"Evidence for Phalangites with Painted Helmets" Topic

I just posted some photos of phalangites I finished with painted helmets. You can see them at:

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I know that quite a few people have their phalangites painted this way, but I was wondering about the historical accuracy of doing so. Is there any textural or archaeological evidence for do so, or is this again a case of since the evidence is so skimpy, one is free to do whatever they like.

Thanks

Peter C
Sword and Sandal Gaming Blog
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The best evidence is probably the tomb of Lyson and Kallikles see link and scroll down a long way.
One seems to be painted red and the other has coloured bands.
I think at least some of the blue helmets which can be seen in some sources may be a way of representing iron or tinned/silvered metal, but that is a guess based on the colours used for weapons.
There are descriptions of troops painting their helmets white – Thebans and/or their allies IIRC, or maybe Thessalians.
I think Sekunda is probably overstating the evidence to say that painted helemts indicate particular rank or unit.

I dont care if they did or didnt paint their helmets. Mine are painted so I can tell them apart.

Mine are painted coz they look nice

Thanks for the links Swampster. Hadn't seen most of those burial artifacts. The bronze scaled gorget is interesting – wonder if it was armor or jewelry?

Heres another one associated with a corselet suggesting it was used as part of an armour
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This one was Thracian, so the scale gorget may well be a 'barbarian' affectation.

the latest Ancient Warfare is about the Sucessors (and very interesting with some lovely pictures as always). There is a picture of a Macedonian cavalryman in it from a tomb wall who has a painted helmet.

I think they look cool painted in uniform colours for a unit, though how accurate this is i would question….

Nice work btw.

Wether itīs historically acxurate or not, they look, like yours do, way better with a mix of painted and unpainted helmets.
Cheers
paul

No painted helmets in my army!

Always seemed to me like a strange thing to do.

Noone seems to have bothered post-AD as far as I know?

There are certainly plenty of instances of post AD helmet painting, though those I'm familiar with are a good 1000 years post AD. There is the added complication that at least some later helmets were likely painted to resist rust but decoration is also a factor.

Thanks for that link Monstro. That is a very nice panoply. I thought it might've been for armor as it was made of bronze instead of gold or some other precious metal. Dean

The Greeks often painted their helmets many bright colors.. there's no reason why the the Macedonians would not follow this fashion. There are blue and red helmets on the agios athanasios tumulus and the Kazanluk tomb paintings.. in neither case are they depicting iron helmets. The tomb of Lyson and Kallikles shows a red painted helmet and a helmet painted yellow.. the artist is fully capable of rendering bronze metallic (see the greaves and cheek pieces) so yellow is a choice, not an accident.

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Not sure how historically accurate it is, but I like to have infantry with blue helmets, "elite" infantry with purple, and cavalry (or elephant crewmen) with red. I also like them mixed with guys in plain bronze or silvered (unpainted) helmets too. Heck their linothoraxes and shields are just as colorful, so why not. Dean

I just got 128 Selucid phalangites painted with 8 different coloured helmets. Looks nice, but the blue ones make them look like smurfs. Pictures coming to my blog soon.

They had painted fingernails. So I'm sure they had painted helmets….