Third Century Roman Marines from the Syrian Fleet

[Timotheos]

Osprey released a new book, "Imperial Roman Naval Forces 31 BC - AD 500", and this was my first take on 3rd century marines. 

Being in the Roman "marines" (the milites classiarii) didn't convey the same prestige as being in the modern US Marine Corps does now.  The Roman marines were provincial or foreign auxiliaries that could fight on or off boat.  The "milites classiarii" differed from "nautae".  Nautae were the ships' specialist crew as well as the seamen who worked the rigging and kept the ship seaworthy.  Below the nautae (literally) were the remiges, the rowers, also foreign auxiliaries or Roman freedmen. 

Shortcomings:
1) The "santa hats" are the closest I could come to Phrygian caps
2) I need to make the shields more fancy.  Playmobil viking shields carry suitable color schemes, but the roman marines appeared to carry oblong shields.

My take:


Osprey's "Imperial Roman Naval Forces 31 BC - AD 500", plate F.


More sources are provided as attachments.

Though the sources depict scenes from the Aeneid and the Odyssey, these were composed in the 3rd and 5th century, and used contemporary styles.

[henry_martini]

nice theme

I like how you rendered some of the details 

I suggest the blue roman cloak with disc fibula

[cheng]

.....
I suggest the blue roman cloak with disc fibula

good point Micheal ! (maybe Tim doesnt have any for now  )

what does these "Phrygian caps" look like?

[henry_martini]

phrygian caps are well rendered by the geobra pirate jelly bag caps 

later used by french revolutionary jacobins as a sign of freedom (above the guillotine) and smurfs

[Justindo]

Tim, this book has just been released and already you have produced some excellent customs from it!  I really think you nailed the look of these late Empire marines and the "pirate"or "Santa" hats look pretty close to the Phrygian caps.  Your current cloaks look fine, although I agree that the soft Roman ones might look better, but they are somewhat hard to come by.  The only other suggestion I have is that the swords are rather too large; I'd opt for the regular sword instead.

[Timotheos]

Hi Justin I have some spare good blue cloaks I could throw on them.

I just don't have any yellow, which would make the sailors better dressed than their officer.

Guess I could apply the krylon plastic spray to paint a good cloak yellow.

By smaller sword, do you mean the gladius or the standard knight sword?  Their swords are slightly longer than the gladius, but as you observed, shorter than what we typically use for the cavalry swords...

To Cheng: The Phrygian Hat has another nickname... "the smurf hat". 

-Tim

[cheng]

hey guys....so...'smurf' hats! 
and Micheal, I always thought those jacobins wearing their nightcaps to a fight looked funny 

[Justindo]

Hi Tim,

Good point about the lack of a yellow cloak!  In that case, I'd leave it as is, which I think looks fine.

I was thinking of the regular knight or Roman cavalry sword.  Although I suppose the blade of the sword you used is slightly shorter than the regular knight sword, the large hilt and increased blade girth makes it seem larger on the whole, especially since it doesn't fit in the belt.  I've got a few of these swords, but I never use them, favoring instead the knight sword for belts or the hand and a half sword for use with my medievals without belts.  My favorite is the new sword in the Dragonland sets that is just like the knight sword but without the extra silly hilt pieces.  Still, I don't think I'll be ordering a hundred of these to replace their more ornate older brothers.