When a Roman army set off to invade Parthia in 53 BCE they may well have been very confident of success. Despite considerable traumas over the previous half century, the republic’s troops were still a match for any opponent they might meet, and their leader, Crassus, had a solid if unspectacular record as a military commander. When they met a Parthian army at Carrhae, however, they found themselves showered by arrows from thousands of horse archers, and with no way to reply, they had to endure until the Parthian arrow supply ran out. It eventually became apparent that this would not happen, and so an attempted breakout was made, and destroyed, followed by a painful retreat, by the end of which very few Romans survived to reach their own lands again. Rome had suffered its worst disaster since Hannibal, but there was much more fighting to come, this time in a civil war.

This set focuses on the ordinary legionaries, so has no officers, musicians or similar, and presents everyone in typical soldier apparel of the time. All wear a Montefortino helmet, some with a crest, and all have a mail shirt with shoulder reinforcements in the Greek style, as was normal. All have the normal boots (‘caligae’) and no other adornments, so are fine for the mid first century BCE. Every man is armed with his sword sheathed on his right side, although strangely one man also has a second sword scabbard on his left side. This figure, like several of the others, has drawn his sword (or one of them in his case), but one of the other figures also has a sword still in its scabbard, so again has two of them. Four of the men still have their pilum, and given the way the battle of Carrhae went, they are probably still waiting for a suitable target to come within range. Naturally the shields were particularly important on that day, and all those here are of the standard design, oval with a long spine down the front and a central boss. They are all correctly held by a horizontal bar behind the boss.

The poses are all stationary, which is how most of the army were that day as they endured the missiles from a distant enemy, and very noticeably, many are primarily concerned with protecting themselves with their shield. Some of those shields have arrows stuck into them, and unfortunately two of the figures also have the same (our last two photographed figures, with arrows in the face and shoulder). No one looks like they are actually in contact with a foe, so in our view all the poses perfectly reflect how the Romans would have looked for much of the battle, with weapons drawn but largely powerless to strike a blow. The poses are also extremely natural, with weapons and shields perfectly positioned in a way that only 3D-printing can achieve without having to assemble separate parts. In short, a brilliant range of poses for the subject matter.

Sculpting as usual is terrific on these 3D-printed figures. There is no assembly required, yet the weapons and shields are correctly held, and do not obscure any of the detail on the man. Faces look great, and even finer details like the boots are excellent. We would have to say that the spears are particularly thick, which is not ideal, but probably down to the limitations of the manufacturing process, or the material used, and so a compromise such as we find in so many sets. Also, as elsewhere, the mail armour itself has been given a very odd pattern which is not at all realistic, but otherwise the sculpting is immaculate, and with no unwanted plastic or flash of course.

This is a perfectly useful collection of Roman soldiers as they typically appeared around the middle of the first century BCE, a time when Roman soldiers were kept very busy fighting opponents and each other. By concentrating on Carrhae, the design does not offer us the usual broad array of poses such as running men, but that is perfectly appropriate for this particular battle, and of course other sets from Linear-A and others can complement this one to broaden the range. Aside from the rendering of the mail these are terrific figures in their own right, as well as useful for any of the battles of the period, and should enhance any model late-republic Roman Army.