Roman Army late 2nd Century

[Old Guy]

I am approaching the end of my two Dark Age armies and my next army will be Roman, I have an idea of the figures I shall be using but my general knowledge of armour and clothing for the period is poor at the moment. Can anyone recommend a book or site with pictures of what this army should look like.

[Duncan Head]

Difficult to think of anything that specialises in that exact period, though of course all the general works will cover it. The first of Graham Sumner's Roman uniform Ospreys, Roman Military Clothing: 100 BC - AD 200, does include this period; ditto Ross Cowan's Osprey Imperial Roman Legionary: AD 161-244. Both are worthwhile books, definitely among the better Ospreys.

You could also look at Cowan's thesis, Aspects of the Severan field army: the Praetorian guard, Legio II Parthica and legionary vexillations, A.D. 193-238 which is available online at http://theses.gla.ac.uk/779/ - more about the early 3rd century, but some of the background stuff will be useful.

Edit: I'm assuming here that you mean 2nd century AD!

[stevenneate]

Bishop & Coulston's classic 'Roman Military Equipment: From the Punic Wars to the Fall of Rome' is hard to beat on equipment. Iain Ferris' 'Hate and War: The Column of Marcus Aurelius' gives pictorial views of the Roman army in Marcus' two Germanic wars of approx. 170-180 and whilst it owes a lot to Trajan's Column in its stylisation of equipment, it's about as close to the late 2nd century as Roman military art gets. The slightly later arches (c.202-204) of Septimius Severus are quite damaged but finding quality close-up pictures of what survives has always been difficult. However what survives depicts all the forms of armour regularly depicted on Roman reliefs of the 2nd century and the troops are all armed with flat oval shields.  However, the reliefs are much damaged and the stylisation suggests copies from earlier works. Hard to know.

[Old Guy]

Thanks to all who replied, I have got the Osprey book and it will do fine for the cohorts. I am basing my army in the East and as I can have horse archers can anyone tell me which type/nationality they would be and perhaps suggest some figures?

I do do my own research but I am only just starting on the project and if someone could give me a heads up I would be grateful.

Thanks.

[Duncan Head]

There's a dissertation on Roman horse archers at https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/2551 which might be a good starting-point.

But there would have been regular alae sagitarriorum, and some cohortes equitatae with a mounted archer component, from quite an early date who'd look much like any other Roman auxiliary cavalry with a bow instead of spear and shield. There are also, certainly on the Eastern frontiers, local or allied units who'd look more like Parthians or Palmyrans. In the early 3rd century there is a unit of Osrhoenian mounted archers who are a regular part of the "Severan field army" discussed in Cowan's thesis, who might have originated with the annexation of Osrhoene in 195 - though they may be a bit too late for you.

Not sure about figures - but what scale are you using, that might help?

[Old Guy]

Thanks for that Duncan, I am doing the army in 28mm using Aventine Miniatures almost exclusively. They have Parthian horse archers which are nice, back to the drawing board, and thanks for the link.

George