re ea ua THE LEPONTIUS RELIEF A JAE ROMAN INFAN’RYMAN A second look at just about any ancient relief is often rewarded with new insights. Not every relief is what it appears or is generally ‘known’ to be. One example is the relief housed at the Musée Rohan, in Strasbourg, France. (ne of the surviving ‘copies ofthe sand: stone slab found in Strasbourg in 1737. © tareasaay rubles By Robert Vermaat he sandstone slab measures 07cm in height and is 61cm wide and 10cm thick. Its de- scribed as something like “Fu- neral stele of Lepontius, a Ro- man standard bearer of the Eighth Legion.” ‘The inscription, CIL XIll 59890, reads “Lepon- tius(2) [JANI / I-12" is puzzling to say the least, and readers of Ancient Warfare have all seen itbefore as depicting a fourth-century Roman infantryman. He certainly looks the part: a plumed helmet covering a stern-faced infantryman, armed with a spatha, holding a ‘hasta and a ound scutum, atypical cruciform fibula adorning the sagum. The Roman name “Lepontius’ crowns the stele and seemingly rounds off the identification. Plenty of ques- tions and mysteries, however, surround this object. Find The history ofthis stone goes back to 1737, when it was unearthed in a cellar of Rue BrOlée 9 in the city of Stras- bourg, during excavations lead by Jean-Dani flin (1694-1779) professor, who once had Goethe in his classes, was very active researching the ancient history of Strasbourg. His collection, housed in his private museum, eventually became the foundation of the 50 Ancient Warfare Xil-2 Strasbourg Archaeological Museum. Unfor- tunately, hardly any deiails are known of the circumstances of the find itself. Schoepflin published a short description in Latin as well 8a drawing, and he had no less than three ‘casts made. This turned out to be very fortu- nate, because when Strasbourg was besieged by Prussian forces during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871, an atillery bombardment destroyed the Musée Schoepflin on August 24, 1870. Many irreplaceable objects, in- cluding the original stele of Lepontius, disap- peared forever. The casts Schoepflin had made are now part of the collections of the Musée archéologique de Strassbourg/Palais Rohan (Strasbourg), the Musée du Chateau des Ro- han (Saverne) and the Musée d'Archéologie Nationale (Saint-Germain-en-Laye). The fact that we are dealing with a copy presents us with some problems because ‘many original details, no matter how well the casts were made, are now lost to us. Damaged parts as well as possible traces of paint can no longer be researched. Name, rank and number [No matter how well-known the name Lepon- tius may be to us today, the fact remains that it ‘must remain doubtful. The original description as published by Schoepflin read: “LE(.JON- TIUS [--JALLI-] ff [—1?, ie. a horizontal inscription in which the left side is somewhat legible but the right side is entirely unreadable and cannot be reconstructed. The casts clearly show the damage tothe lettering. The fist part algo shows damage above the helmet, but a name is clearly visible. Schoepfin was the first to guess the name “Lepontius’, and, even if he tined out to be correct, the name would be unique. It occurs nowhere else among Ro- man inscriptions. There were dozens of people named Leontius, but no other name even re- sembles Lepontius. Inserting other letters does not help, nor does 2 theory that the name may be read as LE[.JONDVS. Lepontius might re- fer to the Leponti, a people of Cisalpine Gaul, ‘modem Val Leventina on the Ticinus, which would make him a (descendant of a tribe in southern Switzerland, The next mystery concems the animal flanking the man on his left side. Again, an easy identification would be that this is a military standard bearer. The animal is inter-The helmet shows some markings that can be interpreted either as the decorations of an Intrcisastyl rdge helmet or as an Intention of the att to depict the bands ofa spangenhelm. The helmet is adorned ‘with something, perhaps plumes or ribbons. (ne is leary visible onthe right side of the helmet, but close examination reveals a similar one onthe let The choice was made to show the reconstruction of an eaty type ‘of spangentelm decorated with horsehal. preted by many as a military standard show- ing a cockerel, but close examination forces. us to doubt this identifica. tion. The animal seems to be standing on what is either an elaborately carved stick, oF perhaps even a piece of architecture like an arch, which does not continue to the ground like the rest ofthe soldier and his equipment. The animal in fact does not seem to be attached to this structure, but rather seems to be modelled (ona live animal, looking over its shoulder. In fact, much speaks against an explanation as a standard bearer. That, again, would have to be unique object in the Roman military, espe- Cially in the late Roman army where besides the eagle standard the draco had become the norm for every co- even the emperor. An- cther explanation wold be to look for a relation between the man and the animal. The Latin name of the cockerel being gallus, this could point to him being from the Gallic dio ccese or even point to the destroyed sec- cond part of his personal name, making it Lepontius Gallus, "the Gaul". Of course, this has to remain pure speculation. Asis clear by now, no unit is men- tioned on the relief. Due to the fact, however, thatthe monument was found ina cellar inside the modem town of Strasbourg, the soldier has generally been assigned to Legio Vill Augusta, This legion was garrisoned here from the Batavian revolt to atleast the mid- dle fourth century. Such an identifica tion also depends on the dating of this relief however. Some have dated this stone to the third century, qualy fc a the helmet i the choice of body armout The verical lines may pot to a tunica, but the upper right arm seems to show ptenges, which would have been attached toa subarmalis indicating the an Ist was trying to show body armour. For the reconstruction seal armour (loca squa- ‘mate) was chose, but mall (orca hamata) ould also have been a possibilty. tn the reconstruction a longer lance hasta) was chosen over the one ‘shown on the stele ~ many longer has- tae are mentioned 3s wel as shown in ‘sources and this one may be typically NP shortened to the stone The shield obscures alt ofthe body, but a broad bet (cingulum) i visible. The typical late Roman long sword (spatha) could be ‘suspended from that bel, but ts possible that a separate bald isin tum obscured by the cloak, which covers much ofthe body and 's fastened bya typical late Roman cruciform ‘ula Similar posible fs another (hidden) shield suspension bet, which would explain the manner in which the shield cared. The ‘od structure under the shield has defied any logical explanation ~ it's neither part ofthe ‘object on which the cockerl stand, nor any ofthe soldier's equipment. The shield decora tion belongs tothe Octavani, the posible late Roman remainder of Lepo Vil Augusta. ‘The lower legs and shoes are not carved in much detail, and the choice was made for reaves (ocrae) and simple shoes (campagi. Ancient Warfare Xil-2 51(eft) Palas Rohan, strasbourg, France. The former palace of the prince-bishops of strasbourg now houses three museums, among, them the Musée archéologiqu. © wines Commons, use Zon (op right) Port of jean-Daniel ‘Schoen (1694-1773) discov. eer of the stone and founder of, Strasbourg’ first archaeological (9 kngaing by LL, pul domain (Gottom right) Detal ofthe appar- ent cockerel on the monument. It seems to represent alive animal, looking over its shoulder. (© faransaray Publishes Ancient Warfare Xil-2 which would make Legio VII Augusta an easy choice, but the soldiers equipment suggests a middle-fourth century date to most. An even later date may be possible as well. The problem is that sometime during the early fourth century, Legio Vill was probably reorganized, not unlike other border legions during the reign of Constantine the Great and his successors. Although a clear picture of exactly how this worked out is lacking if the process mirrored that of similar legions (such as Legio V Macedonia along the Danube), it ‘was probably divided into individual cohort, split off from the legion. Part of the original legion would have remained in the castra at Strasbourg, perhaps paired with a new le- gion called Legio XII Victrix. At least half, if not more, of the cohorts would have served in ‘other forts along the border such as Deutz, a fortress across the river from Cologne. Disaster struck when Germanic. inva- sions devastated most of Gaul, wiping out or scattering almost all the border troops limita nei along the Middle Rhine, until the caesar Julianus managed to defeat the invaders just north of Strasbourg in 357. Many of the co- horts formerly belonging to Legio Vill would have been destroyed or severely beat-up dur ing this disaster and some historians doubt the legion even survived this onslaught. An inscription found at Zurzach on the Upper Rhine, however, possibly dating to 371, may prove that at least pars of Legio VIll Augusta stil existed and remained in Germania Prima. By the time of the Notitia Dignitatum (c. 394), there is no longer a unit mentioned for Stras- bourg - the local command of the Comes Ar- _gentoratensis no longer has any troops. Most Closely related to Legio Vill is a unit called the Octavani ("the Eighth"), mentioned un- der the command of the magister peditum in Naly. These Octavani were either a newly raised unit to replace the old Legio Vill or the remains of the old legionary core, recently re moved from the Rhine to defend italy ‘Although interpreting this monument as funeral stele would be by far the most logical choice, Uncertainty remains due to the damage sus- tained, Ifthe inscription is not a personal name, then other options present themselves, because apat from the name itsel, no other text is pre- sent that could point to @ funerary monument Iehas been suggested that instead of a funeral stele, we are dealing with some kind of deco- rative slab adoming the Argentoratum casta AA possibly comparable carving was found in Lentia (modem Linz, Austria) of a similar (yet nameless) guardsman, who may have adomed the gate ofthe fort there, Robert Vermaat is an archivist in Houten, the Netherlands, and has an abiding inter- est in later Roman Britain and the late Ro- man army in general.