As the dates of monuments depicting the cavalrymen have not been precisely determined, one can say only that the adoption happened during the third century BC. The round shield was untypical for the Celts and therefore the Greeks borrowed it not from them but from Italy.
According to the iconography, in the Hellenistic epoch the majority of Greek mounted shield-bearers were armed with large round shields of four various kinds, and a few of them carried oblong shields. However, the hypotheses are theoretical, without proven arguments. Some scholars think that the Greeks borrowed the shield from Italy via Pyrrhus’ army, others suppose that it was borrowed from the Galatians.
Summary There are two main hypotheses about the adoption of the shield by the Hellenistic cavalry.
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