Gavius Pontius (1), the Samnite generalissimo, is depicted in a short linen tunic and an Oscan broad bronze belt (2). This is a leather belt, some 9cm in breadth and covered with bronze sheeting, fastened with two elaborate hooks and beautifully embossed. Accentuating the waist and drawing attention to the groin area, it is the very symbol of the wearer's manhood. Prominent, however, is his splendid gilded bronze body armour (3), the triple-disc cuirass peculiar to an Oscan warrior. This consists of three symmetrical bronze discs placed on the chest and the back. Our fine example is based upon that found in a chamber tomb at Ksour Essef, Tunisia, which has the lower disc replaced with a bust of a goddess adorned with a triple-crested helmet. She is probably the Oscan equivalent of Athena Promachos, ‘Athena who fights in the front line', a very appropriate divine patron for the shrewd Gavius Pontius. The Roman political system consisted of a series of annually elected magistrates, with two consuls acting as the chief executive magistrates of the state, as well as its supreme military commanders in the field. The two consuls for the year 321 bc, Titus Veturius Calvinus (4) and Spurius Postumius Albinus (5), like their adversary, are both decked out in their finest panoply. This consists of an Italo-Corinthian helmet (6), a peculiar and perverted development of the closed Greek Corinthian helmet once commonly worn by hoplites. These helmets, which are silvered, are adorned with a horsehair crest. Their body armour consists of Etruscan muscle-corselets (7), likewise silvered, complete with shoulder guards and pteruges. Beneath this they wear fine linen tunics, which have been bleached white. Though the Samnite and the two Romans in all probability understand one another's language, Oscan and Latin respectively, so as not to misunderstand the finer points of their discussions they are accompanied by interpreters (8 and 9) speaking in Attic Greek, the lingua franca of diplomacy. Gavius Pontius has also brought with him his two Molossian hounds (10), for added protection.