Res Bellica at the exhibition: “Trajan's Column. The history of a symbol”

On 21 december 2023 the Res Bellica Team participated in the inauguration of the exhibition: “Trajan's Column. The story of a symbol” at the Colosseum archaeological park. For our team was a great pleasure and an honor to be present at the…

Gifts and discounts: our end-of-the-year offer! (Only until the 20th of December)

Christmas holidays are now just a month away...and we have decided to make you several presents! Let's unwrap the "package" we prepared for you! In our end of the year offer, available from the 23rd of November to the 20th of December,…
etruscan shield

The end of an era, the beginning of a new one. From our first aspides to the Vatican shield

The end of an era, the beginning of a new one. Today we present to you two of our creations which represent, at the same time, the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new one. The history of Res Bellica is intimately linked to…

The panoply of a Roman Republican consul. Res Bellica on Ancient Warfare XVI.2 (and corrections)

As we announced on our social media pages when it first came out, the issue XVI.2 of Ancient Warfare magazine features the article "Dressed to impress", by Corrado Re, dedicated to the reconstruction of two possible panoplies of a Roman consul…

The difficulties of a "simple" reconstruction. Our reconstruction of a Iatrus-Krivina type helmet (4th century AD)

Sometimes, even the apparently simplest of works may become a challenge… A recent order on request by one of our customers has allowed us both to study a helmet we never worked on before, and to experiment some new solutions. We were…

Our reconstruction of a Late Antique textile subarmalis

One of our customers has recently asked us to make for him a tailored textile subarmalis for his Late Antique equipment: for sure, not an easy task. In fact, not having any archaeological find on which to base our work on, coming a final result…

Legionary shields of the 3rd century AD: the shield from Dura Europos and an hypothetical reconstruction

The scutum from Dura Europos. The request for a 3rd century rectangular Roman shield (a scutum), based on the famous finding from Dura Europos, has given us the opportunity to make some interesting considerations on its decoration. The…

The convex trapezoidal shield in the Roman army

The trapezoidal shield apparently appears in the Italic panoplies at the end of the 4th century BC, during the Second Samnite War. According to Livy (IX, 40), in fact "The shape of the shield was this: the upper part, where it protected the…

What colour were Roman legionaries' shields?

The most spontaneous answer many of you may give is surely "red"! But was that actually the case? Giving a simple answer to this only apparently simple question is far from easy, but we can surely try to at least establish some staples…

Two types of pilum which should be used more in reenactment

As it's widely known, the pilum is the throwing weapon of the Imperial Roman legionary by definition. Its peculiar shape - with the pyramidal wooden base for the long, iron shaft, with its pyramidal tip - makes it an extremely recognizable…