The Lodovisi Sarcophagus seems like the peak of Roman sculpture. But are the styles of Roman armour and weapons accurate for the time?
Even if they seems accurate they are some kind of idealized depiction of reality. Those barbarians are typical barbarian, they fit into the image the Romans had of the barbarians. In addition some of the helmets seems to me to be overdecoreted and could representation of parade helmets rather than those used in battle.
Moreover I should attract your attention to similar sarcophagi made during the late IInd and first half of the IIIrd century. This one, from the National Roman Museum (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Sarcophagus_Portonaccio_Massimo.jpg) dated around 190 has an interresting specificity: it was never finished. The only missing element is the most important one, the portrait of the potential buyer was never carved. This specificity clearly indicate that those sarcophagi were not made individually but following repetitive elements without personnalisation except for the face of the buying officer.
And as a followup, was there any sculpture/artwork as masterfully done as this after 260AD?
