Ideas for Severan Legionary

[Crispvs]

As with Trajan's Column we always have to exercise caution when looking at the Column of Marcus Aurelius. Although it undoubtedly incorporates some contemporary features, such as peltate scabbard chapes, it as been shown in the past that it also draws heavily on Trajan's column and probably other sculptures to be seen in Rome at the time. Although there is no doubt that the Marcus column tells its own story, it is obvious from comparisons with such things as the positions of the emperor in the sculptural sequence that it in large part copies Trajan's column. Acknowledging that fact, the column is probably not the ideal source of information on how soldiers of the time were equipped. We should be mindful of the shocked reaction of people in Rome, little more than a decade after the Marcus column was erected, at the 'barbaric' appearance of the contemporary reality of the Roman army. Clearly the picture had changed a lot in the seventy or so years since they first had to get used to what the army of the early second century AD looked (more or less) like (in the form of Trajan's column and the Great Trajanic Relief), but the new column of Marcus had not done a lot to keep them up to date.

Crispvs