Hirdmenn

The Martial Art around center-grip shields The center-grip round shield was used in Europe for over a millennium. From Roman parma to vikings and even further, if one counts bucklers of later periods. The size of the shield and the context of usage varies, but the basic form of the center-grip shield remained the same from the Roman infantryman to Charlemagne's knights and late viking warriors. Weapons that were used with a parma were spear, lance, javelin, and sword ( gladius or spatha ). The original Roman parma was round in shape and most likely 90 cm in diameter. Quite similar to the largest viking age shields. It was first used by light skirmishing javelineers on foot (velites) , as well as by cavalry lancers (equites) in the Roman Republican period. The origins of the shield can be found in the Hellenistic period, and the Romans copied it from the Greeks, who used it for similar purposes, especially by Hellenistic cavalry. Even though the main shield of the legionary bec