Avete,<br>
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Check Valerie Maxfield's "The decorations of the roman army" where she offers an alternative explanation for the source of the cornicularius' corniculum: quoting a letter from Pliny, she points to the alternative meaning of "shoulder" of the phrase "cornu" if I recall it correctly, and she supposes some badge of rank at the upper torso...<br>
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Moreover, the latin dictionary gives other interesting possibilities. Cornu can mean besides "horn" :<br>
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-the tips of the sticks around which scrolls are wrapped<br>
-the wing of an army in battle order<br>
-the part of the helmet crest tahat is not made of feathers or<br>
hair<br>
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And why wouldn't there be a connection to the cornicen's instrument?<br>
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"cornus" can refer to a spear made of a special kind of wood.<br>
And finally, an old city in Latium was called 'Corniculum'.<br>
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Plenty of possibilities thence to avoid this strange little helmet horn in explaining the cornicularius title. Who came up with the helmet horn anyway? Domazevski or Mommsen perhaps?<br>
Those were the days that roman helmets could have had horns, our may have been made of leather as well, remember??<br>
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Finally, an old joke in our unit is that the feather tubes on the Imp. Gall. F helmets were designed for clerks as portable quill pen holders: right for blank ink, left for red ink....<br>
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Sebastiaan<br>
[email protected] <br>
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