Roman Centurions 31 BC–AD 500 by Raffaele D'Amato

Author:Raffaele D'Amato
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Roman Centurions 31 BC–AD 500
ISBN: 9781780960395
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2011-12-30T16:00:00+00:00

Tombstone portrait of a centurio or evocatus from Leibnitz, 1st century AD or Hadrianic period. The distinctions of the evocati were identical to those of the centurions, since they had equal status. Note the apparently leather cuirass modelled on the old linen type, with a gorgoneion on the breast, and two layers of pteryges visible at the upper arm above the short tunic sleeve and apparently integral to the cuirass. The inside surface of the round clipeus shield clearly shows a central grip across the concave boss. (Archaeological Museum, Graz; photo courtesy Dr Cesare Rusalen)

Besides metal and leather corselets, the iconography seems to suggest the employment of felt armours. Such padded armour may be visible on the controversial gravestone of the centurion T. Calidius Severus of Legio XV Apollinaris, which has always been interpreted as a scale armour; but if it is, why are the scales cut off abruptly at the lower edge of the corselet? On monuments where scales are effectively represented, the last line of squamae overlap the visible part of the under-cuirass. Moreover, the surface of Severus’s armour is divided into roughly-carved squared rhomboids, like the typical effect of padded armours (coactilia or centones) made of heavy felt or wool – as shown on the earlier Arc d’Orange and the later sarcophagus from Split. The Calidius monument thus probably represents a centone, and can be inserted in the tradition of the padded doublets worn by centurions and decurions of the Augustan period.

To the author’s knowledge, there are no known clear representations or descriptions of centurions wearing the famous lorica segmentata – but a strong clue is found on one little-published monument. A carved procession of soldiers from the Templum Gentis Flaviae (c. AD 95), whose fragments are shared between the Museo Nazionale Romano and Ann Arbor Museum in the USA, includes, among others, a man wearing an Attic helmet with a richly embossed frontal diadem, and a lorica segmentata of Corbridge type. All the soldiers are wearing the same kind of cuirass; but this man seems to have a staff in his right hand, and separated fragments clearly show both segmented armour and a gladius (short sword) slung on the left side. The man depicted was probably a centurion, perhaps of the Praetorian Guard, perhaps of one of the legions that conquered Jerusalem in AD 70 – the Templum Gentis Flaviae was built to celebrate the glory of the Flavian dynasty and their victory in the Jewish War.

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