I continue to see Eagle hilted swords in movies and in some reenactors kits, and aside from the tomb of lyson and callicles in Lefkadia and the Tetriarchs, I can't find any other images or evidence to point to their existence or usage. I figure that there would be highly decorated arms since high class officers would have purchased their own equipment and thus be conveyed as a symbol of status and power as well as style. So in your own research have any of you found evidence or mentions of such handles? Are there any other variations of hilts in the Roman republic or Principate?
I have photos from the Museum in Naples of various statues holding eagle headed hilts, and I think there will be some from the museum in Rome, when I get to those. This is all from at least 100 years after Marcus Antonius as shown in a recent television show. :roll: (...just like much of the armor and helmets used in the same show).
Are they the Parazoniums?
I just saw some 2 days ago but I can't remember where at the moment. Have been looking throught so many books these past few days, but I will try to find it again.
One depiction I remember is in Alföldi "Studien zur Geschichte der Weltkrise des 3. Jhdts" on plate 73, ...
(edit): just found it on RA.com lol
Ludovisi
the 2 middle pictures on the right: you see an officer with an eagle hilted sword on the left.
better resolution here:
officer on the left
There is a frieze which has quite a few illustrated ... arh of Orange ???
Ha found some:
From the Museum in Aalen:
Pieces of an Emperor's statue
[url:3mp32xky]http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/limes-museum/sqhm/alf/index.htm[/url]
Pics:
here
here
LC Cinna - That Officer on the left, he seems to have lorica musculata but with scales? and the soldier directly to the right of him has scales depicted on his helmet?
The statue of the four Agustus'/caesars, all carry eagle hilted swords!
Sorry for my 'less than correct' description of the the statue in question! :oops:
Quote:LC Cinna - That Officer on the left, he seems to have lorica musculata but with scales? and the soldier directly to the right of him has scales depicted on his helmet?
Oh well the scale musculata si a bit weird, yes, but I guess the artist wanted to show him in scale and mixed it with typical officer features.
As for the helmet: I guess it's not scales but just the decoration immitating feathers of the bird just like other cavalry helmets which show patterns, hair, and so on.
Aside from statuary is there any evidence? I mean, has there ever been an actual eagle headed gladius found? Was it just an iconic symbol?
well hard to say but if you consider how many gladii must have been around and how few have been found so far...
All the depictions around are from Emperors or very high ranking officers, so the chance to find one would probably be very very low because they would be very few, emperors don't drop their swords just somewhere I guess, and those things would have been very expensive
Good points,Michael. However it would seem that a symbolic item like this would have been kept and cared for at least for the emperors.
We do have pretty good examples of gladii form different periods, though.
Consider we know what kinds of swords were used by the Greeks,early Romans, Imperial Romans, Late Romans, Celts, etc. Why is not even one eagle headed sword around? Believe me, I'm certainly no expert and I'm not trying to make a case either way. Actually, I'm all for their existance
but someone here surely would know of one.
Perhaps one day, we will find one squirreled away like the aretifacts found in Rome recently.
Perhaps the swords were that expensively decorated, that once in the hands of those whop followed, the gold was melted, and the jewels used for other purposes....assuming they were ever that bling at all! :?:
Quote:Good points,Michael. However it would seem that a symbolic item like this would have been kept and cared for at least for the emperors.
We do have pretty good examples of gladii form different periods, though.
Consider we know what kinds of swords were used by the Greeks,early Romans, Imperial Romans, Late Romans, Celts, etc. Why is not even one eagle headed sword around? Believe me, I'm certainly no expert and I'm not trying to make a case either way. Actually, I'm all for their existance
but someone here surely would know of one.
I get your point but we don't have too many gladii and those preserved were mostly lost or something like that. It seems from the depictions I've seen that those eagle headed swords were used only by very high ranking people like I said before.
Plus they really found very very few items. from the hundreds of thousands of gladii used we have a hundred(?). We don't have a single legionary eagle for example...
I beleive that would be true for Attic helmets as well, as they were worn by high ranking officers and would be expensive so the chances of finding one of those, as well an eagle hilted sword, would be pretty slim in my opinion, but I'm not an archaeologist (yet anyways) so I guess I can't say for sure but I think finding something of such value and exclusiveness would be rare. But I think the fresco in the tomb of Lyson and Callicles in Lefkadia is a very good example for their existence, at least in Greece anyways, but the Romans were extreme philhellens so I don't see why not.
LC Cinna- I have never seen an example of an Eagle hilt with the head facing vertically so I'm very thankful for those links you posted, something a bit different.