The following additional representations of sets of phalerae may be noted: on the tombstone of the centurion C. Allius of the Thirteenth Legion, from Vindonissa, nine plain phalerae in three rows; on a tombstone found at Boppard, nine plain phalerae; on a tombstone at Mainz, with other trophies, nine plain phalerae; on the tombstone of C. Vettius and Q. Vettius from Magdalenenberg, near Zollfield in Carinthia, nine plain phalerae; on the tombstone of M. Pompeius at Tusculum, nine phalerae with heads in relief; on the tombstone of the centurion L. Blattius of the Fourth Legion at Fregose, in Venetia, nine phalerae.[1]
The Lauersfort Phalerae
Coming now to actual examples, we may note the well-known set found at Lauersfort,[2] near Crefeld, Rhenish Prussia, in 1858. This is preserved at Berlin. It consists of ten bronze discs, covered with thin plates of hammered silver, nine being circular, with a diameter of 4¼ inches, and one crescent-shaped. On the back of each are three small loops for fastenings. The circular pieces are decorated with heads in high relief,—Jupiter, Cupid; a Gorgon, a lion, and so on. On the face of one of them is punctured the name G. FLAVI FESTI, while each plate has the name MEDAMI punctured on the back. The crescent-shaped piece bears the figure of a double sphinx, whose position shows that the disc had been worn with the horns of the crescent pointing downwards If we may judge from the inscription, the same must have been the case with the crescentic disc belonging to DOMITIUS ATTICUS. A find from Novaesium may also be cited as presumably analogous.[3] It consists of six discs, each, however, with a segment cut out of the circle so as to produce a form approaching a crescent. They are plates of thin strong bronze from 3 to 3¾ inches broad, with either three, four, or five rivets for fastening them to leather. In one of them the rivets are replaced by rings.
Between the Newstead discs and such decorated phalerae as the Lauersfort find, the difference is doubtless considerable. But all the evidence available seems to indicate that the former were worn on the breast, like the phalerae of the monuments. They were a set bearing the name of one man. Numerically they correspond to those represented on more than one Roman tombstone. In size they closely resemble the Lauersfort pieces, while both sets include a more or less crescent-shaped piece worn with
1 Hofmann, Römische Militärgrabsteine der Donauländer. Wien, 1905.
2 Jahn, Die Lauersforter Phalerae. Bonn, 1860.
3 Lehner, 'Die Einzelfunde von Novaesium,' Bonner Jahrbücher, Heft 111–112, p. 367, and Taf. XXX. A, Fig. 48.
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