_The Cuirass._--The heavily-armed troops bore the laminated cuirass (Fig. 58), which consisted of about seven lames of steel encircling the trunk, each lame being divided into two portions, which joined in the middle of the back and in front. Affixed to the top lame, back and front, were four or more bowed lames passing over the shoulders and working freely upon the pivots which secured them. In front, and fixed to the lower part of the second lame from the bottom, were three or four short lames pendent and hanging vertically so as to protect the middle of the body below the waist. The lames encircling the body were sewn down to a tightly-fitting leather garment, the true cuirass, which was continued upwards before and behind in order to protect the chest and throat and passed over the shoulders under the curved lames. The whole cuirass opened down the front, the iron bands being hinged behind, fastening with a clasp in front. To the lowest lame was generally affixed two rows of leather, dagged at their edges, and the lambrequins descended beneath them, one row of the straps being shorter than those beneath, which fell lower than those used in the earlier age. The officer of the Imperial Period affected the lorica modelled to the figure as worn by the soldiers in the Republican Period, but considerably shortened and seldom reaching below the waist, but the scaled cuirass was also a favourite. [Illustration: FIG. 59.--Roman helmet.] [Illustration: FIG. 60.--Roman helmet.] _The Helmet_ of the soldier was simply a skull-cap with a peak and pendent cheek-guards (Fig. 59), but subsequently was furnished with a descending hollowed neck-guard, a bar across the forehead acting as a visor, and two cheek-pieces, hinged, which could be fastened together beneath the chin (Fig. 60). During the later days of the empire the helmet became deeper. A common form of ornament for the crest was simply a round knob. _The Shield._--This was of two distinct kinds, a long, rectangular, and very concave shield borne only by the legionaries, and an oval, flattened form carried by the horsemen. The rectangular shield was about two feet six inches long, and composed of two plates of metal overlapping, with bands of metal strengthening it at the top and also at the lower edge, where it often rested on the ground. With this shield the well-known testudo was formed. The cognisance of the legion appeared upon the outer face, and on the column of Trajan, where members of the “thundering legion” are depicted, the device is that of a conventional thunderbolt of the usual zigzag description. The oval shield carried by the cavalry (the equites) and the light-armed troops (the velites) was a much-flattened variety of the old shield, and in the later years of the empire was adopted by the legionaries when the rectangular shield was discarded; it was, however, considerably enlarged in its later form. [Illustration: FIG. 61.--Roman swords.]