Roman shield emblem database

[Crispvs]

On the matter of emblems on shield covers, some of the Valkenburg shield covers featured decorations in the form of leather appliques or stitch holes where such decorations had previously been sewn on. Some appliques have also been found detatched from their covers and I believe some of these are embellished with decorative stitching.
One cover also features a very well defined impression of a frontal re-enforcing bar, suggesting either that it was pressed against the shield for a very long time or that the leather had become saturated and was then pulled more tightly over the shield, thus stretching it over the re-enforcing bar and moulding the shape into it.
It is also likely that shield covers had a limited lifespan compared to the shields they covered, as most of the finds which have been interpreted as parts of shield covers (the Valkenburg covers being the exception here) are worn fragments which have been cut off when the the leather was being recycled into something else. I do have a number of drawings but I have had to agree not to pass them on to anyone, which would include posting them on RAT or sending them as e-mail attachments.

Crispvs

[Dan Diffendale]

From a very brief source on a leather shield cover from Dura-Europos:
"One of the objects discovered by Cumont, during the second season of excavation in 1923, was the remains of the leather covering for a shield, now in the Louvre. Like many shields from Dura, it was painted, but not with the usual emblems or mythological scenes. Instead, it shows a map of the eastern Mediterranean... Indicated on this map are the names of a number of towns written in Greek. It is the itinerary of a soldier who has traced his course, station by station, from the Black Sea and the Danube frontier to the Mediterranean and ultimately to Dura." (p. 6)
C. McClendon, "Introductory Remarks: The Legacy of Dura-Europos," in Rome and the Provinces: Studies in the Transformation of Art and Architecture in the Mediterranean World, 1986, New Haven Society of the AIA.

The original publication reference (as seen in the scanned image) is Franz Cumont, Fouilles de Dura-Europos (1922-1923), (Paris, 1926), vol. 1 pp 323-327, vol. 2 plate CIX. I do not have access to this original publication.

Does anyone have more information?

[Salvianus]

Matt L.
I think there are only one or two that are known from tombstones... Anyone know of any others?

Comitatus are Late Roman & follow a Notitia Dignitatum design for the appropriate unit (see signature). This is not confirmed by carvings, but is, we hope, more reasonable than some of the more fanciful designs which are sometimes ascribed to the later copyists and tolerably close in style to the simple designs on the Valentinian dish (Southern & Dixon Pl 14) and Cologne beaker (Southern & Dixon fig 21).

Incidently, Maurice advises that the heavy infantrymen of each 'arithmos or tagma' (units of 2-400) should have shields of the same colour, implying that by that time & place larger units did not routinely have identical shields.

However, they may have had different colours with the same device: For the main force of cavalry, the emphasis is understandably upon the flags, which are to have a specific field colour for each meros (division of 6-7,000), specific streamer colours for each moira (2-3,000) &, it implies, a unique device for each tagma within the moira.

...while I've never seen a reenactor embellish his name on the front of his shield...

Likewise, having it on the back make sense... So long as each reenactor unit is fairly uniform about how it's done within their unit (either all on the front or all on the back), I think one would be hard-pressed to discount either method.

Although Late shields no longer incorporate tabuli, we generally follow Vegetius in placing name & century number on the front. Most of us add our names on the back, for convenience, as well as individualising the back with Christian or Mithraic religious emblems (most frequently a Chi-Rho Christogram), family portraits or, in one notable case, a good luck phallus. hock:

[Carus Andiae]

If I am not mistaken we dont really know which emblem goes to which legion correct?

Correct. I think there are only one or two that are known from tombstones- LEGXIIII being the most often seen of those. One tombstone of a centurio from LEGVIII also shows his scutum, but the detail is minimal. Anyone know of any others?

The thing is that with just single examples, even these aren't certain- they're just the best we have.

The Arch of Arausio (sp?) dedicated by Legio II Augusta confusingly shows two different emblems - both quite simple. One features the Legion's capricorn emblem (a nice reconstruction here [url:1zcvoahm]http://www.butser.org.uk/bulletin37.html[/url]), the other simply four lightning strokes radiating out to the four corners of the shield [url:1zcvoahm]http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0850455286/ref=sib_dp_pt/026-6052907-5038004#reader-page[/url] - the chap in the middle.

[Crispvs]

Dan,

Very interesting!

How do we know it comes form a shield cover? Are there still rolled edges present?

Crispvs

[Dan Diffendale]

How do we know it comes from a shield cover? Are there still rolled edges present?

Well, I'm just going by this one reference that says it's a shield cover... I'm hoping someone else knows more!