Condition: New, Made in Greece.
Material: Pure Bronze
Height: 10,5 cm - 4,15 inches
Width 9 cm - 3,55 inches
Length: 5 cm - 1,97 inches
Weight: 290 g
An
aspis, sometimes also referred to as an hoplon, was the heavy wooden
shield used by the infantry in various periods of ancient Greece.An
aspis was deeply dished and made primarily of wood. Some had a thin
sheet of bronze on the outer face, often just around the rim. In some
periods, the convention was to decorate the shield; in others, it was
usually left plain.Probably the most famous aspis decoration is that of
Sparta (Lacedaemon): a capital lambda (Λ), for Lacedaemon its
alternative name (Λακεδαίμων).
When his soldiers complained that the
barbarians were firing so many arrows at them that the sun was blocked
out, Leonidas replied:
"Won't it be nice, then, if we shall have shade in which to fight them?"
When Xerxes wrote again, demanding Leonidas hand over their arms, he wrote in reply: "Come and take them."
(ΓΙΩ ΑΣΠΙΔΑ Β Λ XΡ)