Silver shields?

[ochoin]

I'm knee-deep in phalangites at the moment.
Bronze shields, white shields & silver shields were popular, evidently.

The first two I can comprehend but what the are 'silver shields'?
Clearly not solid silver or even with thin silver plate tacked on to wooden bases as were the bronze ones. Too expensive, surely.

Did they have silver paint? Seems unlikely.
Or is this one of those weird Greek colour perceptions things where the sky was copper-coloured & the sea "wine dark" & the "silver" shields were actually fluorescent green?

donald

[FreddBloggs]

Probably white paint with mica added.

[ochoin]

Probably white paint with mica added.

OK....how do I paint this?

donald

[Paul]

The shields could have been treated with a thin layer of tin and then polished to create a shiny "silver" surface. There is archaeological evidence of tin being used for decorative artefacts, so I wouldn't rule out the possibility. (Of course Alexander had an Elite Unit whose shields were overlaid with silver whilst in India, where it is a fairly cheap and plentiful metal and can be made much harder by alloying with copper).

[RMD]

I'd always assumed that the Silver Shields ('Argyraspides') would belong to an elite corps and that silver plating would therefore be an acceptable expense. That was certainly the case with Alexander's army and the Seleukids, so I've assumed that the other Successor armies would similarly use silver shields as a mark of 'eliteness'.

[bangorstu]

I'm with RMD - in an era when you carried your wealth around with you, an actual silver shield seems plausible.

Whatever they were actually plated with, they'd probably look silver.

[grizzlymc]

"Argyraspides"
Nasty buggers, hit them with a 15 second burst of crawling insect spray.

[ochoin]

I think you'll find Silver Fish are different.

I'm tempted to paint my Epirote phalanx with silver shields. I think Pyrrhus was quite into elites, flashy appearances and showmanship.....having learned it from A.theG.

donald

[grizzlymc]

A hammered tin leaf coating probably wouldn't have been hellishly expensive. I guess you'd hammer it hot so it fixed to the bronze.

[RMD]

It's also worth mentioning that Alexander and the Successors weren't averse to dressing their Companion cavalry up in Purple, which was the most valuable substance in the Ancient world.