FIG. 43. PHALERA FROM PIT LV BACK VIEWthree strong loops of brass, which are flattened to prevent their chafing the horse's flank. Two of these loops would be attached to the breeching, while from the third would depend a floating streamer or some hanging ornament of metal. Unlike the majority of such finds, this phalera has suffered but little, and it thus serves to give a true impression of the richness of Roman harness-mountings. Many of them must have been lavishly decorated. On the monument of Albanus of the Asturian Ala at Chalons-sur-Saône, for instance, one of the phalerae bears an embossed figure of an armed man on horse-back, another that of an eagle, a third a head, perhaps representing Medusa. Altogether there would appear to have been five of these large discs on the harness of Albanus, and this was probably the usual number, three being placed in front of the saddle and two on the quarters behind. Two circular discs of bronze, illustrated in
FIG. 44. PHALERA FROM XANTEN Plate LXXVII., Figs. 11 and 13, embossed in high relief, are probably phalerae of the kind just described. One of these shows a rudely executed mask of a lion, and the other an adolescent head wearing a Phrygian cap, the latter almost identical with a disc from the Saalburg.
Fig. 44 reproduces a highly decorated phalera with its pendant leaf-shaped ornament still attached to it. This phalera is of bronze, overlaid with silver. It forms one of a set said to have been found near Xanten, and is now in the British Museum. It is believed to date from the early part of the first century. On the back, in the upper segment of the circle, are two strong rings, slightly bent towards the edge, while the lower segment contains two
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