STORMTHECASTLE HOPLITE SHIELD PROFESSIONAL

It seems reasonable to say that Roman infantry adopting auxiliary-style weapons (this shield and obviously auxiliary-style sword) was part of this process of the Roman army becoming dominated by the equipment and tactics of the Auxiliaries.ġ: it's all behind paywalls of couse: Polybius (VI, 23 2-3),

STORMTHECASTLE HOPLITE SHIELD PROFESSIONAL

This was about the time of the loss of a professional core after the Constitutio Antoniniana and the removal of the elite legions' special equipment and status. The Spatha was a more 'cut and thrust' weapon and was used as an auxilary type weapon in the 1st century and was also adopted into Germanic use. A longer weapon would have changed the ergonomics and tactics of combat, leading to a change in shield type. The sword in general use changed from the short Gladius to the longer Spatha. Why did the oval/rectangular shield lose its appeal then? There was another change to Roman infantry equipment that happened during the late 2nd and early 3rd century. There is evidence from Polybius 1 that the shield was adapted from a oval to rectangular shield used by the Samnites (one of their early Italic rivals), so it must have had real combat advantages outside of the Testudo. The whole idea of their early abandonment of the phalanx in favour of a manipular structure, which coincided with a change of shield, was to increase this flexibility.

Given the Roman track record of innovation and their doctrine of tactical flexibility it seems unlikely that their shield choice would be beholden to one of the many tricks in their vast playbook. It was a very specialised formation with many weaknesses. I don't believe the Testudo formation dictated what shields were used by Roman infantry. Oddly enough by the 3rd century AD oval shields had come back into use. The Roman heavy infantry adopted the scutum. Around 300BC the Roman army changed into the form we recognise, adopting changing from phalanxes to a manipular structure.

In the early days of Rome (kingdom and early republic) large oval shields were used and heavy Roman infantry fought in the manner of hoplites.

Stormthecastle hoplite shield