Late Imperial and Patrician Roman

Late Imperial Roman West

Early Patrician West in Africa

Early Patrician West except in Africa

Later Patrician West

These troops are a morph that can be used for Late Imperial Roman armies (East and West), Early Patrician (East, West: Africa, West except Africa) and Later Patrician (West and East) -- seven different armies total. See the buttons on both side to find Meshwesh links. Some of the troops might also work for Justinian Byzantines as well; the extension of Patrician Roman East into becoming Byzantium (although the locals all would have still called themselves Roman).

Shield patterns are well documented in the Notitia Dignitatum, which (with some issues of copying error in the 15th century and a bit of classification issue) gives us more real information on how shields were decorated than we have for any other army before Medieval Europe in the 14th century and later.

The figures shown are almost all the range carved for Gladiator miniatures by Josef Ochmann. More recently those figures have been available from Fighting 15s.

Late Imperial Roman East

Early Patrician East

Later Patrician East

Legionarii

As Rome sank slowly into the mire of its fall, the mighty Legions were gradually replaced by the more useful (and more versatile) Auxilia Palatina. Still, Roman Legions were good troops and an expression of the might of Rome.

Auxilia Palatina

Raiders. The best open-order foot in the Late Imperial and Patrician Roman armies.

Garrison and Downgraded Legionarii

Heavy Foot. Many of these figures are Outpost Wargames Services figures, added because the additional irregularity of shield sizes and armor and helmets worked great for showing the non-standard equipment that downgraded troops might have.

Garrison Auxilia

In essence these are downgraded Auxilia Palatina, fighting as Light Foot instead as Raiders.

Some of these figures are Outpost, to give more variety in shield sizes, poses, and weaponry appropriate for downgraded troops where they would largely supply their own rather than taking them from some state armory.

Bolt Shooters

Artillery (in the sense of ballistae) were a notable part of the Roman armies, and were sometimes used in battles as well as in sieges.

I think the crew here might be Outpost. I'm not sure if the ballistae itself is Outpost or is Essex, but I'm guessing Outpost.

Cataphractii and Clibanarii

Cataphracts. These are the most heavily armored of the Roman cavalry, emulating the Parthians and the heaviest troops of the Sassanids that replaced them. Two different types are presented -- fully armored troops on fully armored horses, and slightly lighter troops on half-armored horses.

Huns

Hiring hunnic horsebow to fight for Rome was a tradition that started on nearly as soon as the Huns appeared, and continued (with Pechenegs, Cumans, Avars, and others) long after the Huns as a political entity had been absorbed or driven off by other Steppe tribal polities.

Here are some typical Hunnic horsebowmen.

Equites

JavCav. Most of the cavalry available to the various later Roman armies are Javelin Cavalry. Here on the left are three different Alae of Equites, with appropriate shield patterns from the Notitia. Two more Alae of lighter horsemen are shown in the images below.

Comites Alanii

One stand of Catafractarii or Comites Alanii (rated as Knights in Triumph) is available to the Late Imperial Roman West army; these guys are perfect for that, in Spangenhelms and with some personal armor and a half-armored horse.

Auxilia Sagittaria

The armies in the East (Late Imperial Roman East, Early Patsy East, Late Patsy East) have an option of one stand of Archers. While those troops mostly likely had their origin in the areas of the Eastern Roman Empire who had native archery (in the Levant, through the Nabataeans and Arabo-Aramaean Citystates), I had more figures with the bearded and Roman-tunic form that was more typical for Western Rome. Still, those troops existed for a long time and were moved around a lot, so if stationed in Illyria, Dalmatia, Greece, or Thracia, might have lost their Palmyran/Nabataean look. And I had more of these figures available than I needed for skirmishers, if I'm being honest.

Skirmishers

Equipped with slings and bows, Skirmishers were a very effective part of the later Roman armies.

Germanic or Slavic Foederati

These figures are from Gladiator's FE range, acting as Slavic or other foreign troops hired as Foederati within the shrinking Roman Empire.

Roman Camp

Figures are 6mm Irregular. Tents are made out of Sculpee (polymer modeling clay). If you look closely, you can see that the 6mm figures have proper shield designs from the Notita Dignitatum.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse