12-14-2009, 11:23 PM
Quote:What do you make of the shield design? Is that a specifically Makedonian image, or one used by other Greeks of the period?There seem to have been two main designs used by the Makedonians - the 'Macedonian Royal Sun/Star' with sometimes four, usually eight, and sometimes sixteen 'rays' ,and this type, with 'crescents' around the edge, and dots. There was also a third type which had as a central device a Royal portrait as an 'emblema'. These designs appear, with many variations, on various Makedonian and later, Hellenistic, coins; votive shields from Makedon, and fragments of Makedonian and Hellenistic 'peltai' that survive, as well as in sculpture, as here and on the 'Aemilius Paullus' frieze, for example.
Neither the 'Sun/Star' design, or the 'crescents' design are unique to Makedonia where they became 'national emblems' so to speak. The 'Sun/Star' design appears on Greek Hoplite shields, for example, and variations of the 'crescent' design on coins of the Illyrian town of Skodra, and on a stone relief from Illyria.
Purely speculatively, it is tempting to suggest that the "Royal" 'Sun/Star emblem originated in Makedonian use among troops of the original kingdom - lower Makedonia, and the 'crescent' design from Upper Makedonia, a design shared/commonly used among neighbouring Illyrians, and that the 'portrait' designs were carried by Guard Units.....pure guesswork, as I say. :wink:
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
