LOT 0683

'The Kempsey' Roman Bronze Military Eagle Statuette

CIRCA 43-410 A.D.

3 in. (180 grams total, 76 mm high including stand).

Modelled in the round as a standing eagle with its wings spread, the overlapping wingtips covering the short tail; incised feather detailing to the body and wings, wide head with detailed eyes, remains of a military insignia (a victory wreath or fish?) held in its hooked beak; mounted on a custom-made display stand. [No Reserve]

Found Kempsey, Malvern Hills, Worcestershire, UK.

Accompanied by a copy of the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) report no.WAW-19C7C8.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

See Portable Antiquities Scheme nos. HAMP-5ED544, WAW-7EC54A and DENO-323D62, for similar examples; Rolland, H., Bronzes Antiques de Haute Provence, Paris, 1965, item 268.

Both Ovid and Plutarch place the inception of manipular ensigns with Romulus, where bundles (manipuli) of hay were tied to high poles which served as rallying points for units of the army. Eventually, icons of animals replaced these ensigns: the eagle, wolf, Minotaur, horse, and boar. In 107 B.C., Gaius Marius made sweeping military reforms and the Aquila became the sole standard of the legion, which according to (Pliny NH. 10.5.16) ‘By making the Aquila the standard for all legions improved unity and gave soldiers a symbol that expressed their attachment to an all-encompassing body, to which the soldiers’ loyalty could be directed’. Due to its place at the head of each legion, it became the emblem of the Roman legions, which enforced Roman rule in the provinces, giving the eagle its connotation of dominion.