18th March 2008, 05:50 PM
"I have seen some documentaries about roman army. But, the last one I watched was about Caesar and his army must of them had hardly any amour just a spear and helmet along with a shield. Why do I see Romans dressed in full equipment with shiny armour"
The written sources do make it clear that the legionaries certainly (and many of the auxiliaries) were wearing metal body armour, which depending on time period (and to some extent fashion/local practice)was mail, lorica segmentata (strip armour) or scale. Apart from the preservation problem (iron / steel just do not survive well in European soil conditions generally), the Roman army was horribly tidy and would recycle weapons/armour constantly as things broke, wore out or went out of use. More years ago than I care to remember, I did a Ph.D on Roman weapons in Britain and looked at about 2000 items. That was spread out over dozens of sites and a 300 year time period (100-400AD), so remarkably little has survived to be excavated. Going on archaeology alone, you'd have to conclude most Roman units had no weapons at all!! My biggest dislike is the inevitable red cloaks/tunics in any period drama on tv/cinema.
As for barbarity, the Romans were probably no worse / better than most of their contemporaries; they just had a convenient legal framework within which to practice their nastiness on "barbarian" neighbours. Some great cultural achievements though.