SAMNITE TRIPLE-DISC ARMOR

AH6088B
Used from: Ca. 450-200 BC (Gladiatorial, ca. 120-30 BC).
Used by: Samnite and Etruscan warriors, later by "Samnite" class of Roman gladiators.

Price: $450
Accuracy Scale Rating: 8.5

The Samnite people inhabited a region of central-southern Italy adjoining Latium. The Romans regarded them as intermingling the blood of native Italic peoples and the Greek Spartans. They had a dominant warrior class which trained in the Spartan manner, and the Romans fought a long series of wars against them between 510 BC and 85 BC. The Samnites defeated the Romans in 321 BC and forced the Roman legions to pass "under the yolk," a symbol of submission. But the Romans got their revenge nine years later, in 312 BC, and finally broke their power ca 290 BC.  The last gasp of Samnium came in 82 BC, when the general Sulla ordered a general massacre of their warriors that brought their independence to an end. The Samnites wore a distinctive type of armor, with a chest plate consisting of three cojoined disks in a triangular shape, and a separate wide bronze belt. This type of armor proved popular and was also worn by Etruscans, Greeks and Carthaginian forces in their wars against Rome. Much after the heyday of the Samnite peoples, in ca. 100 BC, the Romans adopted the term "Samnite" for a class of heavily armed gladiator. In fact the terms "Samnite" and "gladiator" were interchangeable for awhile. The earliest Samnite gladiators may well have worn the triple-disc cuirass and bronze belt in imitation of Samnite warriors, but by the mid-first century AD the chest plate had become essentially vestigal. Curiously, the Samnite class of gladiator seems to have died out before the Empire really got going, ca. 30 BC.

Our replica triple-disc cuirass is made by Deepeeka and is remarkably close to the originals in design, although it is somewhat larger than most originals and is made of brass instead of bronze. At right is an original triple-disc cuirass from the famous Guttmann Collection of Greek and Roman artifacts. The cuirass comes with an accompanying brass belt, which was long considered the mark of a warrior in Central Italy.