Quote Originally Posted by Wigferth Ironwall
I beg your pardon, I mispoke slightly before, 10-15 degrees would be more than enough, basically enough to cover your feet and have the shiled out from your body slightly so that blows to the top wouldn't connect with your armour.

Try this, get any weight and hold it in your left hand with your arm our straight but braced, then try the same with the arm slightly bent. Having your arm bent will strain the joints and your forarm. Think about it, gravity pulls straight down. If you bend your arm the forces get all screwed up. You might also find it harder to recieve blows.
I tried what you suggested with a 10 kg dumbbell (as that is atleast similar to the shield in weight and horizontal grip. I must say that holding the arm straight only felt comfortable when I held my arm sraight down the side of my upper body. The point of bending the arm is to activate the bicep in a higher degree and thus relieving the shoulder and elbow. Still, what you say might very well be correct, and I find it hard to argue against it as the only "evidence" I have is empirical and not at all specific to shields. I suppose the best way for me to find out would be to actually hold a scutum from the republican period. But finding one of those will not be easy where I live.

As it stands, I find it increasingly difficult to actually prove anything in this discussion since there seems to exist no evidence on this topic that is not conjectural (however well founded it may be).