Etruscan panoply of the late 5th to early 4th century BCE

 This panoply comprises a matching ensemble of helmet, cuirass, and greave (shin guard), which are rare Etruscan works exemplifying the finest qualities of the form and decoration that characterize the greatest armors made in Etruria during the Classical period. In addition to exhibiting originality of design and exceptional workmanship, this ensemble occupies an important place in the historical development of Etruscan armor. It includes one of the finest Etruscan cuirasses known to survive and a helmet that has no parallels in the Ancient World. Very few Etruscan panoplies appear to have ever included anatomical cuirasses, and among the few specimen known to remain, many are extensively damaged or restored, unlike this example. The helmet, with its delicate embossed, chased, and engraved ornament, and its striking bronze and silver appliqués, is one of the most luxurious examples of a type found only in Etruria, and by far the best preserved representative of this exclusive group. It is most important, however, for its unparalleled construction with hinged cheekpieces that would have completely enclosed the wearer's face, and for the subtle modeling of the corresponding plates to follow the contours of the nose, cheekbones, and jaw. No other helmet with comparable features is known to exist. - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This armor could have been worn during the Roman-Etruscan Wars of the early 4th century BCE.  After the Gauls defeated Rome at the Battle of the Allia, the Etruscans, the Volsci and the Aequi all raised armies in hope of exploiting this blow to Roman power. According to Livy the leading men of all of Etruria gathered at the sanctuary of Voltumna to form a hostile alliance against Rome.  Beset by dangers on all sides, the Romans appointed Marcus Furius Camillus dictator. Camillus inflicted crushing victories against the Volsci and the Aequi, then turned his attention to the Etruscans. Livy, Plutarch, and Diodorus Siculus detail the struggle in which the Etruscans laid siege to Sutrium, a Roman ally. The Sutrines sent for aid and Camillus marched to their relief. But, before help could arrive the Sutrines were forced into a conditional surrender, being allowed to leave without weapons and only one garment apiece. Meeting the exiled Sutrines later that same day, Camillus ordered the baggage left behind and marched his now unencumbered army to Sutrium where he found the enemy still dispersed and busy plundering the city. Camillus ordered all the gates closed and attacked before the Etruscans could concentrate their forces. The now trapped Etruscans at first intended to fight to the end, but when hearing that their lives would be spared, they surrendered in great number. Livy says Camillus,  having won three simultaneous wars, returned to Rome in triumph. The Etruscan prisoners were publicly sold. After the gold owed to Rome's matrons had been repaid (they had contributed their gold to ransom Rome from the Gauls), enough was left for three golden bowls inscribed with the name of Camillus and placed in the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus before the feet of the statue of Juno.

In 387, however, Livy tells us the Etruscans again attacked Sutrium and the border stronghold of Nepete. By the time Camillus and his colleague, Valerius, arrived at Sutrium, the Etruscans had taken half the city, the Sutrines desperately defending the rest behind street barricades. Camillus divided his army into two and ordered his colleague to attack the walls on the side the enemy was holding. Attacked from both within and without the city, the Etruscans fled in panic and were killed in great numbers. Having recaptured Sutrium, the Roman army marched to Nepete, which by that time had surrendered to the Etruscans after treachery from some of the townsmen. Camillus first attempted to convince the Nepesines to throw out the Etruscans. When they refused, he captured the city by storm. All the Etruscans and those who had sided with them were killed and a Roman garrison put in place.

Images: Etruscan panoply of the late 5th to early 4th century BCE consisting of a helmet of the Italo-Chalcidian Type, an anatomical cuirass, and a left greave, probably from Vulci, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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The symbolic Corinthian helmet in Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art

Etruscan culture was influenced by ancient Greek culture, beginning around 750 BCE, during the last phase of the Villanovan period, when the Greeks, who were at this time in their Archaic Orientalizing period, started founding colonies in southern Italy.  It continued during the Classical period from the 5th to the 4th centuries BCE, even though the political balance of power in the region began to shift to the rising Roman Republic after 500 BCE.

The bearded warrior depicted in an Etruscan finial sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which originally decorated the top of a tall candelabrum, wears a Greek Corinthian-style helmet tipped back on his head.  This practice gave rise to a series of variant forms in Italy, where the slits were almost closed, since the helmet was no longer pulled over the face but worn cap-like. In the Republican Roman army,  the Corinthian helmet evolved into a jockey-cap style helmet called the Italo-Corinthian, Etrusco-Corinthian or Apulo-Corinthian helmet, with the characteristic nose guard and eye slits becoming mere decorations on its face. The Italo-Corinthian types remained in use until the 1st century CE. 

Although the style gradually gave way to the more open Thracian, Chalcidian, and the much simpler pilos type helmet, which was less expensive to manufacture and did not obstruct the wearer's critical senses of vision and hearing, the Corinthian helmet was depicted on more sculpture than any other helmet as, apparently, the Greeks romantically associated it with glory and the past. The Romans also revered it, depicting it on their copies of Greek original art as well as sculpture of their own. 

Bronze finial of two warriors from a candelabrum ca. 480–470 BCE, Etruscan, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  This finial, which originally decorated the top of a tall candelabrum, is an excellent example of Early Classical sculpture. A bearded warrior wearing a full panoply of armor assists his younger, beardless comrade, who has sustained a wound to his left leg or foot and is supported by the spear he once held in his right hand and by his friend's shoulder. - Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Composite image I created of Greek helmets on display at the Staatliche Antikensammlungen Museum in Munich, Germany.  From left to right: Phrygian, Illyrian, Pileus, Corinthian, and Chalcidian helmets originally photographed by Wikimedia Commons contributor MisterPlus65.

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The Tinas Cliniar: Dioscuri of the Etruscans

These bronze handles have the distinctive shape associated with a type of krater made in Vulci and exported to Etruscan settlements as far away as Spina in Northern Italy. The youths wearing winged boots and holding the bridles of their horses are almost certainly the twin gods, Castur and Pultuce (Roman: Castor and Pollux), the sons of Zeus. The two are known in Etruscan as Tinas Cliniar and as the Roman Dioscuri although in Latin the twins are also known as the Gemini (literally "twins") or Castores, as well as the Tyndaridae or Tyndarid.

In Homer's Iliad, Castor, the horse breaker, and Polydeuces, the boxer, are brothers to Helen of Troy and are both mortals who have died. ("... there are two commanders I do not see, / Castor the horse breaker and the boxer / Polydeuces, my brothers ...") – Helen, Iliad 3.253–255 But, as described by Pindar, the two, born of the same mother, were only half-brothers, however. Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, while Pollux was the divine son of Zeus, who seduced Leda in the guise of a swan. The pair were thus thought to be an example of "heteropaternal superfecundation" or the fertilization of two ova by two different fathers. The divinely conceived Pollux was immortal while his half-brother, Castor, was not. Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together, so Zeus transformed them into the constellation, Gemini.

The pair were regarded as the patrons of sailors, to whom they appeared as St. Elmo's fire. They were also associated with horsemanship, in keeping with their origin as the Indo-European horse twins. Their role as horsemen and boxers also led to them being regarded as the patrons of athletes and athletic contests. They characteristically intervened at the moment of crisis, aiding those who honored or trusted them. Those not honoring them properly, however, could be punished. Cicero tells the story of how Simonides of Ceos was rebuked by Scopas, his patron, for devoting too much space to praising Castor and Pollux in an ode celebrating Scopas' victory in a chariot race. Shortly afterwards, Simonides was told that two young men wished to speak to him. After he had left the banqueting room, the roof fell in and crushed Scopas and his guests.

Hence, the Romans, ever mindful of the importance of pietas, built a temple to the Dioscuri in the Forum. It was constructed by the Roman general Aulus Postumius following his victory over the Latins at the Battle of Lake Regillus in 484 BCE.

"During the battle two young men riding white horses were said to have appeared and guided the Romans to victory and then were seen again after the battle watering their horses at the Juturna Spring in Rome, hence the subsequent dedication to the famous cavalry twins and choice of location for the temple next to the fountain in the Forum. Every 15th of July the temple was the focus of a cavalry parade - the transvectio - of 5,000 men led by two impersonators of the heroes who commemorated the victory at Regillus." - Ancient History Encyclopedia

The heavily restored iconic statues of Castor and Pollux that flank the entrance to the Capitoline Museum in Rome incorporate fragments found at the original site of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Forum.

Images: (1-2) Etruscan Bronze handles from a large volute-krater (vase for mixing wine and water) depicting Castor and Pollux ca. 500–475 BCE courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their divine nature is indicated by their winged boots and the pair, with oval-shaped eyes, wear unbelted short tunics and a hair style often seen on individuals reclining atop Etruscan funerary urns.

Pair of Roman statuettes also depicting the Dioscuri as horsemen, but here they appear heroically nude, with longer Hellenistic hairstyles and their characteristic skull caps. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Marie-Lan Nguyen.

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Anatomical votives in the Greco-Roman World

  "Votive offerings have been part of the human relationship with gods and belief from pre-history to the present. Today we might light a candle, a stick of incense, lay a bunch of flowers or in some Catholic churches people still leave a wax body part by way of a votive offering, but in the ancient world the practice was more wide-ranging, literal and multifaceted. The ancient Greeks and Romans offered them to a deity to bring good fortune or to grant favours and they were an important expression of their personal relationship with their gods and goddesses." - Richard Moss, Museum Crush:

https://museumcrush.org/anatomical-votive-offerings-of-the-greco-roman-world/

Moss lavishly illustrates his article with votive objects from the Wellcome Collection, the Science Museum, and the British Museum in London.  He also mentions The Votives Project, a cross-cultural and multi-period effort to study votive material and contexts.  Participants' research include such diverse studies as votive musical instruments in ancient Greece, votive reliefs in the highlands of southwest Anatolia, anatomical votives from the Ascleopieion in ancient Corinth, arm and leg votives from Mikata Ishikanzeon Dou, Japan, wax infant votives from Cyprus, Etruscan votives, and even curse tablets as votives. The project even encompasses the study of modern era votive practices. 

You can read more about these studies on the project website at https://thevotivesproject.org/

Image: Votive female viscera, Roman, 200 BCE-200 CE. Credit: Science Museum, London. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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Two Thumbs Up for German series "Barbarian"

Finished watching the new German Netflix original series "Barbarian" last night and I give it a big two thumbs up! Excellent acting, stayed pretty close to historical events, and I was awestruck by scenes of how large a Roman encampment of three legions was (especially in comparison to the small local villages which I think was the point) and how fearsome the legions marching in formation must have appeared to the local tribesmen who referred to them as columns of steel.

I'm currently listening to book 4 of S.J.A. Turney's Marius' Mules series of novels about Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul and at this point in the war (55 BCE) Caesar had eight legions with him not just the three Varus commanded, which still looked quite formidable in the German film. Caesar's encampment must have truly appeared as a metropolitan city in the middle of a near wilderness.

I also enjoyed watching the legions on the march realistically packing all of their kit on their backs with their centurions striding along in the front line and the tribunes and legates riding along beside each legion. It really made the images of Legate Fronto and his tenth legion described in Turney's novels come alive for me!

I'm also grateful supernatural elements, did not dominate the film as they did in "Britannia."  

Just one historical note - Arminius was a hostage raised in Rome, but not by Publius Quinctilius Varus as depicted in the film.  I can understand how this fictional relationship served a dramatic purpose, though, to emphasize Arminius' conflicted nature about betraying the people who had raised him from a child. He was drafted into the Roman military at an early age, during which he was granted Roman citizenship and became a Roman knight as accurately depicted in the film. After serving with distinction in the Great Illyrian Revolt, he was sent to Germania to aid the local governor, Varus, in completing the Roman conquest of the Germanic tribes.  In the aftermath of the battle of the Teutoburg Forest, Arminius fought retaliatory invasions by the Roman general Germanicus in the battles of Pontes Longi, Idistaviso, and the Angrivarian Wall, and deposed a rival, the Marcomanni king Maroboduus before eventually being assassinated by his own people in 21 BCE.  I assume these battles will be the focus of future seasons of the series.

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