Balteus Construction
Legio V Alaudae Home
A bit of Background info
The roman military belt was known as the "balteus". They were leather with decorative brass plates rivetted to the exterior. most of what we know about the belts come from the remnants of the plates. There are hundreds of different varieties but there are two very different looking categories; thin belts and wide belts. The thin belts are usually between 1" and 1-1/2" and were mostly worn during the republican period and the early reign of Augustus. The wide belts, about 2" wide usually, were dominant during the mid-first centuries AD up through roughly the 2nd and third centuries AD. In the late empire, the belts were made with holes cut in the plates for the pattern.
Since this organization mostly reenacts the legion from 100 BC to 100 AD we will discuss the process of making wide and narrow belts and avoid the later Roman plates.
Legio XX belt Page
My Hod Hill Belt Project
Riveting the Plates to the Belt