Charles Ede, Greek and Roman Terracotta Sculpture V (1975) no. 16.

1978.15

Figurine of a Soldier

Purchased. Max. ht 11.9cm.

Intact and in fairly good condition but for the crest of the helmet which is missing. Brown clay, fairly rough in the break but smoothly finished, with traces of fine mica.

The figurine is hollow, the front part made in a mould but covered at the back with a sheet of clay that had a roughly triangular vent-hole cut through it. There are traces of white slip over most external surfaces, and some slight traces of black paint remain over the figure.

The soldier is depicted moving right. He is helmeted, apparently with flaps covering his cheeks, wears body-armour formed of flexible strips, greaves, and carries a large oval shield on his left arm. The details of the face and body-armour are quite finely done, but the treatment of the legs (and greaves) is more summary. There appear to be protective strips on his right upper arm, but the detail is unclear (in part through the attachment of the back piece of clay). His right hand is held as if with spear or sword, but no traces remain of how one might have been attached. This must be a secondary version from which that detail has disappeared. The figurine is designed to be seen from the front only, but the archetype was quite likely three-dimensional and would have had a back- as well as a front-mould.

For discussions of Roman soldiers and their appearance, see H.R. Robinson, The Armour of Imperial Rome (London 1975); P. Connolly, Greece and Rome at War (London 1981); M.C. Bishop (ed.), The Production and Distribution of Roman Military Equipment (British Archaeological Reports, International Series 275, Oxford 1985); M. Dawson (ed.), Roman Military Equipment: The Accoutrements of War (British Archaeological Reports, International Series 336, Oxford 1987); J.C. Coulston (ed.), Military Equipment and the Identity of Roman Soldiers (British Archaeological Reports, International Series 394, Oxford 1988); and M.C. Bishop and J.C. Coulston, Roman Military Equipment (Shire Archaeology, Aylesbury 1989).

The frieze with sacrificial scene from the so-called Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus in the Louvre has a figure standing just to the left of the central altar who wears armour of this general kind. This figure is often, and probably rightly, taken as Mars, as recipient of the offerings. (For illustrations and discussion, see for example F. Coarelli,  “L’ “ara di Domizio Enobarbo” e la cultura artistica in Roma nel II secolo a.C.”, Dialoghi di archeologia 2, 1968, 302-368; M. Torelli, Typology and Structure of Roman Historical Reliefs (Ann Arbor 1982) 5-16); A. Kuttner, “Some New Grounds for Narrative. Marcus Antonius’s Base (the Ara Domitii Ahenobarbi) and Republican Biographies”, in: P.J. Holliday (ed.), Narrative and Event in Ancient Art (Cambridge 1993) 198-229; F. Stilp, Mariage et suovetaurilia. Étude sur le soi-disant ‘Autel de Domitius Ahenobarbus’ (RdA Suppl. 26, Rome 2001.) There has been a great deal of debate between scholars about the date of the frieze, but current opinion is tending to suggest the turn of the second and first centuries BC.

The fact that the figurine is in a secondary or even tertiary version makes it difficult to date: it could easily be some fifty years later than its archetype. If one supposes that that was not far removed in date from the so-called Ahenobarbus Frieze (which is not necessarily so), then it may belong in the late first century BC.

Its function, too, is unclear: it could perhaps have been a toy although it is curious in that case that the soldier was made without a weapon.

Charles Ede, Greek and Roman Terracotta Sculpture V (1975) no. 16.