I'm a Roman foot soldier at the battle of the Catalaunian fields (AD 451), what would I have been my arms and armour? How would this compare to my compatriots in the Eastern Empire?

by Sgt_Colon
FlavivsAetivs

Oh this is exactly my area, I actually am about to publish a book on this (The Battle of the Catalaunian Fields, it doesn't really focus on military equipment but it touches on it in the overview). Prepare for a few comments' worth of posts.

Modern depictions of the late Roman army tend to be exclusively confined to the 4th century AD. There are very few reenactors who portray 5th century soldiers, and just as few examples of artists' reconstructions that are actually accurate depictions. Information on the archaeology of the 5th century tends to be sparse, usually locked behind paywalls, or in German. That being said, the archaeological record of the 5th century is quite extensive, just not for the Romans per se. Roman finds remain primarily confined to things like belt fittings, brooches, etc. We only know of one example of a 5th century sword that might be of Roman origin, for example. Another possibility is that many objects are mis-dated, having been found before modern study of the late Roman army came around, and automatically assumed to be 4th century, or to belong to the earlier part of a dating range, because there was no way the Roman army could have still been so well equipped and not disorganized barbarian mercenaries in the minds of the authors/archaeologists.

As for west vs. east... there were differences, but there's a significant lack of archaeological finds outside of the Balkans regions in the East. That being said, evidence points towards many overarching styles being largely the same through the late 4th/early 5th century. Chip Carved decoration, for example. The differences would have primarily been minutiae like regional styles and variation in belt fittings, mostly. D'Amato will soon have an Osprey book out on Roman Army Units in the Eastern Provinces for the Late Roman empire, within the next few years. Despite some of the more outlandish things he likes to depict (SO MUCH LEATHER ARMOR), he often digs up extraordinarily rare archaeological finds and thus provides that information to the general reenactment community.

Keeping those things in mind here is a comprehensive overview of Roman military equipment, from head-to-toe, of the mid-5th century (the end of the D2/beginning of the D3 archaeological periods).

Post 1 of God only knows how many. This may take a few hours.