It's very good that people are curious. Curiosity, coupled with laziness, balance each other, contribute to the development of civilization, and it also makes you work. After all, how else can you learn something without difficulty? Any knowledge, even the most trifling one, is labor! Well, as for the weapons of the warriors of Ancient Greece and Rome, then to our complete satisfaction there is almost everything: finds by archaeologists, drawings on ceramic vases (and not only vases, of course), bas-reliefs, sculptures, and finally - descriptions of contemporaries. This allows you to imagine quite clearly how everything was arranged for them. For example, archaeologists find a profiled patterned bronze strip. What is it? And they looked at the drawing on the amphora, "attached" it to it - it turns out that this is a bracket for holding the shield. And so literally in everything! Painted Roman shields and horse armor made of scales were found, muscular cuirasses and one (!) Iron cuirass, similar in structure to a linen shell, were found - that's what was at that time, well, nothing to break through!
Spartan hoplites in the armor of Matt Poitras. On the shields, the letter L is visible - "Lacedaemon", the official name of Sparta.
And it is clear that this gave rise to the desire to recreate all this "in metal" today. In England, where their Roman traditions are sacredly revered, there is an organization called the Ermine Street Guard - the Ermine Street Guard. Its members are people of all ages and professions: doctors, lawyers, well, in a word, whoever is not there. However, there are no "poor" there, because the armor of the Roman legionary, in which you put on there, costs about three thousand pounds! There are also cheaper ones, but this way you can fall into the "slaves", "masseurs", which is not very interesting. They have a reconstructed fortress, where they come for the weekend, serve there, take pictures with tourists, act in films. Nowadays there are many such clubs and who are not in them, but the "Ermine Guards" is one of the most professional.
Ermine Street Guard Legionnaires.
It was created back in 1972 and has not ceased to exist since then. All the details of the equipment were recreated from real finds, and the work of making replicas was supervised by such a famous British historian as Russell Robinson. The armor of legionaries, standard-bearers of the Signifiers and Imaginers, Syrian archers, auxiliaries and even the cavalry, well, in a word, the entire Roman imperial legion of the era of the conquest of Britain, were reconstructed. By the way, it is very easy to become a member of the “Ermine Guards”: you pay £ 30 a year and become their full member, that is, you can come to them, be in their fortress, try on armor and learn to fight with swords and throw pilums. Association membership is very cheap at £ 7. In this case, you will receive an interesting ESG newsletter. By the way, we have our own "legionnaires" in St. Petersburg, but this topic is beyond the scope of this story.
A real Roman "turtle".
But this is a "turtle" from Trajan's column and it is obvious that the sculptor depicted the shields of the legionnaires disproportionately small, and the chain mail for some reason too short, so that they do not protect anything from below!
There is a whole "team" of needleworkers who make all this for them. Among them was one of the most famous British reenactors - Michael Simkins. They give him a "green helmet" in the museum, but they get him exactly the same, brand new and shiny. He wrote a wonderful book: "Warriors of Rome: An Illustrated Military History of the Roman Legions" - "Warriors of Rome. An Illustrated Military History of the Roman Legions. Moreover, the drawings for it were made by James Field (a very famous illustrator), but Michael himself performed reconstruction of helmets, armor and weapons for it, and you can see what they found, a graphic drawing of what they found, then how it should look in metal, and finally - how it all looked in public! Despite the fact that the book was published in 1988, it is still on sale, but it is expensive (about $ 50).
Auxiliaries "Ermine Street Guard"
A real signifer in scaly shell and bearskin!
It is interesting that the reconstructors of Greek and Roman armor appeared overseas, in the same USA. And they make no less interesting armor and helmets than their UK counterparts. Among the reenactors there, Matt Poitras of Austin, Texas, should be mentioned first of all. Here, his work has already been described in the materials about the Trojan War. However, Matt is not limited to this topic. He made several sets of armor of ancient Greek warriors - the Spartan king Leonidas and Alexander the Great himself, and used as a model the famous mosaic from the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. That's a source, that's a source, isn't it? This armor of Alexander was subsequently reconstructed for Oliver Stone's film "Alexander" and this, of course, is the most correct path that a director of a historical motion picture can and should take.
Alexander the Great in the armor of Matt Poitras.
Alexander's armor is made of many layers of glued fabric and metal scales.
Mosaic from the National Archaeological Museum in Naples depicting Alexander the Great.
As for Tsar Leonidas, Matt chose a very original model with "horse cheeks" for his helmet, but this is by no means a fantasy of the master. Such a helmet is known! He also made two shells - the shell of Leonidas and the second for his associate.
Helmet of Tsar Leonidas.
Both shells adorn the heads of mythical monsters. In general, personally, I have never seen "anatomical shells" with such … decorations. But … they could well have been on them, why not, and who knows, maybe just such cuirasses just did not reach us. Let's say the early Christians found them, and as symbols of paganism, the first thing they did was melt them down!
Greek "Anatomical Breastplate" from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
I must say that Matt Poitras in his advertising materials constantly emphasizes that only armor does - its reconstruction is his element, but for weapons of that time, contact someone else! But the main thing is that today it is no longer a problem either for filmmakers or for fans of historical reconstruction to get themselves any armor, there would only be money.
The breastplate of King Leonidas by Matt Poitras even bears traces of "combat" damage!
Armor with the image of Medusa the Gorgon by Matt Poitras.
In addition, it is not at all necessary to go somewhere overseas. Several years ago, in Anapa, near the local history museum, I came across a funny reenactor (funny because he had a whole arsenal of ancient weapons and armor for all tastes!), Who made pretty good armor, including muscle cuirasses. Well, and their weight was appropriate, which I did not fail to make sure of then. So we also have masters and, improving over the years, they may well reach and surpass the foreign level. There would be desire, time and money!
Armor of Mark Antony by Matt Poitras.
Well, and those who cannot afford the "full-length armor" can today take their souls away, collecting and painting figures from polystyrene on a scale of 1:16 by the Ukrainian firm Miniart. The firm produces excellent prefabricated models and figurines in 1:35 scale. Painted with acrylics, these figures make a very strong impression.
Sample packaging for a figurine of a Greek hoplite and a Roman legionnaire from Miniart.
Well, large figurines on a scale of 1:16 are good because they are very carefully worked out and historically authentically detailed, packed in a colorful box, supplied with instructions and a high-quality "decal" (decal). This makes it quite easy to create very realistic sculptures with drawings on the same shields, which you simply cannot paint by hand.
A figurine from the Miniart set: Athenian hoplite.
Moreover, for the figurine of the Spartan warrior, there are even two options for the design of the shield. One is shown in a photo courtesy of Miniart, and the other with the traditional letter L. Adding various home-made details to them, you can remake them (in the language of modellers - convert) into warriors of other eras, say the same Roman legionaries, in this way you can turn into auxiliaries, for which they should be armed with oval shields. It is not difficult to make your own figurines on their basis and cast them from epoxy resin in vixinth molds.
A Samnite Gladiator figurine is still in preparation for mass release. And one must think that a Thracian will definitely be paired with her. Well, skilful "conversionists" can quite make of this man-gladiator … a gladiator … a woman! It is known that there were such people too, their gravestones and even their names are known, so you, in turn, can make good money on these conversions!
As for the images on the boxes themselves, they are drawn by the famous artist Igor Dzys, who is well known in our country for his drawings in a number of publications.
Roman tribune of the era of the empire. Reconstruction by Matt Poitras.
Unfortunately, Matt Poitras did not dare to make a replica of this armor - an iron shell from the so-called Tomb of Philip. This is a very interesting example of a cuirass not made of bronze, but of iron. In the museum, where he is exhibited, such a person as Matt, of course, will not be denied and this will be a really significant contribution to modern "applied history"!
Iron carapace from the Tomb of Philip. Archaeological Museum in Thessaloniki.
The author expresses his gratitude to the Miniart company (https://www.miniart-models.com/menu_r.htm) for the photographs provided.
