Aquila ( lat. Aquila - “eagle”) - a sign of the legion in the ancient Roman army in the form of an eagle, made of silver or gold and placed on a pole, often decorated with metal rings ( phalerae ). Maria appeared with the reform . The warrior who carried the aquila on the march was called the aquilifer .
Aquila, the symbol of the eagle, was surrounded by religious reverence, for the eagle was considered the symbol of Jupiter . The loss of aquila on the battlefield was considered a terrible dishonor (the legion, which had lost aquila, had to be disbanded), so the Roman soldiers were ready to die in order to return the symbol. Aquila was constantly kept in a room known as lat. principiorum aedes , which was under the tutelage of the first centurion of the legion ( primus pilus ).
... behind them were the banners and in the midst of them an eagle, which the Romans have at the head of every legion. As the king of the birds and the strongest of them, the eagle serves as the emblem of dominance and the forerunner of victory over any enemy against which they oppose.
- Josephus Flavius . The Jewish War [1]
Interesting Facts
- In the novel by Rosemary Sutcliffe “The Eagle of the Ninth Legion ” and its adaptation (2011), the name of this character of the legion is played out in the name of the protagonist (Mark Flavius Aquila);
- One of the members of the collegium of people's tribunes of the Roman Republic in 45 BC. e. was a certain Lucius Pontius Aquila ( lat. L. Pontius Aquila ), the opponent of Guy Julius Caesar in the Senate [2] .
See also
- Roman standard
- Denominator (military affairs)
- Aquilifer
Notes
- ↑ Jewish war. Third book. Chapter Six . Date of treatment July 26, 2014 .;
- ↑ Guy Suetonius Tranquill . The life of the twelve Caesars . Caesar , Ch. LXXVIII, § 2.
Links
- Signa Militaria , by James Yates, in the public domain A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (pp. 1044-1046)