Hi to all in this great community,
It always a pleasure to hear about something from Ares Mythologic , so I opened the lock on my wallet and bought this bust from El Greco Miniatures .
Arriving well packed in a padded postal packet (jiffy bag) only 2 days afte I had ordered it . On opening the bag up I found the model I had ordered namely a Samnite warrior from the 2nd Samnite wars .
Lets have a history lesson first on these warriors ........
The Samnites were composed of at least four tribes: the Pentri (the most important tribe), the Caraceni ,the Caudini and the Hirpini .
They had a dominant warrior class which trained in the Spartan manner, and the Romans fought a long series of wars against them between 510 BC and 85 BC. The Samnites defeated the Romans in 321 BC and forced the Roman legions to pass "under the yolk," a symbol of submission. But the Romans got their revenge nine years later, in 312 BC, and finally broke their power ca 290 BC. The last gasp of Samnium came in 82 BC, when the general Sulla ordered a general massacre of their warriors that brought their independence to an end. The Samnites wore a distinctive type of armor, with a chest plate consisting of three cojoined disks in a triangular shape, and a separate wide bronze belt. This type of armor proved popular and was also worn by Etruscans, Greeks and Carthaginian forces in their wars against Rome. Much after the heyday of the Samnite peoples, in ca. 100 BC, the Romans adopted the term "Samnite" for a class of heavily armed gladiator. In fact the terms "Samnite" and "gladiator" were interchangeable for awhile. The earliest Samnite gladiators may well have worn the triple-disc cuirass and bronze belt in imitation of Samnite warriors, but by the mid-first century AD the chest plate had become essentially vestigal. Curiously, the Samnite class of gladiator seems to have died out before the Empire really got going.
Continued in next post:
Nap
It always a pleasure to hear about something from Ares Mythologic , so I opened the lock on my wallet and bought this bust from El Greco Miniatures .
Arriving well packed in a padded postal packet (jiffy bag) only 2 days afte I had ordered it . On opening the bag up I found the model I had ordered namely a Samnite warrior from the 2nd Samnite wars .
Lets have a history lesson first on these warriors ........
The Samnites were composed of at least four tribes: the Pentri (the most important tribe), the Caraceni ,the Caudini and the Hirpini .
They had a dominant warrior class which trained in the Spartan manner, and the Romans fought a long series of wars against them between 510 BC and 85 BC. The Samnites defeated the Romans in 321 BC and forced the Roman legions to pass "under the yolk," a symbol of submission. But the Romans got their revenge nine years later, in 312 BC, and finally broke their power ca 290 BC. The last gasp of Samnium came in 82 BC, when the general Sulla ordered a general massacre of their warriors that brought their independence to an end. The Samnites wore a distinctive type of armor, with a chest plate consisting of three cojoined disks in a triangular shape, and a separate wide bronze belt. This type of armor proved popular and was also worn by Etruscans, Greeks and Carthaginian forces in their wars against Rome. Much after the heyday of the Samnite peoples, in ca. 100 BC, the Romans adopted the term "Samnite" for a class of heavily armed gladiator. In fact the terms "Samnite" and "gladiator" were interchangeable for awhile. The earliest Samnite gladiators may well have worn the triple-disc cuirass and bronze belt in imitation of Samnite warriors, but by the mid-first century AD the chest plate had become essentially vestigal. Curiously, the Samnite class of gladiator seems to have died out before the Empire really got going.
Continued in next post:
Nap
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