Like most societies in the ancient world, when it came to war the Romans of the middle republic looked to their citizens rather than have a professional army. When gathered, those citizens were divided into several groups which decided their function and position in the battle formation. This was based to a large extent, but not completely, on personal wealth, so the most wealthy were expected to be able to provide a horse and the skills to ride it, while at the other end of the scale, the very poorest were either sent home or sometimes sent to man the ships. The rest were to become infantry, and the lowest of these classes, generally the poorest and youngest, became velites - basically light infantry. Their role was to harass an enemy before the main battle by throwing javelins and trying to disrupt them before the main infantry got involved. Once the two main formations closed on each other, the velites would retire behind the main line, their job done, although on occasion they might be called upon further, such as to attack a broken and retreating enemy. It was not a glamour job, and it remains debateable how much damage such men actually did, but they were always a significant proportion of any Roman army, including those that faced the forces of Carthage in the Punic Wars, so their worth was clearly recognised at the time.

As mostly young men, the velites were perfect for moving quickly about the battlefield and skirmishing with the enemy, and their lack of means to provide body armour or expensive weapons actually helped with this agility. They wore just their ordinary tunic, and some may have had a simple helmet, while the sources say some also wore some part of an animal pelt. The figures here all have the basic tunic, sometimes arranged so as to free the right arm. Two are bare-headed, but the rest look to have some form of helmet, and most are covered with an animal skin, sometimes just on the head, and sometimes a full pelt down the back. How common each of these features were is impossible to say now, but we were surprised to see that six of the eight helmets on show here have cheek pieces, which is rather more than just a simple helmet. Nevertheless nothing in the costume here is wrong.

The principal weapon was the javelin, which four of these poses are wielding. These javelins are quite simple but correct in design, and all are about 20 mm (144 cm) in length. Some sources speak of shorter javelins, perhaps only one metre in length, but others suggest they were more like this length, and in any case it is a simple matter to shorten them if desired. It is thought that they may have carried up to seven such javelins, but exactly how this was done is not known. The last man in the bottom row holds one in his right hand, and two more along with his shield in his left. It seems hard to imagine that anyone could carry six or seven javelins this way, so perhaps the second figure in that row is more plausible, as he has a sort of case or quiver strapped to his back in which there are several javelins. All the velites have a sword, and six are using theirs. This might be to attack a fleeing foe, or of course for self defence, though it is rather over-represented here in our view.

All these poses have a circular shield, called a parma. Again, it is not known if all velites had shields, but it seems reasonable. Those in this set are all about 10 mm (72 cm) in diameter, whereas the books tell of shields a little bigger than this, perhaps 90 cm in diameter, but to our eye these seem quite plausible. Such shields were of course simple and cheap, perhaps wicker, but these have been made to look like they are fabricated from strips of wood. All but one have a boss in front of the grip, and some have a plain face, but some have animal or dolphin motifs engraved on them.

Having said that we felt there were a few too many sword poses at the expense of javelin ones, we thought all the poses were pretty good. The only weak javelin pose is the last man, who is running forward but holding his javelin to the side, which makes no sense, and the second man in that row does hold his javelin directly over the middle of his head, which is a common figure pose but not natural. The swordsmen all seem quite natural apart from the very first man, who holds his shield well behind him for some reason. Generally though, the poses are nice and lively, which is how you would expect to see such troops when they were performing their role in a battle. The ranks behind them would be static and organised, but these skirmishers look right for their purpose.

The sculpting is very fair on these figures, with plenty of nice detail, but they are a bit rough at the seams, so while there are no large lumps of flash, some trimming would still be necessary. Most of the poses are nice and natural, without any impression of being too flat, and this is partly achieved by having several of the shields as separate parts. These fit well onto the hands, which also include the shield boss, so the fit is a good size and reasonably firm. Two of the javelins are also separate – those for the last two figures pictured – and they fit reasonably securely into the ring hand without glue.

This set does better than many in making the figures look truly three-dimensional (apart from the second javelin man), and the separate shields help greatly with this impression, so many of the men hold their shields in logical positions. The liveliness and movement of the poses is also a pleasing aspect of this group, and with decent sculpting and no apparent problems with accuracy, our only issue is that we would have preferred to see more javelins than swords.