Attached Link: http://www.mindspring.com/~chrisajohnson/Legionnaire.jpg

I've been working on this one for a while, and am far enough along now that I'm willing to show a picture. All that remains is to model a Baldric and place the Gladius and Pugio in position.

It's interesting, in my research it has been specifically stated that a Roman Legionnaire carried the gladius on the right side, while a Centurion would wear his on the left. It seems that having it on the right would make it very awkward to draw--but then maybe the point was to make it so the Centurian would be quicker, just in case someone decided not to follow orders anymore. At least that's the only reason I can think of.

Anyway, comments welcome. . .

Very nice! And thanks for the trivia.

Looks good! Legionnaires wore the gladius on the right because, when troops were standing shoulder-to-shoulder in a tight formation, it could be drawn without interfering with soldiers on either side, or being obstructed by the shield. Centurions were officers, so formations and shields weren't much of an issue. Plus, they got to wear the fancy uniforms with the sword hanging from a baldric.

x-cell-ent

Great render, as great is the trivia on this message. I must admit that I thought the reason that the Legioners carried the gladius on the right while the Centurions on the left was because hierarchy status, never figured out these two interesting point of views, It sounds that it was because battle purposes then, not a hierarchy thing?

Pretty cool!

Hard to draw the gladius from the left with the shield held up by the left arm, I suspect. It make for an interesting draw, but one which is done after the pilus (spear) had been either thrown or otherwise not available such as being imbedded in some other bloke's body or shield.

Since everyone seems to be interested in Legionnaire trivia, there was an interesting reason for the construction of the pilum as well. As you can see, about the last three feet or so of the spear is a mild iron, which was supposed to stick in an enemy shield and bend. The iron shaft kept them from hacking the shaft off, so the shield would become useless. They would have to discard it, or the Legionnaire would step on the shaft of the pilum, pulling the shield down and opening them up for a blow from the sword.

Excellent work Upir! Its obvious that you paid attention to history. Some roman models I seen hear look good but are highly inaccurate. Here is model I worked on. Its been while since I worked on him but Im busy building my new machine (a dual Athlon monster).

Too cool. . . and here I was thinking I was the only one obsessed with historical accuracy.

"Some roman models I seen hear look good but are highly inaccurate" Supermodel Vickie says she always looks good! Plus she said it is supposed to be a costume! Ha! Ha! I did actually do some research on it, though, I was suprized how much Roman Legon info is on the web, I had no idea there were people who recreate roman days, I thoght they only did that in the USA for the Civil War. I'll have to finish this some day.

I used to be a civil war reenactor--it was a lot of fun. I think people will reenact pretty much anything these days. I've seen WWII, Revolutionary War, and even Louis and Clark expedition reenactors. It's a lot of fun, but to be really authentic takes a lot of research and either time to make your own stuff, or money to pay someone else to make it for you.