danielpeterson's Print of Figure - Roman Praetorian Guard 1st-2nd C. A.D. on duty!
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Community Print 3D Print of Figure - Roman Praetorian Guard 1st-2nd C. A.D. on duty!
Published 2023-09-01T16:37:22+00:00
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A beautiful figure sculpt, but why are you calling him a "Praetorian Guard" when there is nothing about him that would reflect this? The object he is holding is a beneficiarius lance, which could be carried by a Roman soldier from any legion or other unit, that happens to be on a special duty which carrying this type of lance denotes. He also cannot be a 1st Century AD legionary because his helmet dates from the early 2nd Century (Bar Kochba Revolt), as the crossbars on the skull confirms. Also the early 1st Century, curved sided scutum would not still be in use in the early second century AD. This is still one of your most authentic legionary figures though, because he isn't wearing the short trousers which are not correct for the period, which ruins so many of your other, otherwise excellent figures. This would be a far more useful figure, if you also gave it a swappable head wearing a 1st century AD helmet too (like some of your other legionary figures), to represent a figure of that period, and also a swappable arm to hold a regular pilum. A third head wearing the attached crest with the Imperial Gallic helmet would also be a great addition to this figure. If you DO want to make him a Praetorian Guardsman as well, also include a scutum shield with an actual Praetorian Guard shield emblem of the period which is well known from period sculpture. It is also possible that NO Roman shield of the 1st century period had merely a "painted on" emblem, given the fact that virtually every Roman shield of the period that is depicted in sculpture show the decoration in relief, and this practice is confirmed in the archaeological record by the finding of metallic shield decoration on Roman battlefields and fort sites, the most famous beings several metal thunderbolt pieces with rivet holes for attaching to shields found on the Kalkriese battlefield in Germany. So if legionaries had such metallic decoration on shields used in battle, certainly the Praetorian Guard would too!