Roman Shields

The Roman military is an iconic, ancient institution; everybody is familiar with the image of fearsome Roman centurions marching in their famous columns. In this book, Roman military experts John and Hilary Travis turn their attention to the shields used by the historic Roman stalwarts, drawing on their expertise, their wealth of illustrated material and the world of reenactments.

In its study of the panoply of shields used by the Romans, Roman Shields differs from those preceding in that it has drawn together the streams of published information of sculptural imagery and archaeological ‘hard’ evidence, while also looking at the component parts, how they are physically put together, and attempting to reproduce the aspects of the artifacts observed through reconstructing them and subjecting them to regular use and combat conditions.

Hilary Travis holds a Masters and Honours Degrees in Archaeology. In addition to over 20 years experience as an archaeologist, she also has over 20 years combat experience in Japanese martial arts, and over 10 years in reconstruction of Roman and medieval period artefacts. John Travis is an established author, his first book, Coal in Roman Britain, was based on his PhD thesis. He holds a Masters Degree and Doctorate in Roman Archaeology from the University of Liverpool. He is an archaeologist with over 30 years experience, and an Associate member of the Institute of Field Archaeologists (AIFA). Both Hilary and John are active re-enactors, as members of both the Chester Guard (Deva VV) Roman Society and the Thomas Stanley Retinue (Wars of the Roses Medieval group).