Trajan and Hadrian legionaries

[Danielmeijers]

I was wondering whether the legionaries in Hadrians time would have looked the same as in Trajans Dacian war? Which has been nicely illustrated in the Roman warfare magazine on the subject.

[AMELIANVS]

This is the same as asking whether U.S soldiers of George W.Bush looks different from those of Barack Obama.They must have looked almost the same because there was no significant period of time between them or turbulent events to produce any significant change in their basic appearance.They certainly differ only in details as also modern armies differ just a little bit with passing decades.

[Gaius Colletti]

Some changes, most prominently Newstead segmentata would start showing up, a new type of helmet the Gallic J would start replacing the older models. I don't think we see depictions of legionaries with a manica again in Hadrian's time

[Gaius Colletti]

Also, forgive Pavel's passively rude response. We really do try and help

[Paul Elliott]

The belt changes significantly in Hadrian's reign, with openwork plates, often featuring Celtic styles decorating them. The apron is still used, but is shorter. The paenula is used, enclosed boots are becoming more popular, the weaponry is similar.

Things start changing ALOT in the reign of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius.

[AMELIANVS]

Daniel sorry if my response seems too rude.Don't be discouraged asking questions in the future :oops:

[Michael Kerr]

Although later than Hadrian I shall post image of a scene from the Column of Marcus Aurelius which was constructed about 80 years after Trajan's column commemorating victory of Marcus in Marcomannic Wars. The scene depicts Marcus Aurelius officiating at a religious ceremony & he is surrounded by a group of soldiers, sorry this seemed to be one of the better quality scenes as the Column of Marcus was in a worse state than Trajan's Column. Don't know much about the differences but others might pick up something.


[attachment=7716]columnofmarcus.jpg[/attachment]

Regards
Michael Kerr

[AMELIANVS]

To me Aurelius column seems more realistic in details.For example when on those of Trajan,soldiers are clearly devided on citizen and non citizen soldiers by the means of their armour,on Aurelius this practise is much more less visible.
But in overall terms we cannot be sure how much Column of Aurelius just imitates that of Trajan and how much it reflect reality of Roman equipment during Marcommanic wars and of course there is almost always some amount of stylization and artistic license in such works,especially if it was for propaganda purposes.

[Michael Kerr]

Hi Pavel, I take your point, but I do love the grittiness & ugly side of warfare on Marcus's Column as opposed to most of the scenes on Trajan's Column. I shall post 2 others I found with uniforms.


[attachment=7717]crossingbridge.jpg[/attachment]



[attachment=7718]marcusbattle.jpg[/attachment]

Regards
Michael Kerr

[Paul Elliott]

There is a stinning sculpture called the Chatsworth relief ? That depicts Hadrianic soldiers at work. That is certainly worth looking at. There may be a copy of it in Graham Sumners book Roman Military Clothing 1 or Roman Military Dress.

[Caratacus]

I think that we have to be very careful about drawing conclusions from such a small basis. The Dacian Wars of Trajan were fought between AD 102-6 and Hadrian reigned from AD 117 to 138 - so only around 30 years span. Mention has been made of the Imperial Gallic 'J' helmets coming in to use in this period, but there are only three of these known, and the best-preserved one (in the museum, (here), at Caerleon isn't even reliably dated. It came originally from Bregetio in Hungary and there is a reference to it in a 1914 French publication - but that's it! The 'J' type seems to be characterised by a brow guard set at a steep angle, and parallel to a large neck guard, suggesting that he soldier who wore it fought in a crouched position. Is this a distinct 'type' - or is it (and the other two known examples) a "Friday afternoon" job?

The Romans were a very conservative people. They seemed to have followed the maxim that: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If they saw a need to make a change, then this would be done (e.g. the added bars across the top of the helmet, supposedly in response to the use of the Dacian falx weapon - although I've seen some doubts expressed recently about this idea). It should be noted that, whereas the Trajanic column makes extensive reference to lorica segmentata armour, none of the roughly contemporaneous Adamklissi monument metopes shows that type of armour at all, only mail and scale types. Unfortunately, the armour shown on the TC isn't detailed enough to be able to say whether any of it is of the Newstead variety. There is mounting evidence to indicate that, at least by the 2nd half of the 2nd century AD, both Corbridge and Newstead types were co-existing.

Mike Thomas
(Caratacus)