Late Roman horseman with an Early Imperial shield?

[Duncan Head]

I've just come across an interesting Roman mosaic, from the Villa of the Nile Mosaic in Leptis Magna, Libya. It's not the eponymous Nile Mosaic itself, but a hunting scene, dated to the 4th century according to Livius.

Web page at http://www.livius.org/vi-vr/villa/villa_nile.html ; picture at http://www.livius.org/a/libya/villa_nile/villa_nile_hunt_mus_tripoli.JPG

(Edit 2018: now at http://www.livius.org/pictures/libya/villa_nile/villa-nile-hunting-scene-2/)

The 4th century date looks OK to me, it fits the clothing especially the clavi on the lower horseman's tunic. The interesting point is the upper, armed, horseman's shield, which doesn't look like a Late Empire type but more like an Early shield; it's a narrower oval than I'd expect to see in the 4th century and, more to the point, the shield-blazon reminds me of Trajan's Column or even Arch of Orange shields, a cross with fancy ends (almost "cross fleury") in between four peltai. Now, it could perhaps simply be copied from a much earlier source; but alternatively, is it too much to suspect that the huntsman might be a soldier from one of the old alae, now reduced to limitanei status, and still carrying their old shield pattern? Unfortunately I don't think the Notitia tells us anything about regiments in Tripolitania.

[Patrick Waterson]

The Notitia seems to be fairly unforthcoming about units in Tripolitania.  The link is to Luke Ueda-Sarson's list, and the units all appear to be limitanei.

The Notitia of course does not consider possible private retinues, perhaps with retired soldiers and traditional shields ...

[aligern]

We really need a coloection of all the illustrations of military types pkaced in chronological irder with a family tree of sub types hanging off the main timeline. Late shields are often represented with cruciform floreate patterns and this one is near that line, though not exactly in it. The wooden carving of soldiers defending a town from Egypt and the late iviry carving of a nobleman and his guards has a cruciform floreate pattern. There is a late mosaic, showing the emperor Honorius heroically naked and IIRC there are two shields, one hexagonal . I think one of them has this sort of pattern.
I'd go for it being archaism, but there are representations of Late Roman shield designs that mimic what look lije actual shield patterns so it would be difficult to say that the cruciform designs are definitely nly an artistic line.

[aligern]

    http://www.warfare.altervista.org/6-10/Ashburnham-Pentateuch-f68r.htm

Has similar cruciform designs upon the shields. This illustration is 6th to 7th century. it is not impossible that we have a genuine tradition of this sirt of device on Roman shields, but archaism on the part of the artist would seem more likley
Roy

[aligern]

http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/Images/109images/early_christian/sta_maria_maggiore/Sta_maria_maggiore_joshua.jpg
From the mosaics at Santa Maria Maggiore Rone. A very similar motif on a 4th to 5th century depiction in a heavily classicised style.
Roy

[Duncan Head]

Roy's examples are somewhat similar in the cruciform pattern; but it was the peltae that first caught my eye on the Leptis shield. And the Ashburnham shields seem to be broad ovals of typical Late Imperial shape, whereas the Leptis shield does look to be an earlier shape to me.

[aligern]

I wouldn't rule out the survival of cruciform, floreate peltate shield designs, particularly as the central cross might well continue on into Late Roman designs as  a Christian cross which might then be adorned by the individual, by the unit or by the artist creating the picture.
The shape is reminiscent of the  shields on Trajan's column.
Roy

[Erpingham]

Do we know these are off duty soldiers?  As already mentioned they could be households guards, who might not carry modern military issue anyway.  Roy's archaic pattern, perhaps taken from the mosaicists pattern book, also seems a plausible answer.

[Jim Webster]

Not merely off duty. We know from Roman laws forbidding it that Roman soldiers were not above wandering off and signing on as a private guard for a year or two before wandering back to the unit. If the patron was locally powerful enough you would doubtless get away with it.

We've got records from Egypt where estates had large numbers of guards who may well have been led/trained by such individuals as well as by men who had genuinely retired

Jim

[Duncan Head]

Do we know these are off duty soldiers?  As already mentioned they could be households guards, who might not carry modern military issue anyway.  Roy's archaic pattern, perhaps taken from the mosaicists pattern book, also seems a plausible answer.

We don't know who they are, of course. But the difference between this and some of Roy's examples is that it's not a Biblical or epic or historical scene, where you might expect to see generic or even, perhaps, archaicising designs; but a picture in a private house of the sort of activity that the occupants might get up to in real life, where there is at least a possibility that specific items of contemporary gear are being shown. Now as far as I know no-one's managed to link for instance the shields in the Piazza Armerina mosaics to actual unit designs, so it's quite possible that both those and this Leptis example aren't "government issue" at all; but there are so many gaps in the record that I don't think we can rule it out, either.

[aligern]

The one worry I had about the Piazza Armerina shields was when I saw tha the quartering on one of the shields was the same as that on a ball held by one of the cuties in bikinis.

I'm sensitive to Duncan's argument, but as someone said earlier the mosaicist may well just be working from a pattern book that does for public or private monuments...... and r a t may be an examke of a private hunting shield and nothing to do with military display at all, ir is t could reflect a local unit.
Roy