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Salvete,
Has anyone studied the depictions of soldiers in Early Christian funeral art (sarcophacus, fresco)?
I just spend most of the day in our university's library to look for depictions of soldiers on sarcophagi. I found quite a few of them. I want to write a paper about them for my exam of Early Christian Archaeology. I was wondering if the Late Roman experts knew about them.
There are some strange things about the soldiers. They are almost always depicted with a pannonian hat and with a shortsword/gladius. I also copied a nice scene with a soldier who is leaning on a dished shield (you can clearly see it is dished).
I haven't started looking at the fresco scenes. I've got a cd with 8000images from the catacombs on them and now I have to start looking for soldiers :roll:
Jef Pinceel
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Jeff,
I always look eagerly at those sarcophagi (a pleasure to visit the Arles Museum collection!) and frescoes (I haven't been able to visit catacombs)
Soldiers are depicted on sarcophagi usually arresting Peter. Their look is that of an unarmoured soldier, wearing the pillbox cap. They were on duty but not in combat.
Raffaele d'Amato knows more than I do about late iconographical sources, perhaps he'll read this on-line...
Aitor
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Hello Aitor,
Yes they appear most often in the Petrus scenes. A lot of them are unarmoured but some of them wear armour too. I've got a scene with soldiers wearing a lorica squamata and a scene where I think they are wearing a muscle cuirras...
The one in lorica squamata is from a sarcophagus from Tolentino, the soldiers with the muscle cuirass-like thing are on a Sarcophagus in Ancona.
There is also a sarcofagus that depicts the egyptians while they get swallowed by the red sea. Those soldiers also apear to be wearing a roman outfit, but I'm not sure...
What's the difference between a pannonian hat and a pillbox hat?
Kind regards,
Jef Pinceel
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For African foiderati if you search in Google "Cristian Nubian" you will get good results.
Kind regards
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Jef,
There is no difference between a Pannonian cap, a pill-box cap and a pilleus pannonicus. They are all the same thing! 
Aitor
It\'s all an accident, an accident of hands. Mine, others, all without mind, from one extreme to another, but neither works nor will ever.
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Hi guys
if and when you go to Rome I warmly suggest you visit the villa complex that is below the church of Saints John and Paul (San Giovanni e Paolo) on the Celio hill. These two saints were christians that were put to death under Julian in 362. There is a fresco that depicts the arrest carried out by two military men, an officier and a soldier. The officer is wearing the usual late roman cylindrical cap while the soldier has a helmet topped a the large and sharp metal plate (what is the technical term?). The fresco is ruined to the extent that the image is blurred but the two military figures are definitely recogniziable and I got quite a thrill!
The entrance to the villa complex is on the Celio hill on the road "Clivio di Scauro", road which preserves its original roman name. It is an interesting and beautiful stroll. Leave the Colusseum and the arch of Constantine behind you, as if going to the Circus Maximus along Via San Gregorio. The Celio hill is on your LEFT. Before the end of Via San Gregorio on your left is the Church of San Gregorio and the beginning of Clivio di Scauro. Walking up the Clivio di Scauro, the entrance to the villa complex is on your left just where a series or retaining arches begin. The arches, dating from the late empire and high medieval times sustain the church of Giovanni and Paul built on top of the archelogical complex and musuem.
After seeing the villa complex continue walking up to the church's entrance. It is a very nice facade. Looking at the facade, to your right, there is a large green metal gate. If you are lucky it might be open and if it is, move fast, RUN to go inside and take a glance of the temple of Claudius! A nun monestary is built on top of it and that darn green gate is almost always closed and you might get kicked out! But it is worth it!! The exciting and drammatic sight of the two levels of the grandiose construction blocks of the temple of Claudius is a real blast!!!!
Jeffery Wyss
"Si vos es non secui of solutio tunc vos es secui of preciptate."
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Goffredo,
The customary stupid question (but all of us who are more or less far from Rome cannot help doing it! :roll: ):
Any possibility of having some pics of that darned interesting couple?!!
8)
Aitor
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Hello Goffredo, Marcus and Aitor
The 3rd century Praetextatus catacomb painting in Rome apparently shows two Roman soldiers crowning Christ with thorns. The 5th massacre of the innocents fresco at sta Maria in Stelle, Verona also shows late Roman soldiers but in much in better detail.
The most famous catacomb paintings however are probably those in the Via Latina catacombs in Rome. A number of scenes illustrate old Testament tales but depicted in contemporary dress. The Romans are usually depicted as the 'bad guys'. They are well illustrated in 'The Unknown Catacomb: a unique discovery of early Christian art', A. Ferrua, New Lanark, Scotland, 1991.
On the other hand perhaps more familiar to RAT readers is the figure in a red tunic and Intercisa type helmet from the Via Maria catacomb in Syracuse, Sicily. Other less well known red or orange red tunic wearing soldiers appear in the Domitilla Catacomb, Rome (possibly a cataphract) and on a fresco in the Vibbia Ipogeum also in Rome. However I am not sure that the latter depict Christian scenes.
As far as I knew only part of a red cloak survived from the soldiers clothing in the fresco in the church at Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Rome. So I will echo Aitor's request to see some better pictures, if any are available, than the single one I already have. For example I thought the crested helmet Goffredo speaks of looked more like a Phrygian cap.
Less well known but equally valuable as a source of evidence for military uniforms are the paintings of warrior gods found in Egypt. they are published often frustratingly in black and white and in obscure archaeological journals with the authors more often concerned with artistic content rather than what they are actually wearing. They are worth having a look at if ever you get the chance and late Roman military enthusiasts will be amazed at what they actually see.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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I bet that ALL of those of you that will go to see the fresco in the villa complex of celio will see a CRESTED helmet and not a phrygian cap!
I tried for about an hour on the web to find photos of the frescos. No luck! The closest (darn close) was the 7 page abstract of a thesis on the frescos of the villa complex.
Jeffery Wyss
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Quote:I bet that ALL of those of you that will go to see the fresco in the villa complex of celio will see a CRESTED helmet and not a phrygian cap!
Well Goffredo, as you said in your post the image on the fresco is blurred and I have a blurred photograph of that blurred image. You cannot beat seeing the original and no criticism of your observation was intended.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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Well, my friends, I'm afraid that some Italian (better, Roman) RATer should pay a visit there and, risking life and limb, take pics... :wink:
Aitor
It\'s all an accident, an accident of hands. Mine, others, all without mind, from one extreme to another, but neither works nor will ever.
Rolf Steiner
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