AR Roman Silver Eagle Statuette (AD 1st–2nd centuries).
A miniature silver eagle with folded wings and incised details.
Weight: 9.16 g.
Diameter: 32.62 mm.
In the Roman world the eagle was seen as ‘the symbol and agent of apotheosis after death’ and an eagle was released from the top of an emperor’s funeral pyre to signal the journey of the soul heavenwards. Eagles were also depicted in this role on monumental art, however, the eagle was not reserved only for the ruling class but was also found on funerary altars of private citizens.
Cicero quotes a Latin version of Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound in which the bird is called the god’s satellite (lovis satelles, Tusculanae Disputationes II.10.24) and Virgil writes of it as the god’s weapon-bearer (lovis armiger, Aeneid IX.564), an allusion to the fact that it is often shown in art as clutching in its claws a thunderbolt.
The eagle was adopted as the principal emblem of a whole legion under Marius in 104 BC (Pliny HN 10.5.16). These legionary emblems were in silver or gold and stood on a thunderbolt. The eagle was also used as a symbol of the Praetorian Guard or as the legionary signum of a unit. Many images of standards, including those with eagles, can be seen on Trajan’s Column (Toynbee 1973, Animals in Roman Art and Life, 241-242). There are many images of legionary eagles, often on tombstones. Military eagles also appear as figurines, probably like our silver specimen, including first-century AD examples.