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Italo-Corinthian and the Italo-Attic helmets: On the Evolution of the

Greek Helmets in Italy (8th-1st centuries BC)

Periklis Deligiannis
The peoples of ancient Italy, initially the Etruscans and the Iapyges (later

known as ‘Apulians’ in Latin) were using almost all the types of the Archaic,

Classical and Hellenistic Greek helmets: the Corinthian, the Chalkidean, the Attic

(Athenian), the Boeotian (for the cavalry) and later the Thracian, the Phrygian, the

Neo-Attic and all the Hellenistic types. They had a special preference for the first

three types. In this article, I will deal specifically with two types of helmets in Italy

which originated from the evolution of the original Greek respective ones: the Italo-

Corinthian and the Italo-Attic helmets. The Osco-Attic is the main variety of the Italo-

Attic group of helmets; the Etrusco-Attic being the second important.

The Italo-Corinthian helmet (also known as Pseudo-Corinthian, Apulo-

Corinthian or Etrusco-Corinthian) was born out of the habit of the warriors of Italy to

wear their Corinthian helmet raised, even when the battle began. Because of this, the

protective visor gradually evolved into a decorative pseudo-visor while the helmet

was manufactured in order not to cover the face anymore. In the later centuries, Attic-

type cheek-protectors were added on it.

Until lately the archaeologists considered rather erroneously, the Etruscans as

the developers of the Italo-Corinthian helmet, hence its original archaeological name

Etrusco-Corinthian. In the last decades it is evident that its creators were the Apuli

(Apulians, known as Iapyges in ancient Greek) of Southeastern Italy (1). There were

several varieties of the Italo-Corinthian helmet. The Etruscans, the Romans, the

Latins, the Umbrians and the Iapyges were the peoples who had a special preference

for it, but this type was generally popular throughout Italy.

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The Attic helmet was equally esteemed by the Etruscans, who very often were

wearing it with the cheek-protectors raised. This type of helmet has a course of over a

thousand years which paradoxically belongs more to the Italian-Roman diachronic

arsenal, rather than to the Greek arsenal from which it originates. It was possibly an

invention of the Athenians of the 5th century BC (2), and from the late 4th century

BC it was spread throughout the Hellenistic and later throughout the Greco-Roman

world. At the same time, the peoples of Italy have adopted it massively. Gradually, it

was informally established as a helmet of the senior officers. In Italy, the Etruscans

and the Oscans developed their own Etrusco-Attic and Osco-Attic types. The Apulian

Oscans and the Messapians as well developed their own Apulo-Attic types. The

Romans established the typical Hellenistic Attic helmet as the type worn by their

senior officers, from the chiliarch (tribunus) up to the consul, including the emperor

himself later – unlike the centurions and the common legionnaires wearing Italic,

Celtic and later Gallo-Roman types of helmets. It was also used by the Praetorian

Guard, at least officially. At the same time, its use spread to additional Mediterranean

peoples (Carthaginians and others). The Attic-Athenian casque remained in Roman

service until the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 AD).

The Attic helmet was particularly popular among the Oscans and the Southern

Umbrians. The Oscan and South Umbrian peoples of Central Italy (Pentri, Vestini,

Sidicini, Marsi, Peligni, Frentani, Hirpini, Marucini, Aequi, Aequicoli, Volsci,

Alfaterni and others) used to be standard mercenaries of the Etruscans. The Oscans

were not fighting as hoplites, using the mobile and elastic warfare of the

mountaineers. By the middle 5th century BC they started to play a very important

political and military role in Italy, when they comprised new tribal confederations that

were evolved into compact peoples (Samnites, Campanians, Lucanians, Bruttians,

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Apulians and others) becoming great rivals of the Romans and the Greeks of Magna

Graecia. The Oscan peoples adopted the classic Attic helmet from their Iapygian and

Etruscan neighbors, and evolved it in a wide variety of Osco-Attic types.

At the same time the peoples of Italy were using alongside the original Greek

types, with almost the same frequency with which they used the Italo-Corinthian and

Italo-Attic types. In contrast, the latter Italo-Greek types did not become popular

among the Greeks of Italy and Sicily, while their rather rare presence in mainland

Greece and the Hellenistic World is due more to a number of Etruscan and Oscan

mercenaries in these regions and later to the Roman campaigning and garrison troops

in them.

It has been stated that in reality, the use of the Attic helmet was eliminated in

the Hellenistic armies and the Roman army sometime in the Hellenistic period, on the

argument that no archaeological remains of this type of helmet have been found to

date (3). And the same source also notes “As an artistic motif, variations of the attic

helmet long outlasted other contemporary helmet types, being used to impart an

archaic look to depictions of generals, emperors and Praetorians throughout the

Hellenistic and Roman periods. As such, a form of attic helmet has become part of the

popular image of a Roman officer, as found in art from the Renaissance onwards or in

earlier Hollywood productions. However, no archaeological remains of this type of

helmet have been found to date. The closest surviving Imperial Roman helmet to the

type illustrated in relief sculpture dates to the 2nd century AD, and was found in

Bavaria.” I think that this is an oversimplified view on this problem. The Attic helmet

is very often depicted to have been just an ‘artistic memory’ in order just to give an

archaic and I presume glorious look in generals, emperors and Praetorians throughout

the Hellenistic and Roman periods. And the practices, including the artistic ones, of

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the Imperial Roman period has nothing to do with the practices of the Renaissance or

early Hollywood. I think that the only reason that no archaeological remains of this

type of helmet have been found to date (at least of the Roman imperial period I

presume, because there are archaeological remains almost to the end of the Hellenistic

and Republican Roman Period) is the rarity in the use of the Attic helmet, more and

more with the passage of the centuries. It seems that the expensive Attic helmet was

limited to increasingly higher grades of officers as the financial problems of the

Roman Empire were becoming more and more pressing (4). But rarity in use may

mean large difficulty in finding archaeological remains of this type of helmet today

(after all it was a rather valuable item) but does not mean elimination in use by the

Roman army officers.

NOTES

(1) The Iapyges originated from the fusion of Illyrian colonists from the opposite

coast of the Adriatic Sea with native Ausones and Oenotri. Later the Iapyges were

Oscanized because of Frentanian and Hirpinian settlement on their land, thereby

becoming the Apuli (Apulians). Only the Messapii (Messapians) retained their

original Illyro-Italian language.

(2) The respected researcher Peter Connolly mentions in his book Greece and Rome

at War: “Terms such as Illyrian and Attic are used in archaeology for convenience to

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denote a particular type of helmet and do not imply its origin” (p. 60) but these terms

are used for a reason. In the case of the Attic helmet, it initially appears on Athenian

vase depictions around 500 BC thus it is probable but certainly not sure, that it was a

local Attic transformation of the older Chalkidean casque. But in any case, it was a

Greek helmet.

(3) Wikipedia, article: “Attic helmet”. It is not mentioned of which period, but I

suppose at least of the Roman imperial period.

(4) But finally there was a “rebirth” of the Attic helmet in the Eastern (Byzantine)

Empire, due to the “awakening” of the Greek elements of the state. In the Byzantine

Empire, a number of ordinary infantrymen and cavalrymen used to wear it after

centuries of use exclusively by officers. Its use may finally have been abolished in the

7th century AD.

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SOURCES

 Cristofani M., I bronzi degli Etruschi, Novara 1985

 Pallottino M., Rasenna: Storia e civilta degli Etruschi (Antica madre), Libri

Scheiwiller, 1986.

 Chieco Bianchi An. Maria et al., Italia. Omnium terrarum alumna: La civiltà

dei Veneti, Reti, Liguri, Celti, Piceni, Umbri, Latini, Campani e Iapigi (Antica

madre), Libri Scheiwiller

 Ampolo Car., Italia : Omnium terrarum parens : La civiltà degli Enotri,

Choni, Ausoni, Sanniti, Lucani, Brettii, Sicani, Siculi, Elimi (Antica madre),

Libri Scheiwiller

 Megale Hellàs. Storia e civiltà della Magna Grecia (Antica madre), Libri

Scheiwiller

 Rita Benassai, La pittura dei campani e dei sanniti, "L'Erma" di

Bretschneider, 2001

 Andreae B., Princeps Urbium : cultura e vita sociale dell'Italia romana

(Antica madre), Libri Scheiwiller

 Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita.

© Periklis Deligiannis

(concerning only the text)

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IMAGES

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An Osco-Attic helmet of the Lucanians with many characteristic Oscan novelties

(Wikimedia commons).

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Etruscan hoplites of Tarquinia with Greek arms and armour, 4th century BC. The

hoplite on the right wears a proper Attic helmet. The left one wears a Phrygo-Attic

helmet.

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Etruscan helmet of the Corinthian proper type.

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Italo-Corinthian helmet

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A rather impressive Osco-Attic helmet of the Samnites.

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The almost ‘standard' type of Attic helmet of the Roman officers until the fall of the

Roman Empire.

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A Chalkidean bronze helmet, the ancestor of the Attic and Osco-Attic helmets. The

typical Chalkidean helmet was also popular among the Italian Peoples.

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