Weapons of the Romans Michel Feugere To cite this version: Michel Feugere. Weapons of the Romans. Tempus, 2002. <halshs-00007319> HAL Id: halshs-00007319 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00007319 Submitted on 9 Apr 2006 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destin´eeau d´ep^otet `ala diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publi´esou non, lished or not. The documents may come from ´emanant des ´etablissements d'enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche fran¸caisou ´etrangers,des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou priv´es. Michel Feugère The Arms of the Romans Translated from the French by David G. SMITH, BA, FRNS Page facing ‘Contents’ (such indications refer to the French Edition, Errance 1993) Cover Illustration Mid-third century cavalryman equipped to participate in the hippika gymnasia, after a drawing by P. Connolly for the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz, reproduced here with their kind permission. The chamfron and the medallion on the horse, the face helmet and the leg protectors were found in the Straubing Hoard (Keim and Klumbach, 1951). The painted shield comes from excavations at Dura-Europos, after the preliminary field reports from 1933-34 and 1934-35, published in 1939. With reference to the overall appearance of the cavalryman, the number of javelins and the way they are held in the left hand together with the shield, see Arrian, Tactica, who describes these equestrian games in detail. See also pp189-91 of this book (CHECK PAGE NUMBERS IN ENGL. EDITION). Page : Facing Sommaire Acknowledgements It was the author's first meeting, in 1981,with Peter Connolly that gave him an insight for the first time into the technical and cultural aspects of the Roman army, and aroused his interest in spite of personal pacifist inclinations ; throughout the preparation of this book, English researchers have provided much valuable support. In Germany, I owe a large debt to the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum of Mainz, where E. Künzl has never stinted in his support, but I must also mention here my deep appreciation of the Römisch-Germanische Kommission in Frankfurt, whose successive directors have always given me a warm welcome, and in Munich J. Garbsch has been most patient and helpful. In France as abroad, there have been many site people, researchers and museum personnel who have welcomed me and helped me beyond measure. I should mention here D. Baatz (Saalburg), F. Beck (Saint-Germain-en-Laye), R. Birley (Vindolanda), L. Bonnamour (Chalon-sur-Saône), M. Cavalier (Avignon), L. Chabot (Les Pennes-Mirabeau), † H. Chapman (London), H. Chew (Saint-Germain-en-Laye), A. Duval (Saint-Germain-en-Laye), J.-M. Féménias (Lançon), F. Fischer (Bonn), A.-B. Follmann-Schulz (Bonn), M. Gustin (Ljubljana), M. Hassall (London), U. Heimberg (Bonn), O. Höckmann (Mainz), Chr. and Cl. Holliger (Vindonissa), J. Istenic (Ljubljana), H.-P. Kuhnen (Stuttgart & Aalen), F. Leyge (Lyon then St-Romain-en-Gal), M. Luik (then in Aalen), D.J. Marchant (Leeds), St. Martin-Kilcher (Basel), F. Naumann-Steckner (Köln), M. Pinette (Autun then Besançon), F. Rebecchi (Ferrara), A. Roth-Congès (Aix- en-Provence), B. Schnitzler (Strasbourg), I.M. Stead (London), M. Thauré (then in Saintes), G. Waurick (Mainz). I am also most grateful to P. Villard of the University of Aix-en-Provence for his translation of the Arrian text on the hippika gymnasia . Finally, I must thank Chr. Goudineau for his stimulus and F. Lontcho for the first editio, and I must not forget my father Joseph Feugère († 2000) who took on the thankless task of being the first reader, nor Y. Le Bohec who has improved the text through his wide knowledge of the Roman army. PAGES 5, 6 [referring to the pages of the French Edition, Errance 1993] — 1 — In terms of contemporary historical research, the Roman army seems to have been the preserve of Anglo-German scholars. Certainly, the presence of a Roman frontier in Britain and the Rhine-Danube limes in proximity to Germany have led to a considerable number of investigations into Roman military history, organisation and associated equipment in both countries, and as for the most part research results have been published either in English or German, France has found herself in recent years on the sidelines, a situation which for reasons of ancient geography does not seem to have caused her any great concern. However, it was in France, in the mid-nineteenth century under the Third Republic, that military archaeology was born, thanks to the passion of Napoléon III for Julius Caesar and his glorious victory in Gaul. Many factors were involved, including politics, but it is the results of this enthusiasm which should concern us here. From 1861 onwards, the Emperor initiated excavations into Alise-Sainte-Reine in Burgundy with the object of discovering more about Caesar’s siege of Alésia through the examination of his siege-works and finds of archaeological material; this project was largely successful, and led to the discovery of Roman military equipment and battle tactics which are still today at the heart of our knowledge of Roman weaponry. From 1867, the Musée des Antiquités Nationales — created by Napoléon III in 1862 — has assembled in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye collections in which the Roman army features prominently. Its first curator, Alexandre Bertrand, intended from the outset to display a reconstruction of one of Caesar’s soldiers, but this was thought to be too uncertain of success, and it was an early second century infantryman which was the model for Bartholdi’s sculpture, drawing largely on the reliefs displayed on Trajan’s Column. The Musée des Antiquités Nationales has from its foundation maintained strong links with the Römisch- Germanisches Zentralmuseum at Mainz, founded in 1802 and famous for its workshops for producing castings, and for its impressive collection of copies. These links benefited both organisations, and were an example to a world which had little time for cultural relations in the late nineteenth century, due to politico-military tensions. The links were further strengthened by the exchange of information, photographs and cast copies which are now the bases of first-class research resources and material. One of the first reconstructions of a Roman war machine, made for Napoléon III, was donated by the Emperor to the Mainz museum, though it was regrettably later destroyed during the Second World War. Although the 1914-18 war brought an abrupt end to the scientific collaboration between the two organisations, it was thanks to the Musée des Antiquités Nationales collections that Paul Couissin, a ‘humble teacher at Rennes Lycée’ to use the words of S. Reinach, decided at the start of the 1920’s to devote himself to a detailed study of Roman military equipment. This was a novel project, as there had been no French studies to continue the magisterial work by J. Déchelette on the Gaulish period, and it would be appropriate to make more widely known, and above all to update, the already ancient researches of Le Beau (1777), de Quicherat (1865, 1866), Lindenschmit (1858, 1865, 1882), Hübner (1881) and even of Schulten (1911, 1914), the excavator of Roman camps in Spain. Couissin's work, Les Armes Romaines published in 1926, established itself as a baseline for a number of advances; on the one hand, a closer study of existing depictions, notably the casts taken at the end of the nineteenth century of Trajan’s Column, and on the other, the study of ancient texts, a large number of which had been collected and published during the same period. Finally, there was archaeological fieldwork itself, where discoveries were clarifying, though often also questioning, the results obtained by traditional ‘deskwork’ methods. Since Couissin's time, there has been no overall work on Roman military equipment and weapons published in France. This deficiency, definitely linked with the spectacular advances in military archaeology in countries bordering a limes, illustrates the great impact of archaeological excavations and researches on traditional learning, notwithstanding the greatly increased workload imposed on archaeological leadership resources. There have been so many discoveries in recent years in Britain, Germany, the Low Countries and Switzerland that our knowledge of Roman military equipment and weapons has been completely revised. PAGE 6 In the past few years, however, there has been a reappearance of military archaeological programmes in France. The excavations carried out on Roman camps at Arlaines, Mirebeau and Aulnay-de-Saintonge, the recent identification of a new camp at Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, remind us that our country has perhaps been pushed aside too rapidly in a discipline to which we too can make a large contribution. — 2 — We therefore have to catch up, and the new excavations at Alésia, the projects in the valley of the Saône and other regions, all show that archaeological teams are hard at work. This book has only one purpose; to provide these teams with a handy reference work which is as complete as possible. PAGE 7-8 Among ancient societies, war appears to have been indissolubly associated with the evolution and even the definition of the group waging it. Starting from a simple spontaneous clash between two clans with different views, war developed as cities and townships developed. In France, the earliest conflicts between groups go back to the Neolithic period, the time when populations were starting to lead a settled existence, with livestock, pastures, cultivated fields and permanent buildings. From that time on, war, property and power became interwoven, and it is only in our own times that society has realised that political differences can be resolved by other means, and that war is a very primitive way of settling disagreements between communities.