The two armies had drawn up into battle formation in the predawn hours. As the sun began to rise over the soon to be battlefield, the beams of the morning light reflect off the armour of what look to be a group of giants on a low hill. The enemy foot soldiers begin to mumer and point in their direction. What are these metal looking behemoths? As the sun slowly drew higher into the sky, the light bringing more details into view, they could see that they rode large metal clad horses and carried spears that seemed as tall as trees, they swore to each other that their eyes gleamed with red, fear began to sweep the enemy ranks....
My latest addition to my growing Late Romans from the Saga supplement Aetius & Arthur are the "Equites sagittarii clibanarii". Sagittarii implies (but does not establish) the unit was bow-armed, while clibanarii may mean something like "oven men", possibly alluding to the stuffy conditions clibanarii troopers had to endure due to their unusually comprehensive armour. The Equites sagittarii clibanarii is the only clibanarii unit in the Notitia (The Notitia Dignitatum, latin for "The List of Offices", is a document of the Late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Eastern and Western Empires.) stationed in the western half of the empire. From what I am reading they were stationed in Africa, which matters not to me, as they easily could have been called over to Italy to fight for some general contending to be the next emperor of western Rome.
There is much debate and little evidence to prove or disprove what weapons they carried or how much armour may have been worn etc. There is debate that the Late Roman Cataphractarii was armed with contus and sword and did not use a shield, while the Clibanarii were armed with the contus which is wielded with two hands, however consideration must be given to what other weapons may have been used by the clibanarii, the bow and shield.
Which brings me to, if they did carry a shield, what color do I paint it. Again there isn't just one source and there can be 15 variations of the same shield pattern, so I simply chose one I thought I could paint freehand as my hand is not that steady to paint fancy shield designs.
So with this all said, I am presenting to you my interpretation of what my artistic tastes, and idea of what my unit would look like. Close to history, or fantasy? I do not know but I have done my best to research what I wanted and present to you my Warlord, and his hearthguard Clibanarii.
[above my Warlord]
[above the Clibanarii]
[above group shot]
The figures are 28mm from Gripping Beast, the shields painted by me, the banner is a transfer from little big men studios.
Based on shield colors the horse tails worn from their helmets could be of varying colors, I chose yellow, which keeps it in the ball park of possibilities.
Hope you like my work. More stuff on the way soon.
Cheers
Kevin
