We have a fair knowledge of the armor of Greece and Rome. The former was very simple for the light troops, consisting of beautifully modeled greaves which covered the legs from the knee to the ankle, a well modeled helmet fitting closely to the head and leaving the face wholly or partly uncovered, and a huge shield. The heavy armed troops wore corselets in addition. Sometimes they were of bronze but, more often, of some form of ring or scale armor. The Roman armor was more elaborate and varied. It included body armor of most of the then known kinds. Bronze corselets for the officers and better armed troops, The arms and legs were generally unprotected. Some of the Roman helmets were very large with high and broad crests; but the legionaries probably wore helmets or a more plain nature. Shields were almost universal. They were of a great variety of shapes and sizes. The small ones were almost always round, and many of the larger ones also. Others were eliptical or rectangular, the later being curved to fit around the body.
The armor of the Northern nations that over ran Europe at the close of the Roman Empire approximated that of the Romans. But little of it remains and our knowledge of it is extremely fragmentary.