Saturday, 31 March 2007

Emblems of Empire

Punta ad alette in ferro appartenente a uno dei portastendardi (Copyright MIBAC 2007).

Last year, I posted on the subject of the emperor Maxentius' imperial insignia.

Archaeology magazine has now joined the party, with an article quoting the views of excavation director Clementini Panella. But more exciting are the images, posted by Martin G Conde on Flickr, of the recent archaeological investigations conducted in the imperial fora of Rome (1995– 2007).

(I remain sceptical that the sceptre of a Roman emperor would look like this, though.)