Rare Roman Gladiator-Inspired Armour Reconstructed and Set for Display

The 1,800-year-old brass arm guard, a symbol of status and protection, will be exhibited at the British Museum before its permanent display at the National Museum of Scotland.

• An 'incredibly rare' piece of Roman soldier's armour, a brass arm guard, has been reconstructed from over a hundred fragments discovered at the Trimontium fort site near Melrose, Scottish Borders, in 1906.
• The 1,800-year-old arm guard, typically used by gladiators, is unusual for the Roman military and is the third and most intact to be found from the entire Roman Empire.
• The brass arm guard, denoting the senior ranking of the soldier to whom it belonged, will be displayed at the British Museum on loan before it returns to the National Museum of Scotland.
• Experts spent weeks reconstructing the arm guard, which will go on permanent display in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh after the British Museum exhibition ends.
• The arm guard, made of expensive brass that would have gleamed like gold, was both a protection and a status symbol, offering a vivid connection to the period when Scotland sat on the Roman Empire's northern frontier.

3 Articles

The Telegraph Evening Standard The Guardian