12-23-2009, 11:50 PM
Crispus wrote:
I'm afraid you can't really do this exercise from photographs - not even the Cichorius ones, excellent as they are. The column itself is far too damaged to work from, and has been for at least 50 years. The only reasonable way to do it, is work from the excellent plaster casts, made before industrial/car pollution effectively crumbled the column friezes. There are three of these extant - one in Germany, one in the V&A museum London, one - the best displayed - in the Museo de Civilita Romana in Rome. I set out to accurately record the shield emblems in 1975, in Rome, but had a limited time to make detailed sketches. Unfortunately due to time constraints, I had to work quickly and the catalogue was incomplete. I later completed it from the V&A cast, and then checked my sketches against the Cichorius plates ( the British Library has a copy). That is the basis of the shield devices published in "Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome", revised fourth edition, Phil Barker, Wargames Research Group 1981( still in print I believe) Digression:that volume and edition also publishes Late Roman Shield patterns from the "Notitia Dignitatum" and thus contains some 200 shield patterns in all, all accurately reproduced. N.B. - Must be fourth Edition.
However, I am unsure to this day whether I managed to capture every single shield pattern from the Column ! However, the fact that the number of shield devices, even allowing for Praetorian ones, roughly matches the number of Legions taking part in the two Wars, and the prominence of the devices leads me to think that each Legion had a single device ( although I also think each Praetorian cohort may have had a separate device), which appeared somewhere on the Column......
[see my post ante and the shield devices concerned, together with key]
Quote:With regard to blazons on Trajan's column, a few years ago I went over photographs of the entire sculpture and copied every individual blazon I could identify as Roman as opposed to Dacian. I found only nine blazons associated with rectangular scuta and three of these were consistently associated with Praetorian standards. This left six. The possibility of vexilations of as many as six legions being involved in the campaigns does not seem unlikely, so these blazons, whatever their actual accuracy, seem likely to be intended to identify particular units. I found something over fifty blazons associated with clipeii. Unfortunately I no longer have the drawings I made at the time, but if anyone here has a good set of photographs of the column and has nothing whatsoever to do for a weekend then they could possibly confirm this.
I'm afraid you can't really do this exercise from photographs - not even the Cichorius ones, excellent as they are. The column itself is far too damaged to work from, and has been for at least 50 years. The only reasonable way to do it, is work from the excellent plaster casts, made before industrial/car pollution effectively crumbled the column friezes. There are three of these extant - one in Germany, one in the V&A museum London, one - the best displayed - in the Museo de Civilita Romana in Rome. I set out to accurately record the shield emblems in 1975, in Rome, but had a limited time to make detailed sketches. Unfortunately due to time constraints, I had to work quickly and the catalogue was incomplete. I later completed it from the V&A cast, and then checked my sketches against the Cichorius plates ( the British Library has a copy). That is the basis of the shield devices published in "Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome", revised fourth edition, Phil Barker, Wargames Research Group 1981( still in print I believe) Digression:that volume and edition also publishes Late Roman Shield patterns from the "Notitia Dignitatum" and thus contains some 200 shield patterns in all, all accurately reproduced. N.B. - Must be fourth Edition.
However, I am unsure to this day whether I managed to capture every single shield pattern from the Column ! However, the fact that the number of shield devices, even allowing for Praetorian ones, roughly matches the number of Legions taking part in the two Wars, and the prominence of the devices leads me to think that each Legion had a single device ( although I also think each Praetorian cohort may have had a separate device), which appeared somewhere on the Column......
[see my post ante and the shield devices concerned, together with key]
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
