Roman Military Equipment

Roman armour is designed around three basic ideas: 1) specialization for infantry and infantry tactics, 2) missile protection, and 3) ease of construction and maintenance in the field. First off, the 1st and second century Imperial armour for those infantry that are well enough equipped to HAVE armour is maille (lorica hamata), segmented iron plate (lorica "segmentata" or more recently termed "laminata"), scale (lorica squamata), and more rarely little scales attached to maille (lorica plumata). The classical musculed breastplate is the forth type, but is typically reserved for officers, and offers slightly less protection overall than others since it it may not always be used in conjunction with a shield or scutum. Legions typically had a mixture of forms of armour among those that had armour and were not nearly as homogenous as the reenactor groups are today with regard to the type of armour worn.

What distinguishes Roman armour from medieval armour is that it is solely designed for infantry in many features. The helmet has open ears and open face to allow the soldier to see and hear very well. This is especially important since Roman infantry tactics stressed ordered combat and if you can't hear orders above all the screaming that goes on in a fight, you cannot work well in formation with your comrades. The close order formation tactics of the Romans allowed the units to act as mobile walls, where defensive combat against superior numbers of lesser armoured opponents would allow the Roman unit to prevail by attrition, allowing enemy bodies to piles up in front of the formation to further hinder the approach of more enemy soldiers. Holding the line no matter what is a basic Roman tactic. The Romans had a mixture of different types of troops that were managed to take advantage depending on position. Archers, slingers and pilum throwing was done at an appropriate distance depending on the missile weapon, with the missile users being able to fall through and behind the ranks of scutum bearing infantry, or fall into rank with the line if provided with a scutum as the enemy closed to hand-to-hand range. Cavalry was in the form of a fast and mobile light infantry able to react to changes in the battle or act offensively to drive the enemy into a poorer position. Artillery had its place for anchoring positions as support and adding its long range firepower to an assault if it could be positioned in a place of relative safety from being overrun. Generally, the Romans in the 1st and 2nd Century continued to use variety of types of troops to allow the legion to remain flexible and give the commander more options for strategy. Later legions relied more on foreign soldiers and infantry only as the focus of the legion's makeup. Enemy infantry soldiers typically were lightly armoured or wore no armour and usually carried a shield similar to a Roman shield.

The main protection of ancient armour (Greek and Roman) is the shield and not the body protection as is typical in the Middle Ages. The shield (scutum) is the primary protection for Roman infantry, and the armour is secondary. The shield is designed as a missile defense against arrows, plumbata (thrown darts), javelins (pilum & angons), and sling stones. The helmet has a neck guard primarily to cover the head from attacked by falling missiles and also to cover those critical vertebrae at the base of the neck from any other source of damage, much like a fire fighters helmet today. The main weapon of the legionnaire is the pilum, a javelin designed specifically for piercing shields deeply enough to injure or kill the man behind. Since the shield makes a pretty good missile defense as it may be held away from your body, the pilum head is long and slender to pass at least two feet through a shield. Plus, the head is barbed in such a way so it cannot be easily removed from a shield or from flesh without causing more grievous injury.

The armour and helmet are designed with functionality and ease of repair in the field over appearance. With regard to the Lorica "segmentata", the simply shaped iron plates can be bent back into shape and leathers can be re-riveted. The fittings can be manufactured in the field. The fittings for the helmet and armour can be hammered out from brass and replaced by riveting. Even the scale armour is designed to be easily fixed. Scales are stapled with pieces of wire to a horizontal strip of leather that is in turn sewn along the top edge to a leather jerkin. If a scale gets torn off and the leather strip is damaged as a result, the seam holding the strip can be cut and removed, and all the scales on that strip replaced onto a new strip with wire staples before the strip is re-sewn onto the jerkin. That eliminates the tedious process of grinding away rivets and replacing them. The staples prove very strong.