Roman Late Aquilifer 240AD

Roman Late Aquilifer 240AD
Theme: Roman Imperial Army
- Aquila: silver-plated bronze, from Gaziantep, Turkey (ancient Edessa), mid‑3rd century AD. The down‑folded wings and head turned to the right recall the standard on Surillio’s funerary monument.
- Aquilifer probably of Legio III Italica, AD 236–238 The ‘barbarian’ aspect of this Pannonian legionary may explain the fears of the Italian population at the time of the arrival of the legions of the Emperor Maximinus ‘the Thracian’. He is wearing a banded armour of Sarmatian type over a subarmalis and a padded cento, anticipating the gambeson of the Middle Ages. Note his wide lion skin knotted on the breast, and the particular shape of his eagle, perhaps a local Pannonian production when this legion was formed by Severus Alexander in AD 231.