relics is amply supplied in the compositions represented upon innumerable painted vases, and also in the decorations of various Etruscan sepulchres.

The first glance at the ancient pictorial representations of Etruscan armed warriors shows that they can be distinguished from Greeks, only by certain eccentric details of their equipment, while in more important particulars no difference whatever can be detected.

The cuirass, like that of the Greeks, is formed of conjoined breast and back plates, which never descend below the waist; but the épaulières, or shoulder-guards, of this Etruscan cuirass, which are very thick and large above and narrowed below, are joined together over the chest of the wearer, and they have some resemblance to that arrangement in a modern waistcoat which is entitled "double-breasted:" this is one of

the eccentricities of which we have just spoken. Amongst the most decided points of resemblance may be specified the habit of the Etruscan warriors to carry, almost invariably, in their hands the short Greek sword or dagger, the parazonium; and the Etruscan shield, which, exactly in accordance with the Greek usage, resembles a large circular globose dish with a flat rim.

Of the helm there are many varieties.

Two, which are

the most frequently to be seen, it will be sufficient for us to describe. One is a helm of a deep bell shape, after the Greek fashion, such as Fig. 12, No. I. Sometimes this helm is surmounted by a narrow crest, excessively elevated, and bent down so as to droop; and expanded wings are added on both sides, rising from the bell of the helm. The other variety, Fig. 12, No. 2, has the bell of a more conical form; it is crested, and has wings of extravagant proportions, which impart to the head-piece a wild and fantastic appearance.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ARMS AND ARMOUR OF THE ROMANS.

SECTION I.

Defensive Armour.

ALREADY it has been incidentally stated, while describing its Greek prototype, that the Roman cuirass from its earliest period was formed of two pieces of metal, breast and back plates, which, being adjusted with épaulières and joined together with hinges and clasps, were modelled to represent with a greater or less degree of fidelity those parts of the human frame which they covered and protected. In examples of the Roman cuirass of the highest order this modelling is very perfect, and the exact form of the chest and of the lower part of the body is expressed with the most careful precision ; consequently, when no additional ornamentation is introduced, the Roman warrior armed in his cuirass, when represented in sculpture, can scarcely be distinguished from a nude figure. The modelling of the cuirass, however, was not considered to preclude the introduction of various decorative figures of animals and birds, with foliage and arabesques, which were executed either by engraving or in low relief.

This cuirass is shown to have been supported on each shoulder by a strap, which in front fastens to a ring fixed in the cuirass itself, and behind upon the back plate it buckles over the shoulder-blade. From the upper edge of the hollow, through which passes the arm of the warrior and the half-sleeve of his tunic, there hang short straps of leather, plaited or knotted at their lower extremity, which fall over the upper arm. From the bottom of the cuirass there fall

two thick border, generally of leather, jagged, of which the upper one partially covers the lower; and from below this double border there issue the leathern lambrequins—a shieldlike defensive covering reaching nearly to the knee, formed of very many curled or plaited straps, of the same shape as the shoulder-straps, but broader, and sometimes plated with. metal.

The cuirass was put on over the tunic, of which the half. sleeves, as has been stated, appeared covering the arms; and the skirt, without falling quite so low as the knee, was seen descending a little from within the lambrequins. Over the cuirass was worn the military mantle, the paludimentum, which the ancients draped in an endless variety of folds and in the most picturesque style. It is frequently exhibited in Roman statutes so adjusted, that it is tied by the two ends over the right shoulder; the neck of the wearer passes through the open space between these two ends; the right arm is free; the mantle covers the left shoulder, falls over the front of the left arm in graceful folds, and flowing the length of the body, hangs down as far as the middle of the leg. Such is the Roman military equipment, which obtained until the era of the first of the emperors.

If we are to accept the authority of Polybius, in his time (about B.C. 160) the plate cuirass was the armour of the private soldiers in the ranks of the legions, and the laminated or scaled cuirass was worn in its stead by men who had attained to some military rank. The most ancient monuments, upon which naturally we see represented only the figures of generals and other military chiefs, show us the cuirass only, as we have described it; but, subsequently, when private soldiers are introduced into the representations, notwithstanding the statements of Polybius, they appear either without any body-armour, or equipped in a cuirass of a very different form. On the columns of Trajan and Antoninus, in every instance, from

the emperor to the centurions, the cuirass is worn by chiefs alone; and as it is worn by them it has undergone a decided and marked change, since, instead of entirely covering the tody, and having the form of the human frame, as at earlier periods was the case, here it is seen to stop short at the waist, after the old Greek fashion; the jagged border also has disappeared, and there only remain two rows of the lambrequinstraps, one above the other, and they both descend much lower than was the earlier Roman usage.”

The cuirass of the private soldier, such as it appears in the bas-reliefs of both the Trajan and the Antonine columns, is composed of three perfectly distinct parts, the cuirass proper, and the two shoulder-pieces. The cuirass itself is a garment of leather or linen, upon which are sewn circular plates of iron. Each of these circles or discs is made of two half-circles, joined at the back by a hinge, and closing in front by a clasp. The shoulder-pieces, formed of four plates, and smaller than those of the cuirass, to which they are fixed at their extremities, pass over the shoulders like straps. Sometimes, from the bottom of the cuirass there fell four small oblong plates adjusted vertically, which cover the middle of the body below the waist. This armour left the upper part of the chest without any protection. Some indications, which are by no means so clear and satisfactory as we should have desired, in the Trajan column, lead to the supposition that the part of the chest otherwise unprotected was covered with a piece of stout leather, or with an iron plate. The cuirass, as it is here described, was not the appointment of the private soldiers, but only of the élite of their rank, the regular legionaries.

As it is so well known, there were in the Roman army three distinct orders or classes of soldiers: first, and in their dignified rank in a manner resembling the knights of the feudal ages, the equites, whom we style by the medieval title of knights, who formed the cavalry; second, the legionarii, the