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Franz Steiner Verlag is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte. http://www.jstor.org Trajan's Guard at Adamklissi: Infantry or Cavalry? Author(s): Michael B. Charles Source: Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 53, H. 4 (2004), pp. 476-489 Published by: Franz Steiner Verlag Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4436744 Accessed: 13-08-2015 20:17 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Thu, 13 Aug 2015 20:17:37 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: Trajan s Guard at Adamklissi Infantry or Cavalry

Franz Steiner Verlag is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte.

http://www.jstor.org

Trajan's Guard at Adamklissi: Infantry or Cavalry? Author(s): Michael B. Charles Source: Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 53, H. 4 (2004), pp. 476-489Published by: Franz Steiner VerlagStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4436744Accessed: 13-08-2015 20:17 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Thu, 13 Aug 2015 20:17:37 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Trajan s Guard at Adamklissi Infantry or Cavalry

TRAJAN'S GUARD AT ADAMKLISSI: INFANTRY OR CAVALRY?*

On one of the metopes of the Tropaeum Traiani at Adamklissi, now in modem Rumania, we find a figure generally described as the emperor Trajan, both on account of his equipment and familiar hairstyle, accompanied by two soldiers (fig. 1).1 All three figures are unmounted. But who are the two men to the right of the emperor? Commentators have variously described them as legionaries, auxiliaries, and even Praetorian Guardsmen. On the other hand, one notable scholar has suggested that they are supposed to represent dismounted cavalry troopers. The present discussion hopes to provide a balanced study of this small but fascinating problem, which I have briefly touched upon in a recent article in another journal.2

* Journal abbreviations follow the 'Liste des periodiques' in L'Ann&e philologique. In addition: BAR = British Archaeological Reports, Oxford; BMC = Coins of the Roman

Empire in the British Museum, 6 vols, ed. H. Mattingly (London 1965-76); RIC = The Roman Imperial Coinage, 10 vols, ed. H. Mattingly, et al. (London 1923-94). I would like to thank Associate Professor B.W. Jones for his assistance and Mr A.W. Collins for

taking the time to proof-read this paper. Thanks must also be expressed to Historia's anonymous referee for some useful suggestions. A photograph of the metope in question can be found in many works, e.g. F.B. Florescu,

Das Siegesdenkmal von Adamklissi Tropaeum Traiani (Bucharest/Bonn 1965) metope

XXXVI; J. Bennett, Trajan: Optimus Princeps (London/New York 1997) pl. 8A; I.A. Richmond, Trajan's Army on Trajan's Column (London 1982) 48-49 = id., "Adamklissi", PBSR 35 (n.s. 22) (1967) pi. XVIII; L. Rossi, Trajan's Column and the Dacian Wars, trans. J.N.C. Toynbee (London 1971) 62; id., "A Historiographic Reassessment of the Metopes of the Tropaeum Traiani at Adamklissi", AJ 129 (1972) pl. Vb; G.R. Watson, The Roman Soldier (London 1969) 93, illustration 21. On Trajan's appearance in plastic

art, see D. Boschung, "Die Bildnisse des Trajan", in E. Schallmayer (ed.), Traian in Germanien - Traian im Reich. Bericht des dritten Saalburgkolloquiums (Bad Homburg 1999) 137-44. Illustrations are the product of the author. CIL III 12467 (= E.M. Small- wood, Documents Illustrating the Reigns of Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian [Cambridge 19661 document 303) suggests that the Tropaeum Traiani should be dated to A.D. 108/9. The date assigned to the dedication of the monument is the thirteenth period of Trajan's tribunician power. Photographs of a modern replica of the Tropaeum can be seen in A.

Nunnerich-Asmus, Traian. Ein Kaiser der Superlative am Beginn einer Umbruchzeit?

(Mainz am Rhein 2002) 2 and Abb. 23. 2 M.B. Charles, "The Flavio-Trajanic miles: the Appearance of Citizen Infantry on Trajan's

Column", Latomus 61 (2002) 676-677 and n. 51-52.

Historia, Band LIII/4 (2004) ? Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GmbH, Sitz Stuttgart

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Trajan's Guard at Adamklissi: Infantry or Cavalry? 477

__.4

Fig. 1. Metope XXXVI (32). The emperor and his escort.

The metope in question, which Florescu numbers XXXVI, and which other scholars, using the so-called 'inverse order', describe as 32, was probably carved by local military artisans.3 This would explain the inherent crudity of the work, a factor which has been aggravated to no small extent by severe weather- ing. On the left of the metope, the emperor, whose face has been badly damaged, wears a variation of the usual panoply of a Roman general, viz. a decorated Hellenistic-style muscle cuirass characterised by the presence of the imperial eagle, and a full quadruple-tiered skirt of leather pteryges.4 It is

3 The most readily available work on the Tropaeum, although superseded in some aspects, remains Florescu, Siegesdenkmal (as in n. 1). See also G.C. Picard, Les troph&es romains. Contribution d i'histoire de la religion et de l'art triomphal de Rome (Paris 1957) 393- 406; K. Strobel, Untersuchungen zu den Dakerkriegen Trajans. Studien zur Geschichte des mittleren und unteren Donauraumes in der Hohen Kaiserzeit (Bonn 1984) 34-40, 231-239. Florescu's number is written in Roman numerals, while the numbers in paren- theses are the so-called 'inverse order', which is used in works such as M.C. Bishop/ J.C.N. Coulston, Roman Military Equipment from the Punic Wars to the Fall of Rome (London 1993); Richmond, Trajan's Army (as in n. 1); and Rossi, Trajan's Column (as in n. 1). For our purposes, the actual order of the metopes is of no real importance.

4 On other monuments, the emperor's pteryges are single-tiered with a double row of metal lappets at the top (Great Trajanic Frieze, Arch of Trajan at Benevento), or double-tiered (Trajan's Column).

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478 MICHAEL B. CHARLES

difficult to ascertain whether he wears feminalia, for the surface of the legs is in poor condition. Trajan appears to be leaning against a tree-trunk with his right hand, and one commentator has suggested that he carries a staff in his left.5 This is debatable. Richmond's belief that the object near the emperor's hand is part of a "spear" carried by the adjacent soldier seems more plausible.6 Open to debate, too, is that a sheathed dagger - perhaps the senior officer's parazonium - is carried below his left armpit.7 It should be noted that the emperor wears the longer 'infantry-style' muscle cuirass with its additional abdominal protection. But this should not lead us to suppose that Trajan travelled a pied. Indeed, the emperor, mounted on horseback and leading a cavalry charge, wears the elon- gated version of the muscle cuirass on one of the four panels of the Great Trajanic Frieze.8 While it seems reasonably clear that a man would not have ridden a horse whilst he wore this unflared model of the Hellenistic muscle cuirass, this did not deter Roman sculptors from depicting such armour in equestrian scenes.9 As can be readily imagined, the additional abdominal protection of this cuirass-type, which terminates just above the wearer's groin, would have made riding an uncomfortable exercise. On Trajan's Column, however, the emperor and his generals are almost always correctly depicted in the shorter 'cavalry-style' version - even when dismounted.10 Of interest, too,

5 M.P. Speidel, Riding for Caesar: The Roman Emperor's Horse Guards (Cambridge, MA

1994) 14. 6 Richmond, Trajan's Army (as in n. 1) 50. 7 Martial (14.32) makes reference to this weapon in an epigram entitled Parazonium:

militiae dec us hoc gratique erit omen honoris, / arma tribunicium cingere digna latus. It

is also seen in sculptural depictions of Roman officers; e.g. scene XXV of Trajan's Column, where it carried by the officer second to the left of the emperor (see S.S. FrerelF.

Lepper, Trajan's Column: A New Edition of the Cic horius Plates [Brunswick Road, Glos.

and Wolfeboro NH 19881 pl. XX). 8 See A.-M. Leander Touati, The Great Trajanic Frieze: The Study of a Monument and of the

Mechanisms of Message Transmission in Roman (Stockholm 1987) pl. 1 1; G.M. Koeppel,

"Die historischen Reliefs der romischen Kaiserzeit Ill. Stadtromische Denkmaler unbekann-

ter Bauzugehorigkeit aus trajanischer Zeit", BJ 185 (1985) Abb. 15 and notes pertaining to

figure 44 ("Berittener Kaiser") on 179. Examples of rider/cuirass combinations that defy

logic are found elsewhere. Horsemen wearing the infantry-style muscle cuirass are found

on battle sarcophagi from the late second century A.D. For some representations, see B.

Andreae, Art of Rome, trans. R.E. Wolf (New York 1977) figs 502-503. 9 Grossly flared versions of the longer muscle cuirass, which were obviously made for

cavalry use, have been found in a Hellenistic archaeological context. For a convenient

representation, see P. Connolly, Greece and Rome at War (Englewood Cliffs, NJ 1981)

56 (this drawing is a reproduction of a fourth-century example, now in Bari Museum).

Recovered examples all come from southern Italy but Connolly (58) notes that a flared

cuirass is "shown clearly" on the equestrian statue of Nonius Balbus the Younger, which

was found at Herculaneum and is now in the Museo Nazionale, Naples.

10 There is only one scene (LIV) in which the longer version appears, and this with a row of

plated pteryges (see Frere/Lepper, Trajan's Column [as in n. 71 pi. XXXIX).

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Trajan's Guard at Adamklissi: Infantry or Cavalry? 479

is that metope XXVIII (6) shows what appears to be a mounted senior officer, whose face has been badly eroded, riding down a Dacian foe. The equestrian figure seems to wear a scale cuirass (not mail as one scholar has suggested)" l of a similar cut to that worn by Trajan on metope XXXVI (32), a double-tiered skirt of pteryges, and what appears to be a paludamentum trailing behind. This combination is seen elsewhere.12 Given that the vignette closely resembles contemporary victory coinage, and the scene of the emperor galloping over his enemies on the Frieze, it would not be unreasonable to argue, as do Rossi and others,13 that the officer may be Trajan himself.14

The identity of the emperor's two guards on the metope in question is not so easy to divine. Let us first examine their appearance. Both men are equipped in identical fashion. They carry large oval-shaped shields with no device, and wear the mail cuirass or lorica hamata - the deeply drilled surface which is usually indicative of this cuirass-style in Roman sculpture can be clearly seen above the shields. Unfortunately, the size of the shields precludes a view of the accoutrements worn over the cuirass, and, in particular, it is impossible to determine the size of the sword. A gladius would suggest that the troops are infantry, while the appearance of the longer spatha might indicate that they

11 Rossi, Reassessment (as in n. 1) 61-62. Individual scales, stitched in rows to a leather jerkin, can be clearly seen on this metope. Strobel, Untersuchungen (as in n. 3) 38, correctly identifies this cuirass as "Schuppenpanzer" rather than Kettenpanzer.

12 Aside from metope XXXVI (32) and imperial portraits on a handful of coins, it was not until the second half of the third century that generals were regularly seen in a version of the lorica squamata. Many of these cuirasses are incredibly tight-fitting, e.g. those on the Great Ludovisi Sarcophagus, now found in the Museo Nazionale, Rome (see R.B. Bandinelli, Rome: The Late Empire. Roman Art A.D. 200-400, trans. P. Green [New York 1971] pi. 54). Other examples, however, are of a rather more expected shape, e.g. a representation of the emperor Balbinus (A.D. 238) (B. Andreae, Art [as in n. 81 fig. 596), and representations of mounted hunters on sarcophagi from the mid-third century (B. Andreae, Art [as in n. 8] figs 588, 590). The cuirass of Balbinus and those of the hunters are of the same size as the shorter cavalry version of the muscle cuirass. Worthy of note, too, is that the late-Latin poet Claudian makes reference to Honorius auro squameus at IV. Cons. Hon. 523-524. On this theme, see M.B. Charles, "Imperial Cuirasses in Latin Verse: From Augustus to the Fall of the West", AC 73 (2004) forthcoming.

13 Rossi, Trajan's Column (as in n. 1) 61; and id., "A Synoptic Outlook of Adamklissi Metopes and Trajan's Column Frieze: Factual and Fanciful Topics Revisited", Athenae- um 85 (1997) 480. Strobel, Untersuchungen (as in n. 3) 236, concurs. Florescu, Sieges- denkmal (as in n. 1) 490-491, citing earlier literature, calls the mounted figure "Idler Kaiser". Cf. Richmond, Trajan's Army (as in n. 1) 48, who thinks that the figure is not Trajan but simply "an officer". On this metope, see also Strobel, Untersuchungen (as in n. 3) 236 and n. 33.

14 BMC, Trajan 833-836, pls. 31.2-31.5; RIC II, pi. 10, no. 183; and M. Kemkes, "Poli- tische Propaganda zur Zeit Trajans im Spiegel der Munzen und historischen Reliefs", in Schallmayer (ed.), Traian (as in n. 1) 129, Abb. 1. The emperor wears the infantry-style muscle cuirass on both the coins and the Frieze.

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480 MICHAEL B. CHARLES

belong to a mounted unit - no compelling evidence exists to corroborate Tacitus' assertion that the regular auxiliary infantry of his day, or at least a portion, used the spatha. l5 The helmets, the surface of which has been ravaged by time, have large neck-guards and are similar in appearance to those worn by other soldiers on the Adamklissi metopes. Their legs, like almost all the soldiers on the Tropaeum, are covered byfeminalia.16 These items of clothing resemble tight knee breeches and were probably fashioned from light and supple hide. The presence or otherwise of facial hair is difficult to discern, such is the poor condition of the metope. In any case, Roman soldiers on campaign, even legionaries and Guardsmen, would not have been particularly concerned about shaving regularly. One should also guard against assuming that non-Roman soldiers, even Germans, would have always sported beard and moustache. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the troops on the metope, however, is their stature - they are much taller than the imperator. This element will be discussed below.

Besides Florescu's simplistic identification of the two men as "Soldaten",17 various suggestions have been offered regarding the identity of these soldiers. Most scholars who have made reference to metope XXXVI (32) believe that the men in question are pedites, and this is what I have briefly postulated else- where.18 In one work, Rossi simply describes them as "infantry", and this without any form of qualification. 19 Richmond seems to concur, but he goes one step further and claims, in his discussion of the Adamklissi metopes, that "very tall infantry with massive helmets, oval shields and chain-mail tunics ... are presumably praetorian guards: for it is they who regularly attend the emper- or".20 This view is perhaps shared by Watson, who identifies our men simply as

15 Tac. Ann. 12.35.3: et si auxiliaribus resisterent, gladiis ac pilis legionariorum, si huc

uerterent, spathis et hastis auxiliarium sternebantur. Arrian (Tact. 4.8, 43.3) calls the Roman cavalry sword a a6rai0; and he also writes that this sword was 1saKpa Kai nLXOTEia (Tact. 4.8). Vegetius' anachronistic assertion that the principes and hastati used

spathae and semispathia (Epit. 2.15.4, 2.15.8), and that the triarii used semispathia (Epit. 2.16. 1), deserves little consideration, for he was writing at a time when longer swords had

been used by Roman infantry for perhaps more than two centuries. The orthography of

semispathia follows that of A. Onnerfors (ed.), Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus. Epito- ma Rei Militaris, Biblioteca Teubneriana (Stuttgart 1995) ad lob.

16 This garment was often called bracae by earlier scholars, and may be equivalent to

Arrian's avacupike; (Tact. 34.7). See Charles, "Flavio-Trajanic miles" (as in n. 2) 691-

692; M. Simkins, The Roman Army from Hadrian to Constantine (London 1979) 32. 17 Florescu, Siegesdenkmal (as in n. 1) 496. 18 Charles, "Flavio-Trajanic miles" (as in n. 2) 676: "infantry". 19 Rossi, "Trajan's Column" (as in n. 1) 62. Cf. Rossi, "Reassessment" (as in n. 1) 63, where

they are tentatively assigned auxiliary status. 20 Richmond, Trajan's Army (as in n. 1) 48-49. Later, in his discussion of metope XXXVI

(32), he describes Trajan's escort as "two guards" (50).

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Trajan's Guard at Adamklissi: Infantry or Cavalry? 481

"guards".21 The belief that the troops were Praetorian infantry seems to be derived solely from their proximity to the emperor - they bear no insignia that may be shown to relate to the cohortes praetorianae. On the other hand, Durry held that "il serait imprudent de chercher des pretoriens sur les metopes d'Adam- Kilissi [sic]".22

The equipment worn by the soldiers is worthy of discussion. The oval scutum is carried by men who have often been described as Praetorian infantry (such as those on the Louvre relief, the Cancelleria Relief A, and possibly the Great Trajanic Frieze).23 But other kinds of evidence, such as coins and perhaps once again the Frieze, indicate that the Guard could also use the rectangular shield.24 Indeed, apart from the possibility that paenula-wearing and oval- shield-carrying figures in scenes LXXXVI-LXXXVII are Guardsmen,25 seem-

21 Watson, Roman Soldier (as in n. 1) 93, illustration 21. 22 M. Durry, Les cohortes pretoriennes (Paris 1938, repr. 1968) 218. 23 One of the two segmentata-wearers on the Frieze (i.e. those slabs re-used on the Arch of

Constantine) carries an oval shield, of which only one corner can be seen; the other bears a convex rectangular scutum. See Leander Touati, Frieze (as in n. 8) pls. 7.1, 21.2, 26.6. The identity of these pedites is not certain, but they are almost certainly meant to represent citizen soldiers. It should be noted that the cheek-pieces of their Attic-style helmets, the appearance of which seems to accord with artistic convention rather than reality, are without the scorpio emblem seen on many helmets of the Frieze (although it must be added that the cheek-piece ornamentation of the figure closest to the viewer [figure no. 22] is, as Leander Touati, Frieze [as in n. 81 45, points out, "[u]nreadable"). Durry, Cohortes pretoriennes (as in n. 22) 215, saw the two pedites as Praetorians, as did Koeppel, Reliefs III (as in n. 8) 152, who thought that all the soldiers depicted in the Frieze were Guardsmen. H.R. Robinson, The Armour of Imperial Rome (London 1975) 184, held that they were legionaries, while P. Couissin, Les armes romaines (Paris 1926) 456, chose not to identify them. For a r6sum6 of the propagandistic messages contained within the Frieze, see T. Holscher, "Bilder der Macht und Herrschaft", in Nunnerich- Asmus (ed.), Traian (as in n. 1) 140-141.

24 e.g. BMC, Caligula 33, pl. 28.3, which bears the legend ADLOCV COH. Cf. BMC, Galba 249, pl. 58.8, also an adlocutio scene, which appears to show soldiers equipped with both rectangular and oval scuta. I have commented more extensively on these coins elsewhere, see "Flavio-Trajanic miles" (as in n. 2) 680-681. However, a coin almost identical to BMC, Galba 249 shows that the shield of the soldier on the extreme right of the coin is not oval, as it appears on the wom BMC example, but distinctly hexagonal (see J.P.C. Kent, Roman Coins [London 1978] pl. 61, no. 213). As a horse appears behind the bearer of this shield, it is just possible that its carrier is meant to be an eques. A coin in the Hunter Coin Cabinet is similar to the BMC example in terms of its condition (see A.S. Robertson, Roman Imperial Coins in the Hunter Coin Cabinet I ILondon/Glasgow/New York 1962] pl. 28.81).

25 See Frere/Lepper, Trajan's Column las in n. 7] pls. LXIII, LXI. On this possibility, which was initially suggested by J.C.N. Coulston, "'Armed and Belted Men': The Soldiery in Imperial Rome", in id./H. Dodge (eds.), Ancient Rome: The Archaeology of the Eternal City (Oxford 2000), 92, see M.B. Charles, "Further Thoughts on the Flavio-Trajanic miles: Unarmoured Guardsmen on the Column?", Latomus 63 (2004) forthcoming.

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482 MICHAEL B. CHARLES

ingly all the combatant citizen infantry on Trajan's Column, some of whom must surely be Praetorians, carry the familiar tile-shaped scutum, even if this shield does sometimes appear in the distorted form of a sub-oval.26 On the other hand, undecorated oval shields with a small, round umbo, though usually not quite so large, are often associated with cavalry figures.27 The shape of the soldiers' shields, then, offers no real indication of the figures' identity, and the lack of any distinguishing device on the shield is a source of further frustration. The curvature or otherwise of the shields is perhaps more important. It is generally assumed that Trajanic legionaries and Praetorians used convex shields, while flat shields were the mark of the auxiliary pedes or cavalryman. This arrangement is preserved on Trajan's Column. Now the shield of the soldier next to the emperor directly faces the viewer, for the umbo appears in the middle. From this angle, it is difficult to assess whether the shield was meant to be curved. Yet, on the shield of his comrade, the umbo appears markedly off- centre, which may indicate that the shield is supposed to be slightly convex. But this cannot be said with any great certainty, and one cannot be sure if this feature was intentional or the result of artistic laxity. That the cuirasses are made of mail also helps us little. If Trajan's Column is used as a guide, we would have little choice but to assign auxiliary status to the troops in question - the oval shield, lorica hamata andfeminalia are all associated with the auxiliary infantry on the Column's spiral frieze. Bennett seems to have favoured this line of reasoning,28 as does Rossi in one of his articles on the Tropaeum.29 But it has become increasingly clear that the rigid visual dichotomy employed on the Column between a) legionaries and Praetorians, and b) regular auxiliary infan-

26 On the distorted appearance of many of the rectangular shields on the Column, see J.C.N.

Coulston, "The Value of Trajan's Column as a Source for Military Equipment", in C. van

Driel-Murray (ed.), Roman Military Equipment: The Sources of Evidence. Proceedings of

the Fifth Roman Military Equipment Conference, BAR International Series 476 (Oxford

1985) 33. 27 e.g. the shield of a trooper leading his horse, whom Speidel identifies as a "guardsman", is

seen on a Roman gravestone (see Speidel, Riding for Caesar las in n. 5] 64 and pl. 7).

Reconstructions of fragments of shield covers from Valkenburg (the Netherlands) are

oval in shape and have a central hole through which a small, circular umbo could project.

See W. Groenman-van Waateringe, "Valkenburg ZHI: Fabrica or Praetorium?", in V.A.

Maxfield/M.J. Dobson (eds.), Roman Frontier Studies 1989: Proceedings of the XVth

International Congress (Exeter 1991) 181-182 and fig. 29.2; C. van Driel-Murray/M.

Gechter, "Funde aus der fabrica der legio I Minervia am Bonner Berg", Rheinische

Ausgrabungen 23 (1983) 31-32 and fig. 7; and K. Dixon/P. Southern, The Roman

Cavalry: From the First to the Third Century AD (London 1992) 46-47 and figs 15-16.

Of course, it is impossible to tell if the shields protected by such covers belonged to

infantry or cavalry. Shield-covers from Bonner Berg may also have had an oval form. On

this, see van Driel-Murray/Gechter, Funde, 34-35 and fig. 9.

28 Bennett, Trajan (as in n. I) pi. 8A.

29 Rossi, Reassessment (as in n. 1) 63: "two ?auxiliaries with oval shields".

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Trajan's Guard at Adamklissi: Infantry or Cavalry? 483

try owes more to stylistic and political considerations than to any attempt to reflect actuality. This is not to say, of course, that the dichotomy was not broadly representative of the equipment used by some citizen troops and some auxiliaries.

As the Adamklissi metopes demonstrate, legionaries, i.e. those soldiers with convex scuta, could wear both mail and scale cuirasses. Thus we are presented with a further impasse. Finally, the paragnathides or cheek-pieces of the badly weathered helmets, in addition to the shields, do not appear to carry the scorpio emblem. Not a few scholars have seen the scorpion as a Praetorian motif on other sculptural works (especially the Great Trajanic Frieze),30 though this association, as Leander Touati points out, should not be beyond question.31 Other notable examples of the scorpio's appearance in a military context are a private funerary relief from Puteoli (modem Pozzuoli),32 an example of Caligu- lan adlocutio coinage,33 and a coin depicting an adlocutio scene from the brief reign of Galba.34 Other blazons that can be associated with the Praetorians include swirling vine-tendril motifs,35 and the familiar winged-thunderbolt design with crescent moons and stars.36 Still, even if the motifs discussed above

30 The device also appears on a shield of one of the mounted troopers. See Leander Touati, Frieze (as in n. 8) pls. 16, 17.3.

3 1 On the association of the scorpio motif with the Guard, see J.C.N. Coulston, "'Armed and Belted Men"' (as in n. 25) 92; P. Couissin, Armes romaines (as in n. 23) 448; Durry, Cohortes pretoriennes (as in n. 22) 205, 213; H. Kahler, "Der Trajansbogen in Puteoli", in G.E. Mylona (ed.), Studies Presented to David Moore Robinson on his Seventieth Birthday I (St. Louis 1951) 432; L. Keppie, "The Praetorian Guard before Sejanus", Athenaeum 84 (1996) 122-123; G.M. Koeppel, Reliefs III (as in n. 8) 152; Leander Touati, Frieze (as in n. 8) 55-56; B. Rankov, The Praetorian Guard (London 1994) 26- 27, 55. According to Suetonius (Tib. 5), the emperor Tiberius, the second founder of the Guard, was born under the zodiacal sign of Scorpio. A. Passerini, Le coorti pretorie (Rome 1939), does not appear to comment on the scorpio emblem.

32 Kahler, "Trajansbogen" (as in n. 31) 432, writes that "[n]ach dem Skorpion im Ranken- schmuck des Metallschildes durften die Soldaten Pratorianer sein".

33 For a clear reproduction of this coin (now in the Cabinet des Medailles, Paris), see Durry, Cohortes pretoriennes (as in n. 22) planche III.A.

34 L. Breglia, Roman Imperial Coins. Their Art & Technique (London 1968) no. 26 (Museo Nazionale, Naples). This is an excellent reproduction of the coin and the scorpio device can be seen clearly on the shield of the soldier closest to the emperor.

35 This distinctive blazon can be seen on one of shields of the Louvre relief (that of the soldier on the far right), the Puteoli relief, the shield of a Praetorian eques on the Great Trajanic Frieze (Leander Touati, Frieze [as in n. 8] pl. 16), the Guardsmen's shields on the base of the Antonine Column, and a funerary representation of a shield of a cavalry trooper from the Eighth Cohort of the Guard (see CIL VI 2672).

36 This is seen on two of the shields of the Cancelleria Relief A, see F. Magi, I relieviflavi del Palazzo della Cancellaria (Rome 1945). Astral devices also accompany private funerary sculpture of members of the Sixth (CIL VI 2602) and Tenth cohorts (CIL VI

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did appear on the metope, they would hardly provide definite proof that the soldiers were Praetorian Guardsmen.

M.P. Speidel presents the most surprising solution to the problem: he identifies the troops of metope XXXVI (32) as "Bataui horsemen of Trajan's Guard",37 i.e. the equites singulares Augusti, most of whom were recruited in Lower Germany. If this is so, they may even be hastiliarii, picked members of the horse guard who perhaps began to provide the imperial field-escort from some point in Trajan's reign (this duty had previously been the task of the speculatores).38 Thoughts offered by a military scholar of the calibre of Speidel can never be lightly dismissed, and he defends his belief by stating that their horses "must be nearby, for in the field the emperor always rode on horse- back".39 Instead of directing his attention to the equipment of the men, he focuses on the size of the two soldiers, which he thinks must point to a Germanic origin. Caesar, for one, referred to the mirifica corpora of his German horse (the equites Germani).40 Tacitus expresses similar thoughts, as does Strabo, who asserts that the Germans are even larger than the Gauls.41 But the artistic merit of the metopes of the Tropaeum Traiani is slight, and the unusual form of the soldiers in question may not necessarily be intentional.42 Roman art does not always accord with the laws of perspective, and the Adamklissi metopes, it must be admitted, do represent the ruder end of provin-

2742). The significance of this is debatable, especially as the convex scuuta of two soldiers on metope XXXII (28) of the Tropaeum Traiani show both thunderbolts (without wings) and five-pointed stars. Some have tentatively assumed, presumably from the shield- blazons, that these men, too, are Praetorians: e.g. Rossi, "Reassessment" (as in n. 1) 63: "Praetorians, probably"; Strobel, Untersuchungen (as in n. 3) 235, n. 23: "Pratorianer?". But Florescu, Siegesdenkmal (as in n. 1) 493, merely identifies them as "zwei Romer". That stars are also found on the shields of some segmentata-wearers on Trajan's Column, where we are generally unable to tell which troops are meant to be Guardsmen and which are legionaries, also complicates the matter.

37 Speidel, Riding for Caesar (as in n. 5) 14.

38 Speidel, Riding for Caesar (as in n. 5) 35, 43-45. It must be admitted that there is no literary evidence for hastiliarii in Trajan's reign, but Speidel's argument seems plausible and deserves consideration.

39 Speidel, Riding for Caesar (as in n. 5) 14. If the soldiers are dismounted cavalry troopers, it could also be suggested that the soldiers are Praetorian equites. Still, it should be noted that the reliefs of the Great Trajanic Frieze seem to associate hexagonal-shaped shields with this unit. Of course, this, too, is open to some debate, and theories abound regarding the identification of the equestrian figures on the Frieze.

40 Caes. B.G. 1.39. 1. 41 Tac. Germ. 4.2; Strab. 7.1.2. 42 It should be noted that one feature of metope XXXVI (32) defies the laws of perspective.

For example, the soldier next to Trajan, from the position of his feet, clearly stands further in the foreground than the emperor. Yet the left arm of the emperor obscures the right- hand edge of his guard's shield. This should not be possible.

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cial relief-sculpture. Despite this, Speidel's argument is compelling from a purely historical perspective. The emperor was accompanied by his horse guard when on campaign; hence, the emperor, it follows, should be accompanied by such troops on the metope in question. Still, such an assertion remains purely speculative, for the two soldiers give no real indication that they belong to a cavalry unit. In fact, the apparent curvature of one of the shields is hardly consistent with Speidel's proposition - Roman cavalry shields are almost always flat. Another non-cavalry feature is that they do not wear the rather ostentatiously tied scarf that characterises Roman horsemen on other reliefs.43 Of course, infantry were also able to wear a scarf to reduce the chafing effect of armour on the neck (though the ends are often tucked within the cuirass), but sculptural depictions of hamata-wearing cavalry without focalia are uncom- mon.

As far as I am aware, no one has yet compared the soldiers in question with other troops on the metopes who wear or carry the same equipment, i.e. helmet, lorica hamata and oval scutum. On metope XXXIII (14) we find three such soldiers standing in a file, and poised for combat at close-quarters (fig. 2). Their shields, which appear to be at least partially convex, are carried behind their backs. But it is clear from the exposed outline of the soldiers' scuta that they are of the same shape as those on metope XXXVI (32). Of especial interest is that the swords of the three men can be easily seen by the viewer. Rather than longed-bladed spathae, the swords are short-bladed 'legionary' gladii. Thus it seems most fitting to suppose that the men in metope XXXIII (14) are infantry. Another soldier who carries the requisite equipment appears in metope XXXVII (34) (fig. 3).44 In his encounter with afalx-wielding opponent, he brandishes a sword somewhat longer than those seen in the metope discussed above (note, too, the very wide scabbard). The significance of the sword's length is unclear. It may be explained by technical deficiency on the part of the artisan, or, alternatively, that some men in Dacia felt that they needed to match the long sickled-shaped sword of the enemy with a blade of similar dimensions. The former option, however, seems the more likely. Yet it would appear, from the context of the metope, that the Roman soldier is an infantryman. Two other unmounted figures who conform to our criteria are seen in metope XLI (36), the central portion of which has been lost. Only the top of the soldiers' oval shields

43 e.g. the beckoning scouts and those pursuing the fully armoured Sarmatian Roxolani cavalry in scenes XXXI and XXXVII of Trajan's Column (see Frere/Lepper, Trajan's Column [as in n. 7] pls. XXIII and XXVIII respectively). Scarves are not as noticeable on the cavalry of the Frieze (the ends of the focalia are tucked behind the soldiers' cuirasses), though they are again prominent on the later Column of Marcus Aurelius, where they are also worn by the infantry.

44 The shield used by this man, however, has a slightly more hexagonal shape. Again, it is difficult to tell if this was intentional or otherwise.

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Fig. 2. One of three identical soldiers from metope XXXIII (14).

Fig. 3. A Roman soldier from metope XXXVII (34).

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is extant, and it would appear that both men are about to plunge or hurl weapons of indeterminate nature (hastae?) into, or against, the enemy. While the metope is too badly damaged to draw firm conclusions, there is no evidence to suggest that the two hamata-wearers are not infantry.

Pertinent, too, is a brief survey of the equipment worn by equestrian troops on the metopes at Adamklissi. Metope V (7) need not be considered, for the eques wears the lorica squamata. Metopes III (3), IV (4), VI (5) and VII (30) are very badly worn, and one hesitates to deduce much from such poor material. Still, that the shields of the cavalrymen in metopes IV (4) and VI (5) - in addition to those on the rather better preserved metopes I (1) and II (2) - have markedly square ends is of signal importance (fig. 4).45 Although the weapons depicted in some of the cavalry metopes are difficult if not impossible to discern, the offensive arms in the two better preserved examples are of hasta size. Note that the length of the weapons in metopes I (1) and 11 (2) can be judged from the remnants of the badly eroded spear-tips in front of the horses' chests. Shafted cavalry weapons of the age, which were often dual-purpose and took the form of hastae and lanceae,46 are never particularly long. They certainly do not approach the size of the contus used by heavy shock-cavalry (i.e. the cataphractarii and later the clibanarii)47 from the reign of Hadrian

45 Cavalry shields of a narrow, hexagonal shape are seen elsewhere, most notably on the Great Trajanic Frieze (slabs III and VIII).

46 Representations of equites who carry multiple shafted-weapons (i.e. the gravestone of Ti. Claudius Maximus, AE 1969/70, no. 583) indicate that such weapons were probably used as tela. For an accessible photograph of the relief, see M.P. Speidel, "The Captor of Decebalus: A New Inscription from Philippi", JRS 60 (1970) pls. XIII, XV. 1. In addition, Arrian's Tactica (chapters XXXVI-XLIII) provides unequivocal evidence that Roman cavalry were trained to throw missile weapons. On this, see R.W. Davies, "Fronto, Hadrian and the Roman Army", Latomus 27 (1968) 88-91. See also Joseph. B.J. 3.96, where the author asserts that the Roman cavalry used a covTo; (obviously shorter than the contus used by the Sarmatian-style cataphracts) and three or more "darts" (dcovre;) in a quiver slung beside them; CIL VIII 18042, in various fragments (= ILS 2487) ILS 9134; 9135, and 9135a, all from the reign of Hadrian. Fronto (Ad Verum Imp. 2.1.22) provides the following criticism of the Syrian cavalry: haud multi uibrantis hastas, pars maior sine ui et uigore tamquam lanc>eas iacere (text of M. Cornelii Frontonis Epistulae, Bibli- otheca Teubneriana, ed. M.P.J. van den Hout ILeipzig 1988] 128, lines 15-16). Finally, the elder Pliny was supposed to have written a one-volume essay entitled De laculatione Equestri (Plin. Ep. 3.5.3).

47 These were heavily armoured lancers. Their contus, though normally carried by the right hand in transit, was wielded by both hands in combat (this, of course, would have precluded the use of a shield). See Bishop/Coulston, Roman Military Equipment (as in n. 3) 109, 1 1 1. The lack of stirrups, which meant that the cataphractarii and clibanarii could not rise from their saddles, probably prevented the weapon from being used like the lance of mediaeval knights. On the equites cataphractarii, see A.E. Negin, "Sarmatian Cata- phracts as Prototypes for Roman equites cataphractarii", JRMES 9 (1998) 65-75.

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-.-

.. Fig. 4. Metope II (2). A Roman cavalryman.

onwards. What may add some slight support to Speidel's view, then, is that the shafted weapons carried by the equites in metopes I (1) and II (2) are of a similar size to those employed by the unmounted hamata-wearers discussed above. For the purpose of comparison, one should note the length of the spear - if it is indeed a spear - carried by the soldier next to Trajan. What may be the tip appears to the immediate right of the carrier's head, while the butt appears at calf-length between the emperor's legs. Such a length suggests the dual-pur- pose hasta that is of a comparable size to the weapons seen in some of the equestrian metopes.48 Of course, the crude nature of the metopes makes such analysis a hazardous exercise.

What, then, can one deduce from the above? A wealth of speculation is rarely conducive to firm conclusions. And, in any case, it cannot be assumed automatically that the artisan (or artisans) who created this particular metope wanted to portray members of any specific unit in company with the emperor. Once again, it is pertinent to note that there appears to be no attempt to associate the two men with any particular cohors, legio or ala via shield blazons or

48 Bishop/Coulston, Roman Military Equipment (as in n. 3) 69, comment on the difficulty involved in interpreting terminology such as hasta, lancea, uerutum and spiculum, which are often used "interchangeably" by Roman writers.

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decorative motifs. Indeed, a dearth of such regalia characterises many of the representations of soldiers on the Adamklissi metopes, from infantry to cavalry (in fact, we only see the reverse of equestrian shields on the metopes). Our need to identify the men, or indeed the military figures in any sculptural relief, is often more or less psychological. It is the product of the historian's natural desire to sort, characterise, and verify what has been postulated elsewhere. Today, rigorous exactitude is expected in anything that is of a supposedly documentary nature. Yet it is unduly facile to assume that the ancients would have shared our aesthetic values, at least on this particular point. We know from other evidence that the person of the emperor Trajan, when on campaign, was guarded by an echelon of men from different units. His most immediate form of protection, of course, would have come from members of the highly mobile equites singulares Augusti (perhaps hastiliarii?). Yet the much slower infantry of the Praetorian cohortes would never have been too far away, and the campaigning emperor did not regularly stray too far from legionary contact. Let us not forget, too, the presence of the equites praetoriani. Quite clearly, the historian cannot learn anything new about the imperial escort from an identifi- cation of the soldiers on metope XXXVI (32) of the Tropaeum Traiani.

To conclude, one may attempt to identify the men from two very different perspectives. From the historical perspective, the men should be Bataui cavalry troopers, as Speidel contends. These men, in the field and often elsewhere, were undoubtedly the most 'intimate' members of the imperial escort. From the other perspective, that of the military equipment historian, it seems safer to conclude that Trajan's guard on metope XXXVI (32) are Roman infantry of an unidenti- fied - and unidentifiable - unit. The soldiers' accoutrements of war offer few specific clues about their identity, and the lack of any exclusive cavalry items remains significant. The soldier's horses may be tied up elsewhere, like that of Trajan, but their absence in the metope does provide a testing obstacle to Speidel's view.

The University of Queensland, Brisbane Michael B. Charles

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