Roman plumed helmet on the Egadi 7 ram

[Duncan Head]

I've only just come across this: on one of the Egadi bronze warship rams is a representation of a Montefortino helmet with a crest of three feathers in plume-holders, presumably the three-feather crest described by Polybios. I found it first in https://www.academia.edu/6618284/Fighting_Greeks_Naked_Celts_Aspects_of_Roman_Battle_in_Hellenistic_Art_Working_Paper_ (figure 3); see also http://rpmnautical.org/egadi7ram.html or http://rpmnautical.org/egadi7ramgallery.html (photo 12).

This representation is virtually identical to the helmet on Entella decree-tablet IV, which is also dated to the time of the First Punic War. (And which I can't find a picture of on the web, sorry, but it is mentioned at http://epigraphy.packhum.org/inscriptions/main?url=oi%3Fikey%3D337186%26bookid%3D861%26region%3D13.)

Polybios VI.23.12-13 says:

Finally they wear as an ornament a circle of feathers (pterino stephano) with three upright crimson or black feathers about a cubit in height, the addition of which on the head surmounting their other arms is to make every man look twice his real height, and to give him a fine appearance, such as will strike terror into the enemy.

These representations suggest that the "cubit height" probably includes the plume-holder tube. The "crown" or "circle" (stephanos) of feathers mentioned by Polybios is not apparent. Conceivably it became fashionable between the date of these representations and the time Polybios wrote?

[Patrick Waterson]

The "crown" or "circle" (stephanos) of feathers mentioned by Polybios is not apparent.

It might be: a stephanos in the Perseus lexicon can be a crown, wreath or chaplet, i.e something that goes around the top of the head, or in this case the helmet, and looking closely at the helmet in figure 3 of the Greeks-and-Celts paper (i.e. selecting View Image and enlarging it) there appears to be what may be a circlet around the top joining the three plume-stands.  I hope it is there and I am not just imagining things.

[Duncan Head]

I'm not sure if there is anything actually depicted there. What I suspect is on the original is something like the attached; and I'm not sure it could be called "pterino stephano".

Edit: I've found a pic of the Entella tablet online, at http://download.sns.it/labarcheo/decreti/04_EntellaB1.pdf

[aligern]

Thanks for that Duncan,. Most interesting.
Roy

[Patrick Waterson]

I'm not sure if there is anything actually depicted there. What I suspect is on the original is something like the attached; and I'm not sure it could be called "pterino stephano".

Yes, agreed (and the Entella pic - well found - indicates the same).  Which leaves us with the likelihood of a change in fashion between then and Polybius' time, or that the Achaean historian used 'pterino stephano' to mean 'an arrangement of feathers (cranially connotated)' as opposed to 'feathers attached to a physically connecting circlet'.

[Duncan Head]

The problem is that we have the pterino stephano and three tall feathers, so I don't see that the former can be a synonym of the latter. I did consider that the stephanos might be the iron-tube plume-holder arrangement itself, since it does encircle the crest-knob of the helmet at least - a stephanos for feathers rather than of feathers. But while this might be a conceivable reading, it seems hopelessly obscure as a way of explaining what was actually on the helmet, which is what P's trying to do.

[Erpingham]

Is there any more in the Polybios context?  Is he saying everyone who wears the three feathers also wears a crown/wreath, or is he saying some people do?  In which case, if it was relatively rare, we may not yet have found an illustration of it.  Archaeologically, if it were made of a perishable material like feathers, we would be unlikely to find an actual example.

[Duncan Head]

Is there any more in the Polybios context?  Is he saying everyone who wears the three feathers also wears a crown/wreath, or is he saying some people do?  In which case, if it was relatively rare, we may not yet have found an illustration of it.  Archaeologically, if it were made of a perishable material like feathers, we would be unlikely to find an actual example.

He says every Roman hastatus (and by implication every princeps and triarius, as they're equipped in the same way) has the same type of crest. See http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/6*.html.

[Patrick Waterson]

Specifically,

"Finally they wear as an ornament a circle of feathers with three upright purple or black feathers about a cubit in height, the addition of which on the head surmounting their other arms is to make every man look twice his real height, and to give him a fine appearance, such as will strike terror into the enemy."

The Perseus site translation has a slightly different wording:

"Besides these each man is decorated with a plume of feathers, with three purple or black feathers standing upright, about a cubit long. The effect of these being placed on the helmet, combined with the rest of the armour, is to give the man the appearance of being twice his real height, and to give him a noble aspect calculated to strike terror into the enemy."

The intent is evident: the three feathers enhance the wearer's apparent stature.  The question is really whether Polybius' kai (and) after pterinō stephanō means 'in addition' or 'which comprises'.

In Greek:

epi de pasi toutois prosepikosmountai pterinō stephanō kai pterois phoinikois ē melasin orthois trisin hōs pēkhuaiois to megethos

Literally this is:

epi de pasi
on all

toutois prosepikomountai
besides this

pterinō stephanō
a crown of feathers

kai pterois phoinikois
and red/purple feathers

ē melasin
or black

orthois trisin
straight three

hōs pēkhuaiois to megethos
a cubit of length

So does the Roman helmet have a crown of feathers and three straight feathers, or a crown of three straight feathers?  I think Polybius is just saying 'a crown of feathers and they are red or black, straight, a cubit in length'.

This is where the need to interpret the author's intent as opposed to just the grammar makes the matter a bit hard to establish definitely to everyone's satisfaction.  My instinct says that Polybius is describing a three-feather arrangement and calling it a 'stephanou', 'crown', for the same idiomatic reason that we talk of something 'crowning' an item without necessarily encircling it.  I may be wrong, but this is what the text suggests to me.  If so, it would mean that Roman helmet design remained substantially unaltered well into the second century BC.  If not, it would mean we need to find a representation of one of the assumed feather circle helmets required by the 'circle of feathers and three straight feathers' interpretation.