12-03-2010, 10:44 AM
Quote:You have proposed that the eagle was the 'physical representation of the Emperor' for the lgions. I do not think that the latter was the case. Eagles (and originally other animals) were the deities of the legions long before there even was a Roman emperor. Do we have evidence that somewhere along the line, the eagle BECAME the 'physical representation of the Emperor"?
re: your point on the eagles - we do have evidence in Suetonius that the Julio-Claudian emperors, Augustus in particular, attempted to link themselves with the eagle (I'll find the exact reference for you) - more broadly we should also remember that Tacitus gives us evidence that from the reign of Tiberius that the signa (by which I mean all types of standards) were considered a gift of the emperor to a unit (Tac 1.42.3). Finally, the integration into the imperial calendar of the signa, as well as the central role the standards played in the swearing of the Sacramentum and in set imperial ceremony cannot be underestimated (a good example is from the fragment of Dexippus that describes Aurelian hosting enemy emissaries.
