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).
[Illustration: FIG. 83.--BRONZE PLATING FROM CUIRASSES (NOS. 214,
213). 3:5.]
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.
[Illustration: FIG. 84.--VASE PAINTINGS SHOWING ITALIAN BREASTPLATE
AND METAL BELT.]
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=).
[Illustration: FIG. 85.--BRONZE STATUETTE OF A ROMAN LEGIONARY SOLDIER
(NO. 219). 2:3.]
=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.
[Illustration: FIG. 86.--A SOLDIER PUTTING ON HIS GREAVES.]
[Illustration: FIG. 87.--PAIR OF BRONZE GREAVES DECORATED WITH FIGURES
OF GORGONS (NO. 223). 1:6.]
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.
[Illustration: FIG. 88.--BRONZE ANKLE-GUARD (NO. 229). 1:4.]
[Illustration: FIG. 89.--BRONZE SHOES (NO. 230). 1:4.]
=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.
[Illustration: FIG. 90.--ROMAN LEGIONARY SOLDIER FROM THE TRAJAN
COLUMN.]
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=).
[Illustration: FIG. 91.--ROMAN LEGIONARY BADGES USED AS STANDARDS,
FROM THE TRAJAN COLUMN.]
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.
[Illustration: FIG. 92.--ROMAN MANIPULAR _Vexillum_, FROM THE TRAJAN
COLUMN.]
[Illustration: FIG. 93.--SILVER COIN OF VALENS (364-378 A.D.) SHOWING
THE EMPEROR HOLDING THE _Labarum_, TRIUMPHANT OVER BARBARIANS.]
=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.
=Early Greek Bronze Age.=--The first class consists of arms which
belong to the Early Bronze Age in Greece, a period preceding the
mature and extensive civilisation to which the name of Mycenaean is
commonly applied. The general date of 3000 to 2000 B.C., which is
assigned to the weapons of this period, serves rather to indicate
their chronological relations than to give their precise age. In any
case they stand as a definite beginning of the history of arms in
Europe. In these early times the sword had not been invented, and
short daggers or spear-heads only were produced by workmen with a
still imperfect mastery of metallurgy. The most ancient form was a
short thick blade, with rivets in the base, where it was fastened
to the hilt or shaft. A more secure attachment was contrived by
prolonging the broad base of the blade into a tang, which was let
into the handle and held by a rivet through the end. But the greatest
advance was the discovery that if a rib were left up the middle of
the blade, the edges could be fined down and tapered to a sharp point
without loss of strength. In the final development the stiffening rib
and the tang were connected, so that the strongest part of the blade
was continued down into the handle. Yet in spite of progress and
improvements in design, the old patterns remained in use to the end of
the Bronze Age, and even later, so that a chronological classification
based on the forms of early Weapons is untrustworthy.
[Illustration: FIG. 94.--PRIMITIVE BRONZE SPEAR- AND DAGGER-BLADES,
FROM GREECE AND CYPRUS (NOS. 241-4). 1:4.]
All the stages in the development are shown in these examples. The
most primitive types are represented by a series of blades from Cyprus
(No. =241=; fig. 94_a_), which, from material and technique, might be
placed at a very early period; but they were excavated from Mycenaean
tombs of the end of the Bronze Age. To the same island belong the
narrow blades with long tangs, which are turned round at the end in a
hook to hold the handle (No. =242=; fig. 94_b_). This type is said
to have been found in graves of 3000 B.C. It is certainly a primitive
shape, and peculiar to the pre-Mycenaean civilisation of Cyprus.
Another local variety is known in the leaf-shaped blade with a sharp
tang and two slits, one on each side of the midrib, through which
the shaft was lashed in place (No. =243=; fig. 94_c_). The pattern
is characteristic of the contemporary civilisation of the Cycladic
Islands. Two pointed blades with no tang belong to the same early
period. The smaller of the two was found at Athens (No. =244=; fig.
94_d_).
[Illustration: FIG. 95.--BRONZE SWORDS OF THE MYCENAEAN PERIOD (NOS.
245, 247-8). 1:4.]
[Illustration: FIG. 96.--BRONZE SWORDS OF LATE MYCENAEAN TYPE (NOS.
249-50). 1:4.]
=Mycenaean swords and daggers.=--The next period was the close of the
Bronze Age in Greece, occupying the second millennium before Christ.
It has been called, from its best-known centre at Mycenae, the
Mycenaean Age. In this period, by improvement in metal-working, the
short daggers were lengthened into swords, which, towards the end of
the age, were made even a yard long, and very slender. Such weapons
were used mainly for thrusting, for they would break with a direct
blow. Homer records many such accidents on the battlefield. At the
same time the spear-head was differentiated from the dagger-blade,
being provided with a socket for the shaft. Mycenaean weapons are
represented here by swords and spear-heads found mainly at Ialysos in
Rhodes, and belonging to the end of the period. The swords are short
and heavy, and are made in one piece with the hilt. The guard is
straight in the earlier specimens, and the pommel of the hilt was a
round knob, of which the tang remains (No. =245=; fig. 95_a_). This is
the form of the well-known daggers from Mycenae, which have the blades
inlaid with designs in coloured metals, the hilts and pommels embossed
and chased in gold. Electrotype copies of the Mycenae daggers are
exhibited in the Gold Ornament Room Passage. A closer parallel to
these is a blade from Cameiros which has the rivets still in place
(No. =246=). In other swords the raised flange on the edges of the
hilt is continued to form a crescent-shaped pommel. The hollow space
was filled with an ornamental material for the grip. The rivets are
usually in place, and on a small dagger from Karpathos a great part of
the ivory mount is preserved (No. =247=; fig. 95_b_). The last form
of this hilt appears in a heavy sword, formerly in the Woodhouse
Collection (No. =248=; fig. 95_c_). The projection of flanges and
pommel is accentuated, and the ends of the guard are curled up like
horns. This type survived into the Hellenic period. Another late
Mycenaean form is seen in a long and slender sword with a broad base
to the blade, which contracts again towards the hilt (No. =249=; fig.
96_a_). At the other end of the hilt are two divergent tongues of
metal, which are better preserved in another example, of heavier
fabric, from Enkomi, in Cyprus (No. =250=; fig. 96_b_). The type is
that in which the earliest iron swords of Greece were made (No. =263=;
fig. 101_b_), and which was the prototype of the common bronze sword
of the rest of Europe. The lighter specimen (No. =249=) is from
Scutari in Albania.
[Illustration: FIG. 97.--BRONZE SPEARHEADS OF THE MYCENAEAN PERIOD
(NO. 251). 1:4.]
=Mycenaean spears and arrows.=--The spear was in Homeric times the
soldier's most important arm, a long and heavy weapon which was thrown
with great force or used for thrusting. Mycenaean spearheads are
illustrated in a series from Ialysos (No. =251=; fig. 97). They
are skilfully made to secure the greatest strength with the least
expenditure of material; in most cases the shaft runs far up into the
blade, which is narrow and springs gently from the socket, some being
wider near the point than at the base. There is considerable variety
of shape, but all are characterised by the thin blade with shallow
curves. Mycenaean arrowheads from the same site are of more primitive
design (No. =252=; fig. 98). The best are large and heavy, and
have long barbs; a tang and no socket to take the shaft. Others are
curiously flat and weak, and are plainly metal reproductions of a
stone pattern.
[Illustration: FIG. 98.--MYCENAEAN BRONZE ARROWHEADS FROM IALYSOS (NO.
252). 2:3.]