The Second Triumvirate was formed in 43 BCE, dividing governorship of the Roman world between Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus (ignoring Sextus for now). Renewed in 37 BCE, Mark Antony’s ‘zone’ was essentially the eastern empire, which he ruled first from Ephesus and later from Alexandria in Egypt. During his 10 year rule he of course had control of the legions stationed in his territory, and could use them to make war as he saw fit, the most famous example of which was his disastrous invasion of neighbouring Parthia in 36 BCE. When the triumvirate ended, Antony’s frosty relationship with Octavian turned into open war, and he moved a huge army to Greece as if to invade Italy, but was defeated at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE and committed suicide the following year.
Several companies have made republican Romans, and many of these represent the normal appearance of a Roman soldier at the end of the republic. What this set from Linear-A does is explore some of the many variations in that appearance, because however much we might like to think of ancient armies dressed more or less uniformly, the reality was much less neat. In an age when transport could be difficult and dangerous, Roman legions stationed in foreign lands would often have to look to local resources to meet their needs, and whether through choice or necessity, this gave them something of the look of the locale they inhabited. Of course not all legions were made up of Italians anyway, and when Antony was recruiting new legions for his expedition against Octavian, he famously granted Roman citizenship to many ‘barbarians’ simply because they were prepared to fight for him. Although not strictly legions, Antony was also able to call on the forces of numerous client kingdoms in Anatolia and elsewhere, as well as auxiliaries and stationarii (local para-military police units), so the forces under his command were varied, and doubtless presented quite a mixed image. This set offers us a glimpse into this colourful and varied band.
As usual, the back of the box gives us a breakdown of what each figure is supposed to be, so we repeat this here.
Row 1
- Legionary, armour in Hellenistic style
- Legionary, armour in Hellenistic style
- Legionary, originally from the Legio XXII Deiotariana
- Legionary with helmet in the form of a Phrygian cap, Legio IIII Scythica/Legio IIII Parthica
- Legionary, Legio XII Antiqua
Row 2
- Greek mercenary archer of the auxiliary parts of the Roman army
- Greek mercenary archer of the auxiliary parts of the Roman army
- Centurion of Antonius bodyguard
- Roman Legatus, armour in Hellenistic style
- (Not listed)
Taking the box as a whole, clearly the major theme here is a Hellenistic one. Some of Antony’s legions were held in Greece, and ever since the days of Alexander, Greek style had been fashionable in much of the eastern Mediterranean, so it is reasonable to accept that some of Antony’s troops had quite a Greek look to them. Taking a closer look, we begin with the helmets, which for six of the poses is the Montefortino type with a central plume that was normal legionary wear at this time. One man has a later version of this with a reinforcing flange to protect the forehead – a step on the way to the classic imperial helmet of a later date - and the swordsman has what looks like a form of attic helmet. The man carrying his spear upright wears a Phrygian cap, or rather a helmet made in the same shape, and the centurion wears another attic-style helmet with a transverse crest. All but two of the poses wear decidedly Greek body armour too, being the classic linen linothorax and rows of pteruges around the waist and shoulders. They all also wear a wide leather belt, and all but the swordsman also wear a long cloak. The last figure in our top row wears an ordinary shirt that almost covers the tunic, but has been given a very strange surface texture which we could not identify. It is a lovely swirling pattern, but does not look like any armour we have ever seen, though we can only assume it is meant to be mail or possibly scale; poorly done in either case. From a distance however this figure will look fine. The centurion is interesting in that he wears a padded cuirass as well as pteruges at shoulder and waist, which seems perfectly possible, especially as he is in a special unit (a bodyguard). None of the figures have any sort of protection on arms or legs, although many have long-sleeved tunics, which was a Macedonian and Thracian fashion at the time. In summary then, all the clothing here seems perfectly possible, and looks like it is based on finds and images of the time, although how widespread any of it was cannot be properly assessed in the modern era.
Most of the legionaries in the top row carry the pilum, the usual Roman spear with the thin head that was meant primarily for throwing. Here it has been made very long, and also very thick. Lengths did vary, but the thickness is clearly a way to keep the model from breaking rather than being completely accurate (as all figures are complete, with no separate parts), so an understandable compromise given the inflexible material used. The swordsman has drawn his gladius, which like most of the legionaries here is stowed in a scabbard on the left side, suspended by a baldric. This is the opposite side to the ‘normal’ position for Roman legionaries at this time, but again, perhaps these ‘legionaries’ were raised locally and trained to have the sword on the opposite side. The centurion does follow contemporary convention by having his sword on the left, as does the last man in the top row. Equally un-Roman however is the fact that none of these men have a pugio, the dagger that normal (i.e. western) legionaries routinely campaigned with. The two Greek auxiliaries both carry a bow, which is pretty large and again very thick (doubtless for the same reason as the spears). They are pre-strung, and while there is a quiver of arrows on their backs, there is no sign of a case for the bow on either man.
The shields carried by the legionaries and the centurion are conventional for Roman armies of the day, being oval, slightly curved, and with a central grip and a ‘barleycorn’ spine and boss on the front. There is no pattern engraved on them, but each has a panel near the top with what look like Egyptian hieroglyphics on them. This is about the only feature here that seems to back up the mention of Egypt in the set title, but is it right? We could find no specific information on the matter, but in general by this time hieroglyphics were only used in formal settings and for important religious texts, which is why we see them so often on surviving temples and palaces. For everyday use the Egyptians used the Demotic or hieratic script, so it seems very unlikely that the highly specialised and formal hieroglyphics would have been used to adorn a humble shield. However this engraving is very shallow, and easily obliterated with paint if desired. The two archers carry flat, round shields, which presumably reflects their own local custom. Again with a central hand grip and undecorated, they are rather large for someone that needs both hands to use their weapon, but not necessarily incorrect.
Special mention must be made of the last two poses. To begin with, only one is mentioned on the box (the first one), while a figure of a man standing with shield resting on the ground does not appear in the set, presumably due to production problems encountered after the boxes were printed. Instead we find the identical pose to figure nine, except that his baton ends with a cobra-head rather than just square like the first legatus or legate. Legates were essentially commanders of a whole legion, but we were not aware that they were usually given, or took, batons or whatever these two figures are holding. Once again, this might reflect their own local custom – we simply do not have enough information on that to contradict what has been modelled here – and in particular we cannot comment on what significance if any is attached to the cobra-head on one pose. It smacks of an emergency 10th pose when something went wrong with the first choice, but that is just speculation. What it does mean is you get fewer figures than the box promises (36 rather than 40), and four legates for 32 soldiers, which is a bit excessive by any standard.
The poses in general are not particularly energetic, and all except perhaps for two in the top row seem very relaxed and so clearly not in the presence of the enemy. Figures can come in any pose of course, but we take the view that unless the set title says otherwise, most people would expect poses in combat, which applies to few here. As a result, while the poses are all perfectly reasonable and even useful, we have marked down the score for pose quality. Equally, we have scored for pose number as if there were nine, which effectively there are, though some of these are very similar to each other.
These 3D-printed figures are beautifully designed and simply gorgeous to look at. Apart from the mystery armour of one man, all the detail and textures are wonderful, and of course benefit from the method of production, meaning there is no loss of detail, nor any flash or excess plastic. Only 3D printing can really allow for these figures to be delivered exactly as they are seen above, with no sperate parts to assemble, giving an astonishing level of detail and a highly natural look to all the figures, regardless of the position of their limbs, weapons or shields. There has been one rather obvious error however, which is down to the designer rather than the manufacturing process. The last figure in the top row holds his shield upside down, which is perhaps understandable in the middle of a chaotic battle when it worked much the same either way up. What is not understandable however is that the bar which the man grips is about one-third the way along the length of the shield, a long way from the mid point where it should be. Naturally this also means it is no longer behind the reinforced boss on the front, which makes no sense, and indeed some of the others also have grips that are not central. It is not very obvious, but it does look strange once you notice.
Perhaps there is one more thing to say on the subject of accuracy here, and that is about the title of the set, not the figures themselves. We find it highly doubtful that any Roman would have considered himself ‘in Egypt service’. On the whole Roman soldiers of all ranks were disgusted with the way Mark Antony ‘went native’ with the queen of Egypt, which is part of the reason his army more or less went over willingly to Octavian when it had the chance, causing Antony’s ruin. The attitude of auxiliaries and client states would have been more complex, but Antony certainly weakened his position by his personal relationships, something that Octavian’s propaganda made good use of. While there is too little evidence of the look of Antony’s troops in the east to be certain of how they appeared en masse, nothing in this collection of figures seems particularly unlikely apart from the easily-hidden hieroglyphics, and even that is not something we can prove to be wrong. The poses may be fairly sedate but these are little works of art, beautiful to behold, and if you want to jazz up your ranks of Antony’s army with a more exotic look then these are definitely the figures to do it.