Home Forums Ancients speaking of pteryges… Reply To: speaking of pteryges…

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Avatar photoRob young
Participant

I think there’s a few things worth considering.

Firstly, they were used by a lot of different peoples – Greeks, Persians, Etruscans, Romans, probably early Carthaginians. It is unlikely that they all made them the same way.

Secondly, they were used over a period of several hundred years.  Again, that would cause differences in manufacture.

Thirdly, they were often used by people with different access to money – a richer Greek  could afford  better quality armour than someone who only just made it into the hoplite class.

Fourthly, they may have been worn for different purposes. Thus a Roman soldier in the First Century AD might wear then for protection, a Roman general in the Fourth Century might have considered them as  a fashion accessory.

There are probably other things I’ve missed but that lot will do. Even in the same army I think it likely that different people might have them  made of different materials with different visual and defensive properties depending on the materials available to those individuals.

Rob Young