For Roman history enthusiasts and collectors: what is in our shop in Rome, and what is not

Who this shop is for, and who it is not for

If you are a history buff looking for a piece to keep on a desk or a shelf, or for a present for someone who reads about Rome, this is the right kind of shop: the pieces we sell online have their price on the page, and we tell you what each one is made of wherever we have it in writing.

If you are a re-enactor who needs kit built to one specific find, or a collector of militaria looking for original military items, it is not. We sell reproductions only, and below we say what each one is.

Helmets: steel, and the right names

Our six Roman and Greek helmets are steel. The centurion helmet (€80 with a steel stand) has a red crest, mounted from front to back in our shop photos; Vegetius describes the centurions' crest as crosswise and silvered, so that their men could recognise them quickly (Epitoma rei militaris II, 13 and 16). The Maximus gladiator helmet (€80) follows the film Gladiator, released in 2000. The Corinthian helmet (€220) is Greek in style. The centurion and Maximus helmets on a steel stand are small display pieces, about 40 cm in circumference, the centurion about 20 cm and the Maximus about 15 cm high with their stands; the four larger helmets, from €200, are about 80–85 cm and can be worn: you can try them on in the shop. They are sold without a stand: a wooden display stand is available separately, €20.

Collectors will know the type names H. Russell Robinson used in The Armour of Imperial Rome (1975): Montefortino, Coolus, Imperial-Gallic, Imperial-Italic (M.C. Bishop, 2025). We do not sell our helmets as reconstructions of any of those types. The comparison, piece by piece, is on our helmet page.

From helmet to scutum: a legionary's kit, and what we have of it

What a legionary carried, item by item, and the piece we have that comes closest. None of them is a reconstruction of an excavated find.

• Galea, the helmet. Our centurion helmet with steel stand (€80) is a small display piece, about 40 cm in circumference and about 20 cm high with its stand; the collector edition (€200) is larger and can be worn, about 80–85 cm. Both carry a crest: it is a centurion's helmet, an officer's, not a common soldier's.
• Scutum, the shield. The painted scutum (€220): red, with Jupiter's winged thunderbolt in gold, purely decorative.
• Gladius, the short sword. The gladius with scabbard (€180): polished steel blade, wooden grip, brass-fitted scabbard, decorative. Blades ship only to the countries listed on their pages.
• Pugio, the dagger. The SPQR pugio with eagle pommel (€65): dark metal with gold accents, decorative.
• Lorica, the armour. The muscle cuirass (€330): steel, wearable, not protective equipment. In Roman statues and reliefs the muscle cuirass is the armour of emperors and high-ranking officers.

Busts and statues: the originals behind them

• Emperor Augustus, Prima Porta (€149). Bronze-effect resin, about 29 cm high. The “Augustus from Prima Porta” is in the Vatican Museums (cat. 2290): it was found in the ruins of the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta, on the via Flaminia, and is dated to the beginning of the 1st century A.D.
• Marcus Aurelius on horseback (€750). A modern lost-wax cast bronze on a marble base, 19 × 14.5 × 9.5 cm, 1,078 g. The ancient equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, in bronze, dated 161–180 AD, is in the Capitoline Museums (inv. MC3247), in the Marcus Aurelius Exedra of the Palazzo dei Conservatori.
• Nike of Samothrace (€149). Bronze-effect resin, about 26 cm high. The original was discovered in 1863 by Charles Champoiseau on the island of Samothrace and stands at the top of the Daru staircase in the Louvre.
• Julius Caesar bust (€109). Resin with a realistic bronze effect, with a Medusa breastplate and an eagle; about 19 cm high. Our catalogue names no single museum original for it, so neither do we.

Each of them is sold as a declared modern reproduction.

Materials and measurements, as far as we have them in writing

Most of our busts, statues and reliefs are resin with a bronze-effect finish; Marcus Aurelius on horseback is cast bronze and the 75 cm Lady Justice is bronze and resin; the helmets and the muscle cuirass are steel. Some product pages do not state a material yet: for those, ask us.

Our catalogue states a measurement for some pieces: Marcus Aurelius on horseback (19 × 14.5 × 9.5 cm, 1,078 g), the Lady Justice statue of 75 cm, the Roma SPQR mosaic (28 × 36 cm), two of the sword replicas and, as approximate figures, the helmets, the Romans vs Egyptians and Arabs vs Gladiators chess boards and some statues and busts, each on its product page. The other pieces have not been measured yet. Rather than estimate, we ask you to write to us for the height or the weight you need.

The shield and the armour

The Roman scutum (€220) is a painted shield, red with Jupiter's winged thunderbolt in gold, purely decorative. For comparison, the scutum excavated at Dura-Europos, in Syria, is dated to the mid-3rd century A.D.: painted wood and rawhide, 105.5 × 41 × 30 cm, at the Yale University Art Gallery (1933.715). Ours is not a copy of that shield. The Roman muscle cuirass (€330) is a steel breastplate: wearable, not protective equipment.

What these pieces are not

• Not finds, not antiquities. In Italy archaeological objects found underground or on the seabed belong to the State (Codice dei beni culturali, Legislative Decree 42/2004, art. 91). They are not sold over a shop counter, and nothing we sell is one.
• Not certified re-enactment equipment. The four larger helmets (about 80–85 cm in circumference) and the cuirass can be worn, but none of these pieces is protective equipment; the scutum is decorative.
• Not militaria. We have no original military items of any period.
• Not “handmade”, unless the page says so. We write it only where it is documented, which today means the chess sets whose page states it.

In Rome, and online

The shop is at Via Cavour 280, a five-minute walk from the Colosseum and four minutes from the Colosseo metro stop (line B), open every day from 10:00 to 20:00. It is run in person by its two partners, Davide Di Nepi and Gabriel Greco, and opened on 15 April 2026.

Before you come: the walk from the Forum to the Colosseum, then and now →

The fourteen replicas, photographed on both sides, with their prices and what we know about each original coin →

Online, the pieces with a price are sold through our Etsy boutique: tracked shipping is free in Italy, €15 to the European Union and €40 to other countries, and Etsy shows the estimated delivery date before you pay. Online orders can be returned within 14 days.