Part 7

Italian helmets are more like hats, giving no protection to the face unless cheek-pieces are added. An early form, from Ancona, is almost hemispherical, with wide brim and two large bosses on the sides (No. =203=, fig. 73). The bosses would stop glancing blows on the head. The smaller knob on the front of this example may have held the crest; if so, the corresponding knob behind has been lost. Two helmets from Cannae are later developments of the same type (No. =204=, fig. 74). They are decorated and stiffened with two curved bands in relief, one on each side of the crown. The bosses and brims are broken away. The earliest helmets of this shape belong to the seventh century B.C. Our later specimens were probably worn in the battle of Cannae (216 B.C.). They have wrongly been called Carthaginian because of their discovery on this battlefield, but the type is European, and has been found at Hallstatt. The helmet with sharp pointed top also belongs to a class which extended to France and Germany in the early Iron Age (No. =205=, fig. 72). The arched socket for the crest is a peculiarity of this example, which is of later date, about fourth century B.C. More strictly of Italian origin are the heavy Etruscan helmets resembling reversed jockey-caps, with a knob on top, a short peak covering the wearer's neck, and attached cheek-pieces (No. =206=, fig. 75). They are cast; nearly all other helmets are hammered work. Their date is from the fifth to the third century B.C. The Etruscans also used an oval helmet with ridged crown, of which the most notable example comes from Olympia, where it was dedicated as part of the Greek spoils from the naval battle of Kyme (B.C. 474). This helmet is described above among the Greek Inscriptions (p. 8, fig. 7, No. =13=). Other examples are heavier, and have a broad decorated rim (No. =207=, fig. 73).

There is no specimen of a Roman helmet in this collection. The scarcity of remains of Roman armour is due to the fact that it was mostly made of iron, which has decayed. Representations of different shapes may be seen, in a statuette of an officer (No. =219=, fig. 85), a small model of a trophy (No. =233=), a cast of a large marble relief (No. =236=), and a drawing of a soldier from the Column of Trajan (fig. 90). All these show close-fitting caps with broad chin-straps, which also serve as cheek-pieces. They are varieties of the Attic type. Some Roman helmets found in England are exhibited in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities. One of them is reproduced in fig. 76. It is evidently related to the much older Etruscan "jockey-cap." The hinged cheek-pieces are wanting. It is likely that the Romans would combine Greek and Italian patterns in designing a uniform helmet for their own army.

A peculiar fashion of Roman helmet is represented by two bronze vizor-masks in Case 117 (Nos. =208=, =209=, fig. 77). A complete helmet of the same kind, exhibited in the Room of Roman Britain, was found at Ribchester in 1796, and two other specimens, a fragmentary iron helmet and a bronze mask, have recently been excavated at Newstead on the Tweed. The Newstead helmet has remains of padding still adhering, which prove that these strange helmets were actually worn, though Arrian, writing on tactics in the second century A.D., says that they were used for display, and not in battle. The earlier of our examples (No. =208=, fig. 77, right), which probably belongs to the first century A.D., is said to have been found on the face of a skeleton in a grave at Nola in Italy in the eighteenth century. The other (No. =209=, fig. 77, left), which has the more usual type of features, has lately been presented to the Museum, having been purchased at Aintab in Syria during the occupation of the country by British troops. Both masks are pierced at eyes, nostrils and mouth, and show traces of attachment to the helmet above the forehead. No. =209= has remains of white metal plating on the face, the hair being left in the colour of bronze.

Crests are shown on all kinds of helmets, as in the Greek, Etruscan and Roman statuettes (figs. 66, 81, 85), and the drawings on Greek and Italian vases (figs. 79, 86, etc.); it is not uncommon to find three on one helmet. They had thick horsehair plumes, sometimes simply wired to the helmet, sometimes mounted in sockets. Very few helmets show original fittings for the crests. These must have been added by the owners. Some helmets have holes drilled in the crown; No. =186= has remains of wire in the holes. No. =189= has a bronze socket still holding a wooden peg, but this is only fastened with cement, and its rough make is not in keeping with the fine finish of this helmet (fig. 78). The flanged channel and pins of No. =193= (fig. 67) are peculiar to that type of helmet. An Etruscan helmet of Attic shape (No. =199=, fig. 78) had a pair of tubes to carry single feathers, only one of which remains (_cf._ fig. 80). It was an Italian habit to wear fantastic ornaments. The head of a horseman from a wall-painting at Capua shows horns, wings, and a plume or feather (fig. 79). A Corinthian helmet from Apulia has a pair of curved horns like those in the wall-painting (No. =190=). An Attic helmet belonging to a suit of armour which was found in a grave at Capua, and is exhibited here on loan from H.M. Armoury in the Tower of London (No. =210=), has horns of coiled wire (perhaps clips for feathers), and a pair of wings. The oval bronze hat (No. =202=, fig. 72) has two crests of sea-horses mounted as horns, with the support for a plume between them. These accessories are detachable; they are cut out of thin sheet metal and fit on to flat ears on the helmet. Two of the latest of the Corinthian class (No. =191=, fig. 68) have such attachments.

=Cuirass.=--The earliest metal cuirass consisted of two bronze plates roughly shaped to fit the body, and fastened together at the sides and shoulders. The bottom edge was turned up so as not to cut the hips. The Greek statuette from Dodona (No. =185=, fig. 66) shows the form. It was contemporary with the Corinthian helmet in Greece, and was probably discarded there for the same reason, that it was as much a burden as a protection. In Italy it had a longer life, but in an improved shape which is represented in Italian vase-painting (fig. 80), and is shown here in the cast of an Etruscan statuette (No. =201=), as well as in some actual specimens from Italy (Nos. =210=, =211=, =212=). These fit closely to the body, of which the form is moulded in free style on the metal plates, and the bottom edge follows the line of the waist. A fringe of leather was often attached to the rim. The fastenings are rings for lacing, and pins in sockets which serve either as hinges or clasps. The other cuirass was generally used in Greece from the beginning of the fifth century B.C. An Etruscan statuette in the Bronze Room shows every detail of the type (fig. 81). It was made of leather plated with bronze, with shoulder-straps to buckle down upon the breast. In scenes of the arming of soldiers, for instance on a vase by the painter Douris, at Vienna (fig. 82), the method of putting on this cuirass is often represented, and the construction of the various parts is shown. The bronze plating might be in the form of square tabs or round scales. Two fragments of such plating are exhibited (No. =213=, fig. 83, right). The larger consists of six plates of bronze with the lower edge scalloped, sewn with wire on a leathern coat, and overlapping in such a way as everywhere to present three thicknesses of metal. The leather of this example is modern. The other is of five much smaller scales, similarly wired together. The larger fragment is from France, the smaller from Oxyrhynchus, in Egypt. Some pieces of heavier bronze plating, one of them still clasping a shrivelled tongue of leather, may have served as the long tabs which form a skirt to this cuirass. They were excavated at Kertch in the Crimea (No. =214=, fig. 83, left).

A peculiar Italian type is represented by a triangular bronze breastplate filled with three circles in relief (No. =215=). This breastplate often appears on third-century vases of South Italian fabric, and a number of such plates have been found in tombs of the beginning of the Iron Age. It is therefore an ancient pattern, but this example is contemporary with the vases (fig. 84).

Another piece of native Italian fashion is the metal belt (No. =216=) which is also represented in vase paintings of the third century B.C. (fig. 84). It was worn with the triangular breastplate. Rows of holes along the edges show that the belts were lined with cloth or leather. The fastening is simple, one end hooking into the other. Many elaborate hooks are exhibited (No. =217=). Two oval bronze plaques (No. =218=) may have belonged to belts of different type.

Remains of Roman cuirasses are as rare as of the helmets, and for the same reason; but the general type of the armour worn by the legionary soldier is illustrated by a small statuette (No. =219=; fig. 85). The cuirass is of the same design as the flexible Greek type; it is made of overlapping bands of metal, which are fastened down the front. There are shoulder-pieces of similar construction, and straps are brought over from the back to hold the armour in place. Underneath is a kilt of leather or metal strips. Two other varieties of Roman cuirass are shown in the cast of the relief representing pieces of armour (No. =236=), and a fourth is the coat of mail, which appears in the reliefs of the Columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius at Rome (about 110 and 190 A.D. respectively). It is represented here by fragments of two different patterns and sizes (No. =220=).

=Greaves.=--The third part of the Greek body armour is the greaves. Metal greaves may have been worn towards the close of the Mycenaean Age (the pair from Enkomi in Cyprus dates from about 1100 B.C.), but their general use was due, like that of the metal cuirass, to the adoption of the small shield, which necessitated a better covering of the body and legs. The poet Alcaeos says that the greave was a protection against missiles. It was a thin sheet of bronze, shaped to fit the leg, which it clasped and held of its own elasticity. Only the greaves from Enkomi (No. =221=) are laced with bronze wire. Warriors putting on their greaves are often represented on the Attic vases. Fig. 86 is from the same scene as fig. 82. An ankle-pad was worn to keep the bottom edge from chafing. There is little difference of shape or decoration in the existing specimens. Some reach only to the knee, and some extend above it to cover part of the thigh (Nos. =222=, =225=). With the exception of the pair from Enkomi, all these date from the sixth to the third century B.C. Two of the finest (No. =223=; fig. 87) from Ruvo in South Italy, are decorated on the knee with a figure of a Gorgon. The tongue and eyes were made of ivory. The style points to Ionia as the place, and the sixth century as the time of manufacture. Rather later is the pair with incised palmettes above the knees (No. =224=). The only other decoration is the expression of the muscles of the leg to correspond with the similar representation of the body on the breastplate. As in the belt and helmet, there is usually a row of holes along the rim for the attachment of a lining. In the Roman army the greave was worn from early times, but under the Empire it became a mark of distinction for the centurions.

Some rare pieces of armour are arranged with the greaves. No. =226= is a thigh-piece, of which the provenance is not known. A similar piece was found at Olympia. Armour for the thigh is represented on some Greek vases of the sixth century B.C., but not on later monuments, although both Xenophon and Arrian mention it as part of the equipment of cavalry. A guard for the upper part of the right arm, from Italy, which is more familiar as armour of the later gladiator, dates from the fifth or fourth century B.C. (No. =227=). It was fastened to the shoulder of the cuirass. Another piece of different shape is mounted with the suit of armour from Capua (No. =210=). There are three pairs of shin-guards from Italy (No. =228=). The ankle-pieces are designed to protect the "Achilles" tendon at the back of the foot (No. =229=; fig. 88). These subsidiary pieces of leg-armour were probably worn by the Italians of the fourth century B.C., when the long greave was going out of fashion. Armour of an unusual kind is represented by the pair of bronze shoes, which are also from Ruvo (No. =230=; fig. 89). The metal covering is only for the top of the foot, and the toes are on a separate plate, which is hinged at the joint. Part of a single shoe of the same type was found at Olympia.

=Shield.=--An essential part of the ancient panoply was the shield, but actual remains are rare. Greek shields were probably made of wood or leather studded or plated with metal. The prehistoric shield of Homer's time we know was a large bull-hide, which enveloped the man from head to foot, and was slung round his neck by a strap. Herodotus says that this unwieldy weapon was superseded by the smaller shield, an invention of the Carians, held on the left arm by a loop and a cross-bar (fig. 102). The common shapes were circular and oval; more fanciful patterns, lozenges and crescents, belonged to less civilised neighbours of the Greeks. Leather construction is seen in the shape of the Boeotian shield (so called from its use as the national coin-type of Boeotia), which the Dodona soldier carries (No. =185=; fig. 66). This is oval with a gap in the middle of each long side, a shape produced by stretching a hide on a long frame with cross-bars at top and bottom. Strings for tightening the leather cover are drawn inside a shield in fig. 102. Two circular bronze shields are exhibited, both from Italy. The large one is decorated with narrow bands of Sphinxes, rosettes, palm- and lotus-patterns in relief, in the oriental Greek style of the sixth century B.C. (No. =231=). The smaller (No. =232=), which has a spiked boss and punctured geometric patterns, is probably Italian of about the same date. Neither of these examples has the fittings of a shield inside. They may have been made for decorative or votive use.

No Roman shields are represented, and none have survived entire, for they were also made of wood and leather, and only the central boss and the framework were of metal. The ordinary type is illustrated in the reliefs of the Trajan Column (fig. 90), where the legionaries are perhaps distinguished from the auxiliary soldiers by their oblong shields. These are further differentiated by the badges of the various legions; the illustration shows a thunderbolt. The Greeks also carried devices on their shields, mostly figures of animals (fig. 102, a bull's head), which would be chosen as the emblem of a man or family, like coats of arms in mediaeval Europe. Some states also had their badges; men of Lacedaemon, Sicyon, and Messene bore the initial letters of the names of their towns.

=Trophies.=--A peculiar usage of war among the Greeks, which was afterwards practised by the Romans, was the erection of trophies of the arms captured from a defeated enemy. Soldiers of all ages have celebrated their achievements by the display of armour or similar spoils which they have stripped from their opponents; but the custom of building effigies with the empty armour, to be left for a monument on the battlefield, as a token of victory, belonged properly to the Greeks. Helmet, cuirass and greaves were slung in position on a tree-trunk, and the shield and other weapons were bound to the arms of a cross-piece. An inscription was affixed, giving an account of the victory and the dedication of the monument to a deity, as other spoils were dedicated in the temples. In the centre of the Wall-Cases 116-117 two suits of armour are set up in this fashion (Nos. =210=, =211=). In Case 111 there are a small bronze model of a Roman trophy (No. =233=), and two lamps with designs of the same subject. One of them has a trophy of barbarian arms, a horned helmet and oblong wooden shields, with a man and a woman captive at the foot (No. =234=). The other is more fanciful: a trophy is borne aloft by a Victory, who is poised with her foot on a globe, to symbolise the subjection of the world (No. =235=).

The Greeks had established customs in raising trophies, and these were strictly observed. The trophy was an assertion of victory, and was accepted by the vanquished and left inviolate by them. But it was contrary to usage for the victors to repair it, or to make the supports of anything more durable than wood. The native Roman practice was to fix captured armour in the house, like trophies of the chase. The built trophy was borrowed from the Greeks, but it was not necessarily erected on the battlefield. At Rome there were many trophies commemorating provincial victories, and the custom was continued in the representations of spoils on the triumphal arches and other monuments of the Imperial age. A marble relief of pieces of armour from one of these monuments is reproduced in a cast (No. =236=). The arms are mostly Roman, but the dragon-standard and loose tunic belong to the Dacians, a barbarous people who made trouble on the north-east frontier of the Roman Empire in the second century after Christ.

=Standards.=--Military standards were not much used by the Greeks, but in the Roman army, which was a regular institution, not a temporary levy of citizens, they were elaborately developed. The eagle was the standard of the legion. It was a gilt image of the bird with spread wings, holding a thunderbolt in its claws. Marks of military distinction bestowed upon the legion--crowns, wreaths, and medallions--were carried on the staff which supported the eagle or on the eagle itself (fig. 109, p. 105). Smaller standards belonged to the companies of the legion (maniples or centuries). These were originally banners (_vexilla_) mounted on spears, with honorary wreaths and medallions attached to the shafts. A cast of such a standard is exhibited (No. =237=). The cross-piece represents the bar on which the banner was hung, the sloping and vertical members at its ends are derived from the cords which fastened the cross-bar to the pole. The other standards shown in fig. 91, figures of birds or animals carried on a plain shaft, are also represented here, in the bronze boar (No. =238=). Such standards were probably used by detachments of the legion. The regimental emblems were chosen or bestowed for various reasons; some legions had several badges, and the same badges are found with several legions. The boar is known to have belonged to the 1st (_Italica_), 2nd (_Adjutrix_), 10th (_Fretensis_) and 20th (_Valeria Victrix_). The bronze hand (No. =239=) may have been part of a standard, but its poor structure rather indicates votive use. An open hand was the proper standard of the maniple, the Roman company of two centuries, which, indeed, derived its name from this device (_manipulus_, a handful). The Roman explanation, as recorded by Ovid and others, was that when Romulus first organised his men by hundreds, he gave each company a standard consisting of a handful of twigs or grass on the point of a spear. In any case the maniple took its name from the hand, and the hand is often represented as the standard of the maniple; fig. 92 is taken from the Trajan Column. The cross-bar, which originally carried the banner, and its hanging tassels are shown in this standard, as in No. =237=, but the more important part of the cord, which fastened the bar to the shaft, has been omitted from the design. This fortuitous pattern of a cross was eagerly recognised by the early Church as a military emblem of Christianity, and the famous _labarum_, the miraculous standard which Christ gave to the Emperor Constantine on the eve of the battle of the Milvian Bridge, was a cavalry _vexillum_ of the Roman army with the monogram of Christ emblazoned on its banner (fig. 93).

The pieces of armour are described in the _Catalogue of Bronzes_ to which reference should be made for fuller details. The Catalogue numbers are painted on the objects.

(185) _Bronzen aus Dodona in den Kgl. Museen zu Berlin_, p. 13, pl. 2; (201) Friederichs, _Kleinere Kunst_, 2197; (208) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 877; Benndorf, _Ant. Gesichtshelme_, p. 15, pl. 3; for the class see Curle, _A Roman Frontier Post and its People_, p. 179; (221) _B.M. Excavations in Cyprus_, p. 16, fig. 26; (236) _Cat. of Sculpture_, 2620; (237, 238, 239) reproduced by Daremberg and Saglio, _Dict. Ant._ s.v. _Signa Militaria_.

=Weapons.=--The weapons of offence, which are exhibited in Table-Case E, differ from the majority of the antiquities shown in this room, in that many of them were made at a remote period in the history of Greece and Italy, some even dating from the beginning of the Bronze Age, when the use of metal had not long supplanted that of stone. In a few examples from the island of Cyprus, the metal is almost pure copper. It is therefore not strictly accurate to call these weapons Greek and Roman, for they were made a thousand years before those nations began; but they come from the lands which were afterwards inhabited by the Greeks and Romans, and are valuable as representing the development of arms in those parts of the world, and as being the work of the primitive races in whom the Greeks and Romans had their origin.