Roman Standards

[Bryan]

So Pliny in his Natural Histories wrote that, previous to Marius removing them all and replacing them with a standardized single eagle standard per legion, the units "...Before that period, [the eagle] had only held the first rank, there being four others as well, the wolf, the minotour, the horse, and the wild boar, each of which preceded a single division." (X,5,4)
So what were these division he was referring to since I only now of Hastati, Princep, Triarri and Velite light infantry/skirmishers? Who carried what?

Any thoughts on this? Any clever ideas to what this mean? Feel free to voice opinions too.

Bryan

[caiusbeerquitius]

Legion emblems. Eagle, bull, boar, horse, wolf for the early legions. Read the whole text:

CHAP. 5. (4.)—WHEN THE EAGLE WAS FIRST USED AS THE STANDARD OF THE ROMAN LEGIONS.

Caius Marius, in his second consulship, assigned the eagle exclusively to the Roman legions. Before that period it had only held the first rank, there being four others as well, the wolf, the minotaur, the horse, and the wild boar, each of which preceded a single division.1 Some few years before his time it had begun to be the custom to carry the eagle only into battle, the other standards being left behind in camp; Marius, however, abolished the rest of them entirely. Since then, it has been remarked that hardly ever has a Roman legion encamped for the winter, without a pair of eagles making their appearance at the spot.

[jho]

Well Pliny uses the word "ordo" which, if used technically, would imply that each RANK of the legion carried a different emblem (cf. Caesar B.C. I 13) :

Romanis eam legionibus Gaius Marius in secundo consulatu suo proprie dicavit. erat et antea prima cum quattuor aliis: lupi, minotauri, equi aprique singulos ordines anteibant. paucis ante annis sola in aciem portari cepta erat, reliqua in castris relinquebantur; Marius in totum ea abdicavit. ex eo notatum, non fere legionis umquam hiberna esse castra ubi aquilarum non sit iugum.

(http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Ro...r/10*.html)

The four animals would fit neatly with the velites, hastati, principes and triarii but only if the velites were actually carrying standards (which may be doubtful given their tactical role and the fact that they were assigned to the other maniples). Also, we have no idea when these standards were in practical use as they appear to have become purely ceremonial some time prior to Marius, and at whatever time they were used, the legion may have had a completely different organisation (think of the rorarii and accensi).

Also, we could assume that Pliny is using "ordo" not in a technical sense and only for variation and assign one of the totem animals to each of the 4 consular legions.

Much room for speculation.

[Bryan]

I don't seem to see where Pliny is mentioning about the five different standards being between different legions, he clearly is referring to different ranks/divisions of troops when he mentions that all but the eagle standards were left back in camp before battle.
And wasn't the customary number of consular legions drawn every year four not five?

If they were meant for four ranks then Velite, Hastati, Principes, triari all get one each. Who gets the fifth? Speculation is fine, looking for ideas of how this could make sense.

[S. Marcer]

Good evening to everyone,
For the origin and the function of the republican military insignias the field is very difficult, also because the archaeological discoveries for the republican period are (to my knowledge) practically absent and the literary sources are quite poor.
Ovidi (Fasti, III 117) write about the origin of the first insignia, made by a bundle of hay (manipulus) secured in top to a long staff, with the function of giving a reference to the fighters on the battleground.
The totemic function of the insignae and the signifer is without doubt (for many centuries the signifer was characterized by carring on the shoulders or on the helmet a skin of animal - wolf or bear).
The ancient italic rite of the Uer Sacrum (sacred spring), of Indo-European origins, consists groups of young people (sacrani) - in period of famines, epidemics, overpopulation - leaving the city in order to build a new community in a new land and, guided by an animal sacred to the gods (mainly Mars), become a new "population."
The totem animal was represented on a banner (vexillum) or as an image behind the emigrants marched. The animal could be a bull, a wolf, a woodpecker, a wild boar or a bear, and in some cases become the eponymous of the various groups: wolf (hirpus - Hirpinia, λυκος - Lucanians), woodpecker (picus - Picentes) [vd. G. Dumezil La religion romaine archaique Paris, 1974, part I, chap.4.]
The signifer (with his wolf or bear skin) can symbolically recall the tradition role of a guide for people or army.
About the problem of these insignae in the Pliny text, I think that there are not enough elements to know if these symbols really preceded the ordines, or if each represents one of the traditional republican urban legions or if they represent the different corps that constitute a legion.
Best
S.M.

[jho]

If they were meant for four ranks then Velite, Hastati, Principes, triari all get one each. Who gets the fifth?

I am not an expert in Latin but I had (maybe incorrectly) assumed that the "singulos ordines anteibant" should refer only to the four additional ones, not the eagle. This also appears to be supported by the fact that the eagle was in some way special as the "first" amongst the standards, so you would either have:

one eagle per legion plus one of the other animals for each rank (ordo) (more likely)

or

one eagle plus one other animal for each of the consular legions (less likely).