Please add updates or make corrections to the NumisWiki text version as appropriate.
CLIPEUS - a buckler, or shield - one of the most ancient pieces of defensive armor. The Romans at first used the round shield of the Argaeans, which they called Clipeus. After the union of the Sabines with the Romans, the latter adopted the scutum of the Sabines, which had the form of an oblong square, sometimes flat, concave inside, sometimes convex outside. And this at length became part of the defensive armor of the Roman infantry. The round buckler of the cavalry was called parma. The shields of the legionaries appear to have been ornamented with designs not unlike heraldic bearings - such as a thunderbolt, an anchor, a lion, a wild-boar, a serpent, or some other symbol. And these, being also painted of a particular color, served to distinguish each legion, and each cohort, from the others, and gave rise to the surnames, by which the legions were often designated.
Distinctive signs were also added to mark the buckler of each soldier, because in camp the bucklers were all deposited in a tent or magazine. A soldier was dishonored if he abandoned his shield. Warriors frequently after having despoiled heir enemy of his buckler, offered it in some temple to a deity: hence the appellation of votive shields (see C L V below). They were soon fabricated of metals, and were even made of marble when placed on monuments, but in these instances they enter into the composition of trophies. On coins, Victory is often seen inscribing the date of some great military exploit on these bucklers. There is a brass medallion of Antoninus, the reverse type of which forms a remarkably fine record of triumph over the Parthians, by inscription on a shield. - See VIC PARTHICAE.