NEW YOUNG MINIATURE July

[gordy]

Exquisite sculpt Ebroin and fantastic painting Franco

 

[Bailey]

Fantastic work. Can't wait to get a copy.

 

[tefaet]

Fan tastic job, congratulations.

Jose Luis

 

[franco1969]

thanks!!!!! for compliments!!!
sincere Franco

 

[DEL]

What a brilliant piece!

It's actually a generic Roman officer from any period up to about the early 4th century AD, not just a cavalry officer from 180 BC. He could also represent a praetorian officer with no modifications necessary.

Although it might indeed look "forced", the position of the dagger falls well within the range of variation. It's being worn tucked through the armour belt, in Greek parazonium style. You sometimes even see them casually holding the top of the scabbard and guard in one hand in front of their belly, with the dagger hilt poking out horizontally between their fingers.

Officers habitually carried a dagger as a sidearm with this sort of plate armour. Interestingly, whenever daggers are mentioned by Roman writers being actually used it's always this officer's sidearm that's being described. For example, Tacitus mentions a praetorian centurion acting as a bodyguard using his dagger on a raging mob trying to attack his VIP. These are also the sort of weapons that were used to whack Julius Caesar on the Ides of March.

This is exactly why I love this site.
Cheers
Derek

 

[pmfs]

Beautiful!

 

[pipetrepid]

franco, fine figure and great paint job! bill

 

[franco1969]

thanks !!!!!