AD 69: Emperors, Armies & Anarchy (2024)

The Impact of the Roman Army (200 B.C. – A.D. 476): Economic, Social, Political, Religious and Cultural Aspects, 2007

In: M. A. Speidel, Heer und Herrschaft im Römischen Reich der Hohen Kaiserzeit, Stuttgart 2009, 235-248., 2009

This paper explores the origins of the horse games (hippika gymnasia) of the Roman imperial army. It argues that the equestrian displays lengthily described by Arrian in his tactical treatise were borrowed from the Gallic and Iberian Celts, who formed the most important part of the Roman auxiliary cavalry at the end of the Republic and at the beginning of the Principate. Mask helmets were worn by the most renowned horsemen during these games. The first examples of such masks in Roman context can be found on triumphal representations celebrating victories over Celtiberian or Gallic foes. The evidence suggests that they were initially made of organic materials, like the over-modelled or plastered skull masks that could adorn public monuments in pre-Roman Gaul. From the end of the 1st century BC onward, they began to adopt the form of full metal helmets and were progressively adapted to the Greco-Roman taste. The idea that the hippika gymnasia were borrowed from the Roman equestrian parade called the lusus Troiae and that mask helmets were part of an old Italic tradition should, therefore, be abandoned.

Anatolica, 2020

A relief panel exhibited in the National Archaeology Museum, Istanbul, shows two Roman soldiers in their ‘field-service kit’. The relief belonged originally to a monument built in AD 108/109 near what is now the village of Adamclisi in Romania in connection with the conclusion of the Emperor Trajan’s Second Dacian War. The monument had been furnished with 54 figured panels or metopes, the 49 surviving examples all with scenes relating to the Roman army at the time of Trajan and of considerable importance in Roman military studies in particular and in the field of Roman provincial ‘classical’ art in general. The panel in Istanbul demands greater attention as it appears to be a rare depiction of either Praetorian Guardsmen or Centurions in their ‘field-service kit’.

Ancient Warfare, 2019

The Praetorian Guard are one of the best-known units of the Roman army, boasting a long pedigree stretching back to the days of the Republic. However, from the reign of Trajan onwards, they shared the responsibility for the emperor’s safety with another unit, the *equites singulares Augusti*, often characterized as the Imperial Horse Guard. These elite horsemen are not quite as familiar to the general reader. So what exactly do we know about them?

The Classical Review, 2009

Routledge , 2022

Bodnaruk, Mariana. “Participants in the Emperor’s Glory: The Late-antique Statues for Military Honorands in Rome.” In: Military Diasporas: Defending, Shaping, and Connecting Power in the Euromediterranean from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period. Eds. Georg Christ, Patrick Sänger, and Mike Carr (London: Routledge, 2022), 106-131.In the first half of the fifth century CE in the late Roman west the empire’s generals were heavily reliant on federates (foederati) – forces recruited and mobilized beyond the imperial frontiers – and military diasporas in general. This chapter explores the honorific epigraphy of statue bases in Rome dedicated to high ranked military commanders, whose actual power relied on their ability to raise a large army from among their federates. It was this primary power base that allowed Roman military elite to swiftly accumulate social prestige and highest imperial honors. Honorific statuary and inscriptions in the Forum Romanum celebrate a political and social capital monopolized by senior military officers and articulate the changing relationship between the emperor and high army command. These forms of representation provide an image of the social hierarchy and indirect evidence for the political importance of military diasporas. It will be argued that successful military leaders of the western empire who distinguished themselves in the service of the ruling regimes could not have reached their political status without securing personal loyalty of the Roman army and ‘barbarian’ federates alike. Late Roman magistri militum Stilicho, Flavius Constantius, and Aetius provide three case studies of such careers.

Roman helmets with face-masks constitute a category of military equipment that is rare and at the same time spectacular. They imitate human heads, bare or helmeted; rich decorations include mythological motives and apotropaic elements. Moreover, they are often made of precious bronze and sometimes even silvered. Those qualities make them focus the attention both of specialists working on Roman military equipment and the wide public. Several such masks were found on the territory of Roman Dacia. Two were found in the river Olt and are believed to have been washed away from military sites. Another comes from a ditch of the Roman fort Gilău and has been interpreted as having been lost by its owner. All are believed to have been used as parade equipment by Roman cavalrymen. All belong to a rare category of helmets representing female heads.However, it seems improbable that the loss of an item of that size and value would have remained unnoticed, and that it could be easily washed away by the river - remembering also the scarcity of such finds both within the province and the whole Empire. A study of religious practices of Roman military allows us to propose a re-interpretation of these artifacts. Rather then lost pieces of parade equipment we should probably view them as offerings deposited by members of the military or whole units to ensure the success of their various undertakings. This not only matches their findspots well, but also finds several analogies in the context of finds outside of Dacia.