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Roman Crossbow Brooches by Henry Boulton

Blog post by recent A-Level work placement Henry Boulton.

Why should you seek out this exhibit?

Whilst walking around the museum for the first time an intricate and stylistic brooch caught my eye (fig 1). Its name is the Crossbow Brooch and its close resemblance to the weapon peaked my interest. Although it turned out the brooch lacked direct relation to the weapon and came to its name only due its similar design to a crossbow, its importance to Roman society and historians alike is far more interesting that any armament semblance that originally stirred my interest.

Figure 1.

Before this small, unassuming, item’s importance and historical significance can be truly realised it is important to understand exactly what it and its purpose is.

The crossbow brooch is one of a number of different styles of Roman fibula (brooches), such as the dolphin brooch, the trumpet brooch, and the dragonesque. The crossbow brooch evolved out of other similar bow brooches towards the beginning of the 3rd century and soon eclipsed the disk brooch as the favoured military choice. It was used to fasten a cloak on the shoulder, in a style called ‘the chlamys-costume’, after the ancient Greek cloak. This form of dress can be seen in the mosaics from the Villa Roman Casale in Sicily (fig 2) which depicts three military officials. The top right military connection is obvious, but we know that the other two have army connections as they are wearing what is known as the Pannonian hat or cap – which, in combination with the crossbow broach, denotes military association.

Figure 2.

This brooch was initially associated with and used by common soldiers and low ranking officers, but by the 4th Century it had become a symbol of imperial administrators and powerful state bureaucrats and was used to visually represent and reinforce the contemporary social hierarchy. Finally by the 5th and 6th century the crossbow brooch was worn only by senators, consuls, or those with very close connections to the imperial court.

Most items both in modern times, such as cars, and ancient Roman times, such as plate armour, start off being owned by, and being a symbol of, the elite, and then as time passes and technology advances they become more widely possessed thus loosing their previous elite connotations. This is the usual “trend of prestige”. However, much like oysters to us, which although now an expensive delicacy, used to be a staple in the diet of the poor, the crossbow brooch began as a symbol and possession of the common solider, and transfigured into a symbol of the elite by the late Roman period. The exact reason for this transformation in symbolism undertaken by the crossbow brooch is unknown, perhaps a failing in the networks that supplied the copper alloy brooches to non-elites is partially responsible.

Of the ten brooches at the Coronium Museum, three date to the early 3rd/4th century (fig 3). This is perhaps representative of the relatively dense military presence in Cirencester during this period. It perhaps also suggests a centre for production.

Figure 3.

One particularly rare Crossbow broach found at Cirencester (and my favourite!) is shown below in fig 4. During the late 3rd and 4th century, as discussed above, the crossbow brooch was associated with imperial servants. The distribution of crossbow brooches found in Roman Britain during this period is highly biased toward the South East with many less being found in the North West. This correlates with other evidence pointing to a decay of power and coincides with the known military withdrawal of soldiers from the North and far West of Britain by the emperor Magnus Maximus in 383 CE. This particularly fine gilt example, categorised as a Keller type 5 brooch, and obviously belonging to someone of high status, is one of only three found in Britain and gives further useful conformation that Corinium was still an important part of core Roman Britain at this time.

Figure 4.

Thank you for reading, and I hope next time you are in the museum you take a look at the, at first, unassuming crossbow brooches which in fact have a rich, strange history, both giving modern historians great insight into the geopolitical landscape of Roman Britain and subverting expectations and going contrary to the ‘prestige’ trend throughout their history.

Comments

  • John Andersen
    September 27, 2022 | Permalink | Reply to this comment

    Thanks for doing this research and sharing.

    I just visited the museum yesterday, and the week before.

    Your blog post is a reminder that virtually every object there has a fascinating story behind it. We simply need to linger long enough to notice, and then later follow-up with research.

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