Evolution of the Roman cheekpiece
In his book, The Armour of Imperial Rome, published in 1975, British classicist H. R. Robinson identified 30 different types of cheek guards. However, Robinson's typology has been heavily criticized by other scholars as too rigid and closed to adapt to new discoveries. Thomas Fischer, author of "Army of the Roman Emperors, Archaeology and History," points to the systematic identification of every elaborate ornate cavalry helmet as parade armor that resulted in hardly any of the recovered helmets from the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE as regular cavalry helmets. He observes that on the basis of finds made at Ostrov and Tell Oum Hauran, ornamentation alone was not enough to assign a helmet to parade armor. "...these assemblages contained two ornate helmets: one with a face-mask and one without a mask. It seems logical that the latter was the piece for everyday use and combat." The oldest recovered Roman helmet dates to the 3rd century BCE. It was recovered from Piz...