=270. Defensive Weapons.=--These two very simple weapons Quadratus was taught to handle to perfection, until across the years their use became simply mechanical to him. Meantime he was learning to march, leap, and fight in his heavy defensive armor. He wore a stout metallic cuirass of fish-scale plates, and a solid helmet of brass upon which in parades and in actual battle he set a nodding plume of horse-hair. This helmet had brow- and cheek-pieces giving very perfect protection, but was so heavy that while marching he was allowed to carry it swung from a strap upon his breast. Of course, however, his chief defensive weapon was his shield. This capital piece of armor is a rectangle of solid leather about four by two and one half feet, rimmed with iron and with handles for carrying on the left arm. A trained legionary knows how to fend and lunge with his shield with marvelous agility, and by means of the solid metal base in the center he can strike a tremendous blow. Almost no weapon can penetrate the shield, and thanks to it and his cuirass and his helmet, a soldier can march unscathed amid a perfect shower of arrows. Every technical point about his armor has, of course, been worked out scientifically. Simple as it appears, it represents a triumph of human skill. [Illustration: CUIRASS.] =271. Rewards and Punishments for Soldiers.=--Thus accoutered Quadratus gained his first experience when the Second Augusta was ordered over the Rhine to punish a tribe of Germanic raiders in later-day Hessen. In the fighting that ensued he so proved his skill and courage that he received his first decoration, the right to wear a small banderole upon his pilum when his cohort appeared on parade ground. Discipline was severe, but rewards for faithfulness and valor were prompt and conspicuous. He had long seen his older comrades marching about with “spears of honor,” banderoles, and above all with huge medals and medallions, which, upon gala occasions, they wore upon their breasts. Long before Quadratus’s career was ended, he, like many others, had a perfect collection of these medals, which hung jangling over his cuirass almost like a second coat of armor. Everybody knew the honors awarded his comrades, and there was constant emulation to deserve like decorations as well as more substantial rewards. No system could be better devised to call out the valorous service of simple-hearted and often very uncultivated men. [Illustration: JAVELIN: _pilum_ of the legionary.] While Quadratus, without too many blows from his centurions’ vinestock, was thus on his way to promotion, he could witness the punishment of less fortunate comrades. Stripes, docking of pay, and extra duty were the standard penalties; but sometimes there were worse inflictions. Once a whole century acted in a cowardly manner. It was sentenced for one month to bivouac outside the camp and to eat bread of barley,--not of wheat, the food of brave and obedient troops.