Aquila (Roman)
An aquila was a prominent symbol used in ancient Rome, especially as the standard of a Roman legion. A legionary known as an aquilifer, the "eagle-bearer", carried this standard. Each legion carried one eagle. It represents the Eagle of Jove, being Jove the "Father of the Roman state".
The eagle had quasi-religious importance to the Roman soldier, far beyond being merely a symbol of his legion. To lose a standard was seen as extremely grave, shameful and dishonorable, and the Roman military went to great lengths both to protect a standard and to recover one if it were to be lost. For example, after the annihilation of three legions in the Teutoburg Forest, the Romans spent decades retaliating for the defeat while also attempting to recover the three lost eagles.
No legionary eagle standards are known to have survived. However, other Roman eagles, either symbolizing imperial rule or used as funerary emblems, have been discovered.
History
The signa militaria were the Roman military ensigns or standards. The most ancient standard employed by the Romans is said to have been a handful of straw fixed to the top of a spear or pole. Hence the company of soldiers belonging to it was called a maniple. The bundle of hay or fern was soon succeeded by the figures of animals, of which Pliny the Elder enumerates five: the eagle, the wolf, the ox with the man's head, the horse, and the boar. Pliny attributes to the consul Gaius Marius the setting aside of the four quadrupeds as standards and the retention of the eagle alone after the devastating Roman defeat at the Battle of Arausio against the Cimbri and Teutons in 104 BC. It was made of silver, or bronze, with upwards stretched wings, but was probably of relatively small size, since a standard-bearer under Augustus is said in circumstances of danger to have wrenched the eagle from its staff and concealed it in the folds of his tunic above his girdle. Pliny's claim is refuted by sources showing late republican and early imperial legions with other animal symbols such as bulls and wolves.Image:Apoteosis de Claudio 01.jpg|thumb|upright|Eagle and weapons from an Augustan-era funerary monument, probably that of Messalla
Even after the adoption of Christianity as the Roman Empire's religion; the eagle continued to be used as a symbol by the Holy Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire although far more rarely and with a different meaning. In particular the double-headed eagle, despite strongly linking back to a Pagan symbol, became very popular among Christians.
Lost ''aquilae''
- Battles where the aquilae were lost, units that lost the aquilae and the fate of the aquilae:
- *73–71 BC – five aquilae were lost over the course of the Third Servile War, recovered upon the defeat of Spartacus in 71 BC.
- *53 BC – the defeat of Marcus Licinius Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae by the Parthians. Several legions.
- *49–45 BC – loss of aquilae from legions of Aulus Gabinius and Publius Vatinius to the Dalmatians during Caesar's Civil War..
- * 45 BC – loss of aquilae in Spain during Caesar's Civil War..
- *40 BC – defeat of Decidius Saxa by a combined Roman–Parthian force under Quintus Labienus near Antioch. Several legions.
- *36 BC – the defeat of Oppius Statianus by the Parthians during Antony's Parthian War. Two legions.
- *
- *17 BC – defeat of Marcus Lollius by Germanic tribes in Gallia in the Clades Lolliana. Legio V Macedonica
- *9 – Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in Germania. Legio XVII, Legio XVIII, and Legio XIX.
- *66 – First Jewish–Roman War. Legio XII Fulminata.
- *70 – destruction of Legio XV Primigenia during the Revolt of the Batavi near Xanten.
- *86 – defeat of Cornelius Fuscus in the First Battle of Tapae during Domitian's Dacian War. Legio V Alaudae or Praetorian Guard.
- *
- *161 – defeat of Marcus Sedatius Severianus by the Parthians at Elegeia in Armenia. Possibly the Legio IX Hispana or Legio XXII Deiotariana.
Arch of Constantine
Present
In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte would recover the eagle as a symbol of his house and emblem of the Grande Armée.The House of Bernadotte also has the eagle as its emblem.
The Great Seal of the United States and several federal agencies also depict the Eagle of Jove but as a bald eagle.