ns 82) The most common form of body armor was the Greek style bronze cuirass, consisting of a front and back plate held in position by leather straps, past through loops in back of the plates. (Adkins 82) The soldiers carried a shield, sword, dagger and a javelin. The shield was a very large, curved item, usually the size of a man=s entire body. It was made similar to plywood, with thin sheets of wood, glued together so that the grain of each piece was at right angles to each other. Outside, the shield was covered with leather, and was then decorated with fancy silver and bronze symbols. Usually, these symbols would represent the Caesar of the day. The sword was a double-bladed weapon, about two feet long and two inches wide. While the sword was carried nearly chest high, the dagger was carried on the left side of the roman soldier. The shape of the dagger was similar to a leaf of a plant, usually nine to ten inches long. All of these weapons had ornaments of some type. The javelin was designed to break when it hit something, so that if the enemy blocked it with his shield, the javelin would make it useless to the enemy and the shield would have to be thrown away. Then the legionary would charge behind his own big shield, trying to knock him over, and would stab him with his Gladius. This very successful tactic made the Roman legionary the most feared soldier in the ancient world (Romans 34). As the Army came into military contact with new people, various weapons and armor of those culture were adapted to be used by the Romans, including those of the Italians, Etruscans and Greeks. One of these adaptation was the throwing machine or engines. As the name implies, throwing engines were devices used to send all sorts of damaging objects through the air toward a target, which was usually a town under siege. Rocks were commonly used, but sometimes they would even use diseased animals or even human heads. Well trained men and th...
