Legio Asinus I Socii Extraordinarii of SPQR

When it comes to the portrayal of Roman Women Warrior, the artistic world is populated with creative imaginery, many of which, looks pretty extraordinary. While it would be an injustice to simply generalize the equipment of Roman Army throughout it's different era, portraying it's variety can also proves to be very challenging. Hence, in order to go with the Historically Wrong Sketch tradition, I wanted to dedicate 5 drawings which depicts Roman Women Army with its historically inspired attired from the time of the Early Roman Republic to the Height of the Roman Empire. This first drawing is dedicated to the 1st Donkey Legion of the Socii Extraordinarii.

The equipments of Itallic Army from the 8th century till the 3rd century are somewhat less studied that those of the imperial era in later centuries. Indeed, by this time, Rome was still just a backwater province surrounded by rival Itallic tribes and it's role in the ancient world was highly insignificant in comparison to, say, the Greeks, the Egyptians or the Eastern Civilizations (Mesopotamia, Persia). But nevertheless, this era proves a rather dynamic image of roman military as it rose, fought and subjugate its neighboring italic tribes to form the Republic that would later became one of the contender of Mediterranean Power.

In this drawing, the women warrior were depicted in typical but heavily stylized Samnites equipments. The lady in the front, is depicted with equipments from the legio linteata, which comes with decorated Bardo Cuirass, a decorated helmet as decribed by Livy, as well as the decorated feathers. The Spear would have been common among the Samnites, but the Shield is a rather elongated version that matches more with Roman Scutum, than say, the shorter version as depicted with the warrior on the right. As for the short sword 'Cuma' hung on her right waist, this is purely a stylization from my end, though the short sword itself was based on the findings from Ancient Esquiline Tomb (site 94). Lastly, her dress is way longer than what the Samnites would have worn (above knee, enough to cover genitals); this is to give a much more feminine image as well as to hide my lack of anatomical skills in depicting bare thighs .

The equipment on the other two warrior are more or less similar, though the one on the left is depicted with a much simpler cuirass, while the one on the right is depicted with a simpler square metal cuirass. I'm not quite sure what Samnites signifier would look like, nor do I know what the standard was, so I just stylized it with a simpler standard and a donkey head on the top end, signifying that these women is part of the Donkey's Legion. The Building on the background is based on the early roman/etruscan architecture.