The Dashing Cavalry

I am nearing completion of my basic Etruscan force for Andy Hawes' Dux Italica.

Fresh off the painting table is this unit of Etruscan cavalry and their leader. They would most likley be young aristocrats who provided their own equipment and horses. The figures are a mix of Victrix Macedonian Successors and Republican Romans with a few Footsore Etruscan heads. Most of the shields have Little Big Man transfers but a couple are hand painted.

Such men could afford the latest body armour. Most have bronze muscle cuirasses but the leader and one of the men are wearing mail.

The Celts are generally credited with introducing chainmail in the 3rd C BC. This photo shows Etruscan mail from the 4th C BC which adorded a woman's garment. Could it be that the Etruscans were also using mail armour as early as the 4th C? Close contact with the Gauls in northern Italy would have made the Etruscans early adopters or maybe it was the other other way around. Either way I think there is enough of a possibility for some of my 4th Century Etruscan cavalry to plausibly wear mail.