The Gladius by M.C. Bishop

Author:M.C. Bishop
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472815873
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2016-08-15T04:00:00+00:00

Hone or whetstone from Carlisle (Cumbria, England). (Drawing: M.C. Bishop)

Decoration and display

The advent of the principate, founded by Augustus, saw new forms of display introduced into state art and into the decoration of Roman military equipment; and nowhere was this more evident than in the adornment of sword scabbards. The Sword of Tiberius is perhaps the most obvious example of this, with an embossed scene depicting Tiberius receiving a triumphant Germanicus on its locket plate, a head of Tiberius on a medallion lower down, near the centre of the sheath, and at the bottom a chape with two more embossed scenes. One of the latter scenes represents the shrine of the standards in a legionary headquarters building containing an eagle standard (Germanicus had recovered two of the three eagle standards lost in the Varian disaster of AD 9); the other shows an axe-wielding female figure thought to be a personification of Vindelicia (the area around Augsburg, now in southern Germany), recalling Tiberius’ and his brother Drusus’ suppression of the region in 15 BC. Germanicus, Tiberius’ nephew, was revered by the Army – so much so that his birthday was still celebrated two centuries after his death – while Tiberius himself was a successful general under Augustus. Standards were viewed as sacred within the Army and the place where they were kept and displayed was the focus of every military base. All of the images on this one sword scabbard reflected, and perhaps were designed to engage, the loyalty of the soldier. Such decorative schemes have often been viewed as crude state propaganda, but this perhaps underestimates the role of the tastes of the soldiers themselves.

The Imperial family features on other Mainz-type scabbard fittings, with locket plates depicting Augustus’ daughter Julia and her two sons, Gaius and Lucius (Augustus’ chosen but doomed heirs), as well as Tiberius addressing assembled troops. There are also scenes of kneeling captives on locket plates, as well as trophies of captured arms and horsemen trampling barbarians on chapes, to inspire the soldier idly inspecting his scabbard. The she-wolf and the twins Romulus and Remus from the foundation myth of Rome helped bolster the general feeling of military success on the Fulham Sword (along with further more fragmentary examples), while unit identity and perhaps even esprit de corps were evoked by depictions of the thunderbolt-and-lightning rods on scabbards from Windisch and Strasbourg; devices used to adorn the faces of legionary shields. Many of these designs are echoed on contemporary belt plates, reminding us how important the sword and belt were to the identity of the soldier.

The focus of Imperial imagery had shifted subtly by the time Pompeii-type scabbards were being produced. The Imperial family were no longer central to the decorative themes, but rather Roman military might and mythological scenes. Mars and Victoria are frequently depicted, with captives and trophies also being among the familiar motifs.

It is unlikely that these state-derived images were imposed upon the troops from on high – there was no discernible centralized control

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