The Caged Eagle
Angus McBride and the Aquila of Legio II Parthica
Imperial Roman Legionary AD 161-284 features a dramatic battle scene by the late Angus McBride.
It depicts a civil war clash between the Praetorian Guard and Second Parthica Legion. Both units were present at the battle fought by Macrinus and Elagabalus at Imma on 8 June AD 217. The praetorians fought heroically for Macrinus, until he lost his nerve and fled the field and Second Parthica sided with Elagabalus. But the position of units in the opposing lines is not known and it was pure speculation on my part to have the closely-associated regiments collide head-on.
I was not entirely thrilled on learning that Angus McBride had been commissioned to produce the artwork for Roman Legionary 58 BC - AD 69 and Imperial Roman Legionary AD 161-284 (both published by Osprey in 2003). If McBride had created the cover of a heroic fantasy novel by David Gemmell, I probably would have loved it. Imagine mighty Druss, the Captain of the Axe, painted by Angus McBride! But I thought his Conan-esque figures looked ridiculous in historical contexts. My favourite illustrator was, and remains, Peter Connolly, but McBride got the gig and did a splendid job. (As did Steven Dp Richardson. When photographic permissions could not be secured or licensing fees were prohibitively high, Steven stepped into the breach and quickly prepared sketches of helmets, swords and other relevant artefacts.)
Like all Osprey authors do, I conceived the illustrations and put together design briefs and pictorial reference packages for the artist to work from. The Osprey artist is not required to have any knowledge of the historical period s/he is illustrating. It is not a collaborative process. I had no contact with McBride. My editors at Osprey forwarded the design packages to him and I later received A3-sized colour proofs of the artwork from the publisher. Despite my reservations about his style, McBride followed the briefs closely. I was told McBride was an irascible character and would not make changes to his work, but when I requested minor alterations to three of the illustrations, he did so promptly and apparently without comment. However, Legionary 58 BC -AD 69 went to press with the uncorrected illustrations.
The best illustration in Legionary 58 BC - AD 69 is the last stand of Marcus Caelius and the veterans of the Eighteenth Legion in the Teutoburg Forest (AD 9). One look at the cenotaph of Caelius tells you everything. The centurion was hard-faced, powerfully built and laden with the most prestigious military awards for acts of high valour. He was a bellator (warrior). You know that Caelius went down fighting. McBride captured that warrior spirit perfectly.
McBride was in playful mood when working on the illustrations for Legionary AD 161-284. Dainty songbirds flit around the feet of Herculean legionaries and a muscle-bound emperor Marcus Aurelius. This whimsy excited no comment from the Osprey fanboys, who collect the books for the artwork and have little interest in the text. The Battle of Imma illustration, however, was criticized on hobbyisy forums and in reviews on Amazon. That the praetorians and legionaries fought without body armour (suggested by Dio 78.37.4), or even helmets, went unnoticed. The problem was the standard carried by the aquilifer of the Second.
Felsonius Verus, a native of Etruria and aquilifer (eagle-bearer) of the Second Parthica Legion, died during the Persian War of Gordian III. He was commemorated by his wife, Flavia Magna, at Apamea in Syria (AE 1991, 1572). The fortress of Second Parthica was at Albanum (Albano) near Rome, but Apamea acted as the legion’s base for campaigns against the Parthians in AD 216-218, and the Persians in AD 231-233 and 242-244 (when Verus died).
Verus’ tombstone was rediscovered by Belgian archaeologists in 1986/87. It depicts the deceased with a most unusual aquila (eagle standard). Instead of the typical shaft topped by a proud raptor clutching a thunderbolt or wreath in its talons, Verus’ eagle peeks out of container with X-shaped bars. The excavators initially considered this “a very strange and abberant model of an aquila, which deserves more study” but later concluded the eagle “was clearly a live one in a cage” (Balty 1988, 101; Balty & Van Rengen, 1994, 12).
I was very taken with Balty and Van Rengen’s interpretation and decided to have Felsonius Verus’ predecessor carry a live eagle mascot in the battle of Imma reconstruction. I also sought permission from Balty and Van Rengen to reproduce images of Verus’ gravestone, but my request went unanswered. Quality, CC-licensed photographs of the monument can now be found on Flickr or the excellent vici.org, but sourcing images was not so simple at the dawn of the 21st century.
Pictures of the Apamea aquilifer were included in the design package but the artist, perhaps mischievously, or perhaps feeling that an actual bird would not be contained by crossbars, made a notable change. McBride’s bold aquilifer advances determinedly with an fierce eagle hunched in what looks like a parrot cage. Cue scowls, and the occasional howl of outrage, from Osprey fans.
The complaints were justified. Felsonius Verus was not in charge of an actual eagle; the Roman legions did not have live animal mascots like British army regiments do. The aquila was the genius (spirit) of the legion, a sacred totem made of silver and plated with gold. What is depicted on the gravestone of Felsonius Verus is a gilded statuette in a portable aedicula (shrine). The aquila left its aedes (temple) in the fortress only when the complete legion went to war (Dio 40.18.1). The mini-aedicula held by Verus acted a as protective case while the legion was on the march but still allowed the sacred aquila to be seen (Stoll 1991).
Other iconography indicates that aedicula-cases were removed for battle and the eagles brandished in their full golden glory. But would Angus McBride’s painting, which also graced the cover of the book, have been so arresting if the aquilifer had carried an uncovered aquila? Probably not.
References
J. Ch. Balty, ‘Apamea in Syria in the Second and Third Centuries A.D.’, Journal of Roman Studies 78 (1988), 91-104
J. Ch. Balty & W. Van Rengen, Apamea in Syria: The Winter Quaters of Legio II Parthica (Brussels 1993)
O. Stoll, ‘Der Adler im “Käfig”. Zu einer Aquilifer-Grabstele aus Apamea in Syrien’, Archäologische Korrespondenzblatt 21,4 (1991), 535-538. Reprinted with addenda in Stoll, Römisches Heer und Gesellschaft. Gesammelte Beiträge 1991-1999. MAVORS 13 (Stuttgart 1991), 13-46