Pelta

A small light shield, sometimes attributed to the Amazons, but used by numerous nations of antiquity, such as the inhabitants of Thrace, Spain, and Mauri tan i a, before its general introduction among the Greeks. It consisted mainly of a frame of wood or wicker-work covered with skin or leather, without the metallic rim, and of a great variety of shapes. It was sometimes round, as in the special case of the cetra , sometimes elliptical, sometimes variously situated round the rim, sometimes even quadrangular, but most commonly crescent-shaped or lunated, as alluded to in the “ Amazonidum lunatis agmina pelt is ” of Virgil. Soldiers bearing the pelta were called peltastæ .