02-24-2017, 03:10 PM
(02-24-2017, 02:39 AM)markhebb Wrote: How many SP units actually existed in the 4th century? I suspect not the full complement of 12 listed in the ND.
Interesting. Why wouldn't they, do you think? Surely by the end of the 4th century the roster of units in the ND would have been more or less complete?
(02-24-2017, 02:39 AM)markhebb Wrote: the question of whether only the SP carried the Chi-Rho on their shields
Hmm, yes. We know somebody did, and by the mid-4th at the earliest (missorium of Constantius II). My guess might be that the shields were reserved for the Candidati, as a mark of their proximity to the emperor(s) - a small unit of 40 picked men may not have been recorded in the ND list. However, the guards on the Ravenna mosaic are carrying chi-rho shields, and are dressed in green, not white...
About that 'supplicant' relief (which also features the 'flower petal' shield emblem, I think) - it looks like they're receiving something from the emperor, or performing the adoratio purpurae - what sort of soldiers might have done this?
Nathan Ross
