HESPERIA 68.2, I999 A $HIELD MONUMEN F ROM VE RIA AN T CHRONO LOY OF /vACEDON IAN $HIElDI TYPES In the summer of 1978 I noticed a sculpture in relief of shields and corse- lets on a marble wall situated on a main street of the ancient city of Dion in Macedonia; Demetrios Pantermalis, the archaeologist in charge of the excavations,told me of a series of blocks with carved shields in Veria in the sculpture garden of the Archaeological Museum and in a tower of the old city wall.1 The sculptures appear to have been part of the same ancient monument, and I observed that traditional Greek hoplite shields with off- set rims about 95 cm in diameter appearedside by side with rimless shields of relatively flat curvature about 70 cm in diameter.2To my knowledge, this combination of both types of shields on the same structure is unique in the archaeological remains of Macedonia. The smaller shields resemble in size and shape the shields employed by the Macedonian phalanx, as described by Asclepiodotus (Tactics5.1). They were smaller than the tra- ditional Greek hoplite type and, instead of being fitted on the inside with 1. I would like to thank, in addition for a permit and placed the facilities of victory of Pyrrhusover Demetrius at to Demetrios Pantermalis,Homer the museum at my disposal,and to Veria.Most recently,Stella Miller- Thompson and MargaretMiles for Maria Siganidou for allowing me to Collett has sent me photocopies of advice and help in the beginning of my spend so much time distractingthe relevantmaterial so that I could update study of the marbleblocks belonging to curators,guards, and workmen in her this article,and I am most gratefulfor this monument;neither of them has ephoria.Thanks also to the museum her help, as most of these publications seen the resultsof my reconstruction guard,Giannis Papadopoulosof Nea are not yet availablein Australian and so must not be taken to agreewith Nikomedia, whose excellent English libraries. it. I have also been assistedwith was frequentlybrought to the aid of my A short, unrevisedversion of this problemsin the reconstructionby inadequateGreek and who was the first articlewas given as a conferencepaper masterbuilder Kevin Fox. I am to make me feel welcome. Scholarswho to the Second InternationalCongress on thankfulfor the encouragementof have heardthis articlepresented as a Macedonian Studies at the Universityof Photis Petsas,one of the archaeologists paper at seminarsand conferencesand Melbourne in July 1991, and has chiefly responsiblefor the establish- whose comments have influencedmy appearedinAncientMacedonia:An ment of the ArchaeologicalMuseum at revisionsare Willie Childs,Julia AustralianSymposium, P. J. Connor, ed. Veria,who as ephor worked to preserve Vocotopoulou,Malcolm Errington,and (MeditArch7 [1994]), pp. 83-97. the tower and who publishedthe first Eugene Borza. I am grateful,as always, 2. I first published my opinion photographsof the structure.I am most to Nicholas Hammond, who first about the significanceof these shields gratefulto curatorsKaterina Tsakalou- suggested to me at a seminarat the with a photographof the tower and a Tzanavariand VictoriaAllamani-Souri, Universityof Queensland in 1984 that line drawingin Markle 1981, p. 93, who supportedme in my application the monument might celebratethe figs. 9, 10. American School of Classical Studies at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Hesperia ® www.jstor.org 220 MINOR M. MARKLE _ v ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~... ........ v .4,~ ~ ~ ~~~~Al -~,..:.v,,, .os,.S._ Figure 1. Veria,tower of ancientcity wall, north front a central arm-ring and handle, were equipped with a strap, or telamon, to enable the infantryman to have both hands free to hold the long and cum- bersome sarissa.At the time I first saw this monument none of these small 3. See, e.g., Hammond and Griffith shields had yet been identified in the archaeological record.3 Since then, 1979, p. 421 and notes 3 and 4. however, other representations of this shield type have been found, and a Hammond, who is very knowledgeable fragment in bronze of one such shield was recently found and published.4 about the archaeologicalevidence, writes I have identified thirteen blocks of marble as belonging to this monu- regardingthe smallershield used with ment, five of which have representations of shields in sculptured relief; the sarissa,"I have not seen a representa- tion of a Macedonian shield which eight blocks without shields can be assigned to the monument with cer- illustratesthis" (note 4). tainty because they share the same crown molding as two of the shield 4. For representationson tombs, see blocks and because of their size and general appearance.Study of the blocks Karametrou-Menteside1987, figs. 1, 7, has indicated that they originally formed part of a freestanding monu- photographson pp. 35-36, and esp. p. ment base of which only the front side had representations of shields in 30, where the descriptionand dimen- sions of the shields are given; also relief; the base would probably have supported a statue or statue group. Andronikos 1993, pp. 198-199, the Following a detailed account of my reconstruction of the monument base facade of the "Prince'sTomb"; dimen- will be a list of other examples of the use of shields in relief sculpture as sions of shields are not given, but the architectural decoration in Greece, especially on tombs, battle trophies, absence of an offset rim denotes the and monuments. smallertype of shield. For bronze I will argue that although one of the types of hoplite shield repre- fragmentsof this type of shield, see Adam-Veleni 1993; estimated diameter sented on this monument was employed by the Macedonian infantry, in given on p. 19, photographson pp. 25- particular the hypaspists, from about 360 to about 300 B.C., the monu- 28. Possibly also of this type is the ment itselfwas erected later and representsan earlierstyle of hoplite shield. fragmentof a bronze Macedonian shield A SHIELD MONUMENT FROM VERIA 22I Figure2. Veria,tower of ancientcity wall,west side The combination of these two kinds of shields on one monument is likely to have been intended to commemorate an infantry victory, and the monu- ment may possibly have celebrated the bloodless victory of King Pyrrhus from Dodona dedicatedby King Pyrrhus from the spoils of the battle against the of Epirus over Demetrius in 287 B.C.-which took place at Veria-after Macedonianking Antigonus Gonatas at which Pyrrhus was proclaimed king of Macedonia by the army assembly, Aous Gorge in 274 B.C.: Dakaris 1993, the infantry holding the majority. It must be stressed, however, that the pp. 15 and 19, fig. 13. Though no purpose attributed to the monument is only a suggestion, since very little estimate of the diameteris given, the material culture pertaining to Veria in this period has been recovered and fragmenthas an offset rim and re- sembles closely the fragmentpublished contemporary sources are extremely scarce. by Adam-Veleni. 5. For a detailed map of the city of Veria,see the foldout map included at CATALOGUE OF BLOCKS the end of Drougou and Touratsoglou 1980. For an account of the wall and its The blocksdesignated by the lettersC, D, and E andby the numbers1 to history,see Petkos 1997. 6. The molding is a cyma recta type 8 areto be foundon the northfront and west side of a towerforming part identified as a crown molding by Lucy of the fortificationwall of Veriaof the 3rd centuryA.C. (see Figs. 1, 2). Shoe (1952, pl. XXX: Cyma Recta, I. This tower is locatedabout 80 meterseast of the modernroad to Thes- Sima [1-7]; II. Miscellaneous [8-10]). salonikewhere it enters the old walled city.5In the constructionof the None of these moldings precisely tower the blocks from the shield monumentwere placed upside down; resemblesthat on the shield monument, but the closest would be no. 1 on this the crownmoldings are presently at the bottomsrather than at the tops of plate,but without the lower end the blocks.6The blocksI havecalled A andB areto be foundin the sculp- terminatingin a convex curve. turegarden of the ArchaeologicalMuseum of Veria(Figs. 3-10). 222 MINOR M. MARKLE BLOCKS WITH SHIELDS BlockA Figs. 3-6 L. 2.035; H. 0.500;Th. (excludingshields) 0.280 m. Though considerabledamage has occurredto this block at the back,the face is in quitegood condition,and overallthe stateof the blockis such that the dimensionsgiven aboveare reliable. Dimensions of shields(see Fig. 3): left shield:Diam. 0.760, Th. at center0.080 m; right shield: Diam. 0.730, Th. at center0.095 m. Other features:(Figs. 3, 4): on the top a pry hole is located0.935 m 10 20 30 40 50cm Figure3. BlockA Figure4. Block A, top Figure5. Block A, bottom _s. _ _ _ _ Figure6. BlockA, front A SHIELD MONUMENT FROM VERIA 223 from the right end, and 0.025 m to the left of the pry hole is a weather line produced by the vertical joint of two blocks placed on top of block A; a rectangulardowel hole touches this line to the left, and two swal- lowtail clamp cuttings are found in the rear;square dowel holes are located close to both ends of this block, the one on the right with a channel cutting leading toward the near side, and, finally, there is a badly worn rectangulardowel hole with a channel cut extending from the rear of it to the back of the block about 0.09 m to the right of the right-hand swallowtail cut, the purpose of which is not at all clear to me. The bottom of block A (Figs. 3, 5) has two rectangulardowel holes, each about 0.20 m more or less from the ends.