorica segmentata fittings, which seem to have been made to a consistent and very specific recipe of about 20% zinc. It almost seems that the Romans were for some reason more concerned with following a standard recipe for lorica segmentata fittings than they were in the recipe for lorica plumata, which may have been left up to the discretion of the individual metal smiths. The tests also showed that bronze did not begin to be used again in constructing scale armor until the late Empire." -Gregg