Aquilifer

A. Myslevtsev

An aquilifer (Latin aquilifer, 'eagle-bearer', from aquila, eagle, and ferre, to carry) was the Roman legionary standard-bearer responsible for the legion's aquila. The aquila was the chief field sign of the legion and one of the most important sacred symbols of the military community. Unlike the signum, vexillum or the imperial image (imago), it represented not a century, maniple or temporary detachment, but the legion as a whole.

For reconstruction it is important to separate three levels of evidence: images of aquilifers with an aquila, bronze or precious-metal eagle objects, and the wider Roman symbolism of Jupiter's eagle. Not every Roman eagle is a legionary aquila, but each object can help refine the form, scale and meaning of the sign.

Office

Each legion had one aquilifer. He belonged to the lower command specialists, the principales, below the centurion but above the ordinary legionary. The standard modern reconstruction treats the aquilifer as receiving higher pay, usually understood as double pay compared with an ordinary soldier (duplicarius). Inscriptions show that the office could be a career stage: Lucius Sertorius Firmus of XI Claudia Pia Fidelis is named on his Verona monument first as signifer and then as aquilifer.

The aquilifer was not merely a carrier of an object. He was responsible for the safety of the legion's chief sign on campaign and in battle, and in camp life standard-bearers could be connected with the storage of money and valuables. This link with financial duties is explained by the fact that part of the unit funds and soldiers' savings was kept with the standards in the sacredly protected space of the camp.

The Emergence of the Aquila

Pliny the Elder reports that Gaius Marius, during his second consulship in 104 BCE, assigned the eagle as the special sign of the Roman legions. Earlier animal signs included the wolf, minotaur, horse and boar alongside the eagle, but by the late Republic the aquila had become the chief symbol of the legion.

Caesar's account shows the symbolic force of the aquila. During the landing in Britain in 55 BCE, the aquilifer of the Tenth Legion jumped first from the ship and carried the eagle towards the enemy, urging the soldiers to follow him. For Romans, losing the aquila meant not only a military failure but disgrace for the whole legion. At the same time, the claim that a legion was always automatically disbanded after such a loss is too categorical: consequences depended on circumstances, and the recovery of lost standards could itself become a major theme of state propaganda, as under Augustus after the settlement with Parthia.

The literary tradition describes the legionary eagle as silver or gold. Archaeological and museum finds present a more complex picture: surviving eagle finials and figures are more often bronze, sometimes gilded or silvered. For reconstruction it is therefore better to speak not simply of a 'golden eagle', but of a bronze figure with a surface treatment or finish imitating precious metal.

In images the aquila is usually an eagle with raised or spread wings, standing on Jupiter's thunderbolt bundle (fulmen). The connection with Jupiter is fundamental: the eagle was not only the sign of the legion, but also a religious symbol through which the military community was linked to the supreme god and Roman authority. No complete legionary aquila with shaft, socket and full mounting system is known, so reconstruction has to combine literary, visual and archaeological evidence.

Funerary Reliefs

The tombstone of Gnaeus Musius from Mainz is one of the main sources for the early image of the aquilifer. Musius was aquilifer of XIV Gemina; the monument is usually dated to the first half of the 1st century CE. He is shown frontally, without a helmet, with phalerae and torcs on the chest, holding the aquila on its shaft. This is a key source for 1st-century reconstruction: the aquilifer is not shown as a fanciful 'priest of the eagle', but as a decorated soldier with the legion's sign.

The Verona relief of Lucius Sertorius Firmus in the Museo Lapidario Maffeiano is important because the inscription names the same man as both signifer and aquilifer. The image shows scale armour and the aquila on a shaft beside the figure. It is a good example of epigraphy and image supporting one another.

The stele of Titus Flavius Surillio, aquilifer of II Adiutrix, found near Beyazit and kept in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, belongs to the 3rd century CE. It matters because it shows a possible way of supporting the shaft with a strap or holder. Robert Nouwen's study of a bronze standard holder from Trier shows that such devices were a practical solution for carrying a heavy standard with one hand.

Bronze Eagles

The bronze aquila from Sălcuţa in Dolj County, published by Dorel Bondoc, is one of the most useful physical analogies for scale. It was found by chance in a ploughed field, was cast in one piece, had traces of gilding over the surface, measured 16.8 cm in length and 8.2 cm in height, and weighed 340 g. Bondoc cautiously allows two explanations: it may have been a finial on a wooden shaft carried by an aquilifer, or an element of a more complex signum. Nearby Cioroiu Nou has epigraphic evidence for a detachment of VII Claudia, which makes a military interpretation likely but not final.

Bronze eagles from Barboși, Răcari and Orlea belong to the same comparative group. Their sizes range from small figures to larger examples; some show holes or mounting elements. They demonstrate that bronze eagle images could be used in military contexts, but not every bronze eagle figurine is automatically a legionary aquila.

The Amiternum bronze figure in Villa Frigerj at Chieti is described in the Italian state catalogue as 'Aquila legionaria': bronze, 2nd century CE, height 10 cm. Yet the same record cautiously describes it as probably a decorative part of an object of military or imperial character. It is therefore a useful visual analogy, but not proof for the complete construction of a legionary standard.

Not Every Eagle Is an Aquila

The Silchester Eagle in Reading Museum was long treated as a possible aquila, especially because of the popular literary tradition around The Eagle of the Ninth. Current museum and scholarly interpretation regards it not as a legionary standard but as part of a statue of Jupiter or an emperor: the talons probably stood on a globe, not on a thunderbolt bundle fixed to a shaft. This example is especially useful as a warning: a large bronze eagle in a Roman context is not automatically an aquila.

The gold ornament in the Cleveland Museum of Art and eagles on sarcophagi are important in another way. They show the language of Roman eagle symbolism - spread wings, association with Jupiter, victory and authority - but by themselves they do not prove the construction of a legionary standard. Such images are best used for iconography, not for directly copying size, mounting or shaft construction.

Equipment of the Aquilifer

The iconography of aquilifers is not uniform. In most funerary images they may be shown without a helmet and without an animal skin, as in the monument of Gnaeus Musius. Reenactment often uses a lion or bear skin over the helmet; this image is known for standard-bearers and communicates the high status of the bearer, but it should not be treated as mandatory for every aquilifer or every period.

The equipment is reconstructed from the wider body of standard-bearer and military funerary images: gladius, pugio, cingulum, a small parma or another compact shield depending on the period and source. Protection could include lorica hamata or lorica squamata worn over a subarmalis. The phalerae and torcs on Musius' monument show the decorated and status-bearing aspect of the aquilifer's image.

Reconstructing the Aquila

For a reconstruction of a 1st-2nd-century CE aquila, the best-supported model is a compact bronze eagle, gilded or silvered, standing on a thunderbolt bundle and fixed by a socket or other metal joint to a wooden shaft. The eagle should not be oversized: the Sălcuţa find shows that a real bronze eagle could be about 17 cm long and weigh less than 0.5 kg. A slight enlargement for visibility in display or performance is reasonable, but a huge eagle with a wingspan of 60-80 cm fits the archaeological analogies poorly.

The aquila should not be mixed with other standard types. A red cloth belongs to the vexillum, discs and wreaths on the shaft to the signum, and an imperial portrait to the imago. A clean aquila should read as the legion's eagle on a shaft, not as a combined standard. If ribbons, wreaths or tablets with the legion's name are added, they should be justified separately by a source rather than presented as mandatory parts of every aquila.

Related Topics

• Legion Standard Group
• Legion
• Centurion
• Legionary
• Parma
• Phalerae
• Gladius
• Pugio
• Subarmalis
• Lorica squamata
• Lorica hamata

Literature and Sources

• Caesar. De Bello Gallico, IV.25: the episode of the aquilifer of the Tenth Legion during the landing in Britain. University of Chicago LacusCurtius: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Caesar/Gallic_War/4%2A.html
• Pliny the Elder. Natural History, X.16: the report about the eagle becoming the special sign of the legions under Marius. Wikisource / Rackham translation: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Natural_History_(Rackham,_Jones,_%26_Eichholz)/Book_10
• Töpfer, Kai Michael. Signa Militaria: Die römischen Feldzeichen in der Republik und im Prinzipat. Heidelberg: Propylaeum, 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.1394
• Bondoc, Dorel. A Roman Bronze Aquila from Sălcuţa, Dolj County // Apulum. 2011. XLVIII. P. 245-254.
• Nouwen, Robert. A unique standard holder with an inscription from Trier // Trierer Zeitschrift. 2000. Bd. 63. P. 233-243. PDF: https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/tz/article/view/54841/59711
• Durham, Emma; Fulford, Michael. Symbols of Power: The Silchester Bronze Eagle and Eagles in Roman Britain // Archaeological Journal. 2013. Vol. 170. P. 78-105. DOI: 10.1080/00665983.2013.11021002. PDF: https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/39195/1/DurhamEagle.pdf
• Livius.org. Tombstone of Gn. Musius, standard bearer of XIIII Gemina. EDCS-11000956: https://www.livius.org/pictures/germany/mainz-mogontiacum/mainz-museum-pieces/mainz-tombstone-of-gn-musius-standard-bearer-of-xiiii-gemina/
• Ubi Erat Lupa. Grabstele des Gnaeus Musius, Lupa ID 15748: https://lupa.at/15748
• Livius.org. Apamea, Tombstone of Felsonius Verus, aquilifer of II Parthica. EDCS-05000763: https://www.livius.org/pictures/syria/qalat-al-mudiq-apamea/apamea-military-tombstones/apamea-tombstone-of-felsonius-verus-aquilifer-of-ii-parthica/
• Reading Museum. The Silchester Eagle. Object REDMG:1995.4.1: https://collections.readingmuseum.org.uk/index.asp?page=record&mwsquery={Identity%20number}=REDMG%20:%201995.4.1
• Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali. Statuetta, Aquila legionaria, Chieti, 150-199. Code 1300017234: https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/ArchaeologicalProperty/1300017234
• Cleveland Museum of Art. Ornament with Eagle, inv. 1944.293: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1944.293