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Miniatures Adventure => Age of Myths, Gods and Empires => Topic started by: summsi on May 08, 2022, 09:48:01 AM
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Does a 4th century bc latin army look like a roman army? If there are diferences, which models could be used?
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Maybe? I may be getting my time lines wrong, as I am a bit rusty on the subject now. I might be thinking of a earlier model based on your time request. AS I get older things get a bit fuzzier sometimes.
Latins did not use the Triple Acies formation, and tended to rely more on the hoplite style, single battle line approach. However, hoplites in Italy tended to be lighter and a bit more mobile, often supplementing their attacks with more thrown javelins. In general, they had a more mobile approach in Italy. This led to less armor overall, and a variety of shield types. Helmets also tended to be much more open faced/lighter than Greek equivalents. The triple circle breastplate or a simple breastplate was common instead of a Linothorax style.
The Etruscan army maybe a guide, but I have not seen references to Latins being as formalized by class. It was more of a big guy brought his boys with him, and they fought as a unit. Early Romans before switching to the Sword and Board techniques were similar.
That said, one of the hardest parts of Wars of the Republic was finding data about early Roman foes! Therefore, two caveats. First, I am sure there are folks on this very board who know way more about the subject. Second, there is not a lot to go on and the accepted wisdom on the topic shifts and is still a matter of debate. Therefore, we may not really know the answer.
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Thank you Easy E for your detailed answer!!!
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Latin is mostly a region (Latium) or a language rather than a people.
The peoples of central Italy were rather Etruscan, Samnites, Umbrians, or Ligurians and Celts in the north.
Most of early 7 Kings of Rome were of etruscan origin.
I join a link that may be of help for etruscan army composition.
Bie
Giuseppe
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Sorry, this is the link
https://sculptingpaintingandgaming.com/2019/09/mortal-gods-the-etruscans-part-2-playing-etruscans-and-early-republican-romans-in-mortal-gods/
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Here is a more detailed look at the Etruscans in Men of Bronze.....
http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2021/01/men-of-bronze-etruscans.html
There is also an Osprey book on the subject. There are also Latin army lists in Wars of the Republic.
There are a variety of named tribes in early Roman history that are really just soldiers from a rival tribe or city-state that spoke the Latin based language of the region. The histories of the Romans discussing these battles is "vague" at best with little details about the force compositions, weaponry, tactics, etc.
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summsi
Mate figures wise there are a few Choices .
Xyston do nice figures ,and have an Italiote range that will suit .
Several of their Greek Hoplite Range will supply additional Variants for the Hoplites and the Psiloi are all very generic so you can you those as well.
Old glory do a range as well.
Hope this Helps
Cheers
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From my own amateur research, Latin allies (IE: non Romans living in modern day Lazio) would pretty much look exactly the same as proper Romans. For my own personal army plan (Polybian era consular army, so a good century in the future) I'll have my Latins use LBMS shield transfers for decoration while true Romans have solid color shields, as apparently there's no evidence that early-mid Republican Roman legionnaires decorated their shields, but maybe their allies liked a little flair. It helps to pick them out on the table at the very least.
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thanks to all of you! So many good ideas. I think I will use a pack of victrix romans to build my army. So they can be romans, latins and etruscans.