Military awards of the Romans

Caesar with a laurel wreath

Centurion with Phalerae

The Roman military knew different awards ( dona militaria ) for special bravery. The earliest traditional award was the patera , the offering dish that infantrymen received after killing an enemy and taking their armor. Since offering bowls were difficult to wear on clothing, other decorations were used in the late Republic.

Coronae

Crowns as military decorations existed outside the Roman military as early as the time of the Persian Wars . With the Romans it was customary to give officers (rarely simple soldiers) a corona (= crown / wreath) for heroic deeds .

Corona obsidionalis graminea (siege or grass crown)
Corona civica ( citizen's crown )

Corona triumphalis or laurea ( laurel wreath of the emperors)

Corona ovalis or murtea or myrtea , myrtle wreath for a minor victory for which no triumph was awarded and the generals were only allowed to move in as ovantes ("celebrated")

Corona oleaginea , olive wreath for helping achieve a triumph without being a campaigner; was sometimes worn by the ovantes instead of the ovalis

Corona muralis (wall crown)

Corona vallaris or castrensis (wall crown)

Corona navalis or rostrata or classica (sea crown)

Corona exploratoria (scout crown)

Corona aurea , a golden crown that was awarded to the higher ranks in the imperial era after a successful campaign. The senior officers sometimes got several of them.

Other awards

Hasta pura "pure lance", also hasta donatica "honor lance"
Honor weapons

The lower ranks received

Phalerae , silver or silver-plated discs that were worn on a chest strap,
Armillae (bracelets awarded in pairs),
Torques (originally Celtic neck rings, which were attached in a reduced form to leather straps on the chest).

These awards were probably modeled on the jewelry stolen on the battlefield from defeated peoples, especially the Celts .

Whole units were marked with special standards or phalerae or torques were attached to the signa .

literature

Otto Fiebiger : Dona militaria. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume V, 1, Stuttgart 1903, Col. 1528-1531.
Yann Le Bohec : Dona militaria. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 3, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01473-8 , Sp. 767-769.
Valerie A. Maxfield: The military decorations of the Roman army . Batsford, London 1981, ISBN 0-7134-2718-3 .
Paul Steiner: Dona militaria or the military awards of the Romans. In: Bonner Jahrbücher. Volume 114/115, 1906, ZDB -ID 217210-0 , pp. 1-98 (At the same time: Bonn, Univ., Diss., January 29, 1904. Also: special print).
Marek Zyromski: The dona militaria as a factor of senatorial career in the Roman empire during the principate. In: Eos. Commentarii Societatis Philologae Polonorum. 84, 1996, ISSN 0012-7825 , pp. 115-136.

Web links

Remarks

^ Graham Sumner: The Roman Army. Armament and equipment . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-613-02749-7 , pp. 126-7. Cf. Pliny : Naturalis historia 33, 5, 15.

[1] Graham Sumner: The Roman Army. Armament and equipment . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-613-02749-7 , pp. 126-7. Cf. Pliny : Naturalis historia 33, 5, 15.