The Aquila - The Cult Of The Eagle That Conquered The World (Audio Podcast)

Eagles have been the creature that great Powers have chosen to use as the emblem of their might for Millennia from Roman Legions carrying their Eagle standards into battle to men living almost a thousand years after the birth of the Roman Empire men who inherited the title Emperor their power no longer concentrates in Rome or Italy but in Central and Western Europe the Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire men like Charlemagne the great and Otto and his dynasty to men almost a thousand years after Charlemagne and his carolingian Conquest in the 19th and 20th centuries when Eagles were once again being seen at the helm of armies wreaking havoc across Europe under the power of Napoleon Bonaparte in the early 19th century and Adolf Hitler in the mid 20th century both embarking on flights of ill-fate and the expanse that is the white death of the Russian winter the hammer and sickle of the Communist Party would help conquer the German reichstag clipping its wings but another breed of Eagle had awoken to the West the Colossus that had awoken was fed by post-war endowments and an economic explosion of industry and Industrial military expansionism the bald eagle spread her wings across the world the United States of America would be fighting proxy wars against the Communist ideology on every corner of the globe for the next 50 years from the birth of Christ to the very day you listen to me talking today Eagles have been the symbols of the greatest powers in the world now together we will look at a brief history of these Eagles and the men that held them the origin of this story like many origin stories of early human civilization is based around the Mediterranean with many great Empires having the Mediterranean Coastline as a feature of their sprawling kingdoms the Egyptians the ancient Greeks Alexander the Great's Macedonian Empire the acomanian Empire of the Persians and the Byzantine Empire to name just a few so just how did the eagle earn its place in the iconography of these great powers well since so much of history is based on inspiration by that I mean many civilizations taking cultural attributes from those societies that came before them maybe even taking cultural attributes that came from societies that they had just conquered just because you have beaten someone in war it does not mean every aspect of the conquered culture is worthless and worthy of disposing of just look at the inspiration the Romans took from the Greeks the Romans defeated the Corinthians of the battle of Corinth in 146 BC this is often used as a marker for the start of what is called Roman Greece the period in which Greece was dominated by first the Roman Republic and then the Roman Empire despite this Conquest Greek culture was an undeniable part of Rome intertwined with the most core Elements of Life the Romans modeled their religious beliefs on the Greeks adopting and renaming the Hellenic gods and even maintaining many of the myths surrounding them building their architecture the same way the very buildings that all of their lives were based around the list goes on and on from the alphabet to weights and measurements banking Arts literature and philosophy the passing of attributes is not just unique to the Greek and Romans but is a common trait throughout much of History but to not get sidetracked too much we must go back to the earliest recorded use of these Eagles and see where the chain of civilizational inspiration started the earliest appearance of the eagle that we know of was most likely in ancient Egypt at least that is what we think sometimes I like to think of history as a jigsaw puzzle with many of the pieces missing instead of looking at a complete picture we use the pieces we do have to fill in the gaps oftentimes it fits very well or at least we like to think it does the implicit nature of archaeologists and historians as people though means they have an unconscious or in some cases a very conscious bias and an ability to use some poetic artistic license to mold the jigsaw pieces they have to fit into the missing spots within the puzzle not because the piece always matches perfectly but because it has been shaped by the one completing the jigsaw the piece of the jigsaw that's already in place the pieces that historians use to understand those missing gaps are generally linked to direct evidence or reports and writings contemporary to the time but the further you go back in history the less and less likely it is to have such records some societies were far more literate than others and some Empires wound down in a slow decline allowing for more information to survive and spread some civilizations however were just left a pile of smoldering Ash if a civilization was destroyed in this manner the history would generally be recorded by those who vanquished them not necessarily an unbiased adjudicator and administrator of their history would you write favorably about an enemy you had spent potentially Generations battling with losing family land and honor in this battle an unbiased telling of a story is too much to ask of an enemy but not to get too sidetracked Horus was one of the most important of the ancient Egyptian deities representing many values and serving many functions being God of kingship healing and protection Horus being represented within hieroglyphics as an eagle and being depicted with a bird's head similar to the Sun God Ra who horses descendants of the main difference in their representation being their heads now you're going to have to forgive my pronunciation of some of these words here those being ancient Egyptian words and words that originate from Latin which I'm going to speak about later when I'm talking about the Romans but horus's head on it he wears a fishhent which is the double crown worn by rulers of Egypt that spoke p-s-c-h-e-n-t combining the white hejit crown of Upper Egypt and the red Desiree crown of Lower Egypt it represents the Pharaohs or gods in this case power over all of unified Egypt Egypt was United in the late fourth millennium BC around the year 3100 and it is often represented an Egyptian symbology ra on the other hand has the head of a bird but he has the sun disc within a cobra resting on his head the sun disc represents the Sun or is simply a manifestation of RA himself the Cobra or as it is also known eurasis is a depiction of the snake goddess wajit the patron God of Northern Egypt now before I get called a charlatan or a fraud by those Keen eyed ornithologists out there I would like to acknowledge to those listening that these gods are thought to have the heads of Falcons not necessarily Eagles but their importance in symbology and visuals was too much to be ignored and these birds appearance is the first stop on this flight through history Eagle Falcon give me a little bit of wiggle room here guys we don't need to get caught up too much in Eagles and Falcons anyway because across the Mediterranean the eagle appeared once more this time in the kingdoms of ancient Greece although the Greek ptolemaic Dynasty would rule Egypt for hundreds of years Egypt as any kind of empire was established far earlier than the famous Greek city-states like Athens Thebes Sparta or even the Macedonian Empire from which the ptolemaic dynasty Heralds told me being one of Alexander the Great's Companions and Generals throughout his Conquest through Europe Asia and North Africa after Alexander's death as the Empire fractured many of his generals saw fit to carve out their own portions of the Empire now the glue that held them together was dead Ptolemy took control of Egypt and later its surrounding regions declaring himself Pharaoh the seleucid empire was formed in modern day Iraq Iran Afghanistan and Syria by another Macedonian General seleuses in modern day Turkey the kingdom of pergamon was formed by lysimicus who once again you guessed it was a general of Alexander the ancient world was carved up like a cake by this group of men sometimes referred to as the diadokai this segmenting of the region is known as the start of the Hellenistic period in 323 BC due to all this conquest and mixing of cultures and DNA the Egyptians Greeks and many of the surrounding states shared certain cultural similarities the great man that had created this Empire so large that his generals could segment out pieces that themselves would be regarded as large and historic kingdoms Alexander potentially a once in a millennia conqueror thought himself to be the son of Zeus ruler protector and father to all gods and humans Zeus is often Associated famously with a lightning bolt but he had another symbol the eagle it is maybe a given that Zeus being the god of the sky and thunder would have an association with a bird the eagle being thought of in the ancient world as the most powerful of all birds a sign of power and authority the vision of an eagle all seeing even when it cannot be seen a messenger for Zeus to communicate with the mortal world sometimes even transforming himself into an eagle Zeus wasn't the only God that could fly though here's what I find to be an interesting little fact some of you may know it the eagle was also a symbol of Victory often depicted alongside Nike no not the shoes but the goddess of Victory Nike with their winged appear and some personification of Victory it was an inspired name for the shoeware company the etymology of the word is thought to be derived from the proto-indo-european Nik meaning to attack or start vehemently even the Nike Swoosh is a reference to the sound of the goddess's Wings whooshing through the air just a funny little link there to our modern world but back to the story the didokai and the empires that they managed to carve out Thrive through the Hellenistic period ending in 30 BC with the death of Cleopatra the seventh and the end of the ptolemaic dynasty lots of these Empires that Alexander's generals carved out and in different ways either encountering their African or Asian neighbors but there was a common Trend that also happened coming from Europe they encountered their rather violent and extremely well-organized neighbor the most important in the chain of cultural inspiration that we're going to discuss today the Romans I must admit that the Romans are perhaps the most fascinating of ancient cultures in my opinion with their organizational and structural skills achieving levels of success that would not be seen again for thousands of years Roman infrastructure could be seen for centuries across the entire Mediterranean and Beyond creating roads Bridges and sewer systems that survive to this day it is said that once the Roman power had started to recede in the later stages of the Roman Empire as people were beckoned Into the Dark Age those who were left in the cultural darkness that the dimming of the Roman torch created people like the britons who inherited some of these great buildings and infrastructure would talk about the race of giants that had come before them for it would have taken Giants to create the temples that stood in front of them no mere race of men could achieve such Feats or so they thought now that is maybe a naive thought maybe they had a grasp that there were Advanced ancient civilizations that had existed before them maybe tells the Romans were passed down through generations but I feel the fact that the disparity between these cultures was so large that the idea of giants may have seemed a believable one to ancient cultures to try putting yourself in the shoes of a native tribesman and seeing such things as unimaginable or to be a Germanic tribesmen living most of your life in the dense forests of Germania with homes built out of wood sticks mud and bindings using rudimentary construction methods that had been passed down for Millennia to one day having your lands invaded by the systematic War Machine Legions marching through your land enslaving you and everyone you have ever known being put in a cart or Force marched across Europe Southward going on the journey to Rome in a foreign land as a slave through the Alps and the surrounding Countryside until your eyes fall on the great city a city on a scale that would be absolutely unimaginable seeing buildings larger than your brain would have ever allowed you to believe possible as if living in some kind of a dream or nightmare being led to the Coliseum for example would be an experience I'm not sure any human today could compare hand the terror of pain and fear has never subsided in human history and I don't imagine ever will fear and pain are Universal but today we have a great understanding of the world and the cultures that surround us to a Germanic man in the First Century A.D heading to the Coliseum the only thing comparable to the modern mind is if an alien spacecraft were to Beam us to another planet with every aspect of life functioning in a way we never thought possible and the final stage of this long torturous process is to fight to the death in front of a beckoning crowd of tens of thousands of people calling for your death unfortunately this experience was not an uncommon one throughout the Roman Republican Empire I use this example just to exemplify how far apart the Romans were from the people they were interacting with in Europe at the time architecture and the scale of building was just a mere facet on the face of the diamond that made up the list of traits that caused the Romans to be so far ahead of their contemporaries another simple example is their Army Camps when a Roman army embarked on campaign into enemy territory it would set up camp not just a ragtag group of tents set up in a field these camps were closer to fortresses with the terrain and topography carefully chosen the ground leveled out if needed the size of the camp was determined based on how large the Army camping within it would be and the number of days it was estimated they would be camping after the Marion reforms in the late 2nd Century BC the Roman army or as it was sometimes nicknamed at this time marius's mules all took part in bearing the burden for the construction of these fortresses all carrying materials and having set roles in the construction alongside slower moving baggage trains and specialized Engineers of course but it was of great use to limit the size of a slow baggage train and secure the ability for an army to move swiftly again to give an idea of sophistication some of these temporary fortresses the Romans created purely to sleep within would be larger structures than any of the Germanic tribes and would ever have seen the disparity in technology was something akin to a science fiction film imagine an enemy coming into your land or flying to your planet and they have the ability to do things that you never thought possible it just seems like a totally unfair Advantage some of these tribes would have existed for a certain amount of time maybe further Eastwood into Europe before migrating West and encountering the Roman borders and being forced to go into battle with them they had no idea what they would be getting themselves in for other than their knack for war the Romans also pioneered many other disciplines creating a legal system that still influences the world today the concept of citizenship and the principle of Innocence until proven guilty governing an Empire with extreme administrative efficiency an Empire that spanned three continents and was limited by the speed of hooves and sail as a source of communication a letter or response to any growing problem within the Empire could take over a month to reach its intended recipients the Romans also contributed to cultural achievements with poets such as Virgil and Horus an important philosophical contributions such as the writings of Seneca and Marcus Aurelius so just why was the eagle so synonymous with the Romans and how did it find itself perched upon the pediment of one of the most impressive civilizations to ever exist will in ancient Rome the eagle was known as the king of birds a common theme between these civilizations the eagle was a sign of Imperial Authority that therefore represented strength bravery and power the reality of the Eagle's reputation within ancient Rome was that there was an intrinsic relationship between the eagle and the legions that made up the Roman army throughout the history of Rome there would have been millions of people that had seen those eagles flying above the helmets of Roman soldiers as they marched towards battle then subsequently the eagle looming over the Sun as it heads to the encampments of those with which the legions were fighting to loot and capture any survivors to be pressed into lives of foreign Roman auxiliary or to be enslaved and sent somewhere within the vast Empire thousands of Mars from your Homeland to live a life of persecution and destitution being put into an auxiliary division was a much more preferable but a much less likely outcome than death or slavery auxiliary troops in the early Roman Republic were a much rarer site than later in the Republic and in the Empire period oftentimes these auxiliary troops would be made up of Italian allies and soldiers of Roman satellite Kings Kings who relied upon Roman authority to ensure Their Kingdoms and therefore were subservient to Rome some of these Kings would be long-standing allies of Rome and some would be those who had been defeated in battle by the Romans and now understood the risk of standing against them valuing their attention of their Kingdom over total Authority these types of situations with proxy rulers were not uncommon in the ancient world it was in some ways easier for Rome to allow a king to stay in power and keep potential uprisings of his own people quelled and affirm grasp on those within Society who might be wanting to rise up against Rome if he ever decided to rise up himself forgetting the position the Romans allowed him to hold Rome would bring in a new ruler to take his place or just bring the region under consula or imperial Authority quite often these auxiliary troops would make up specialist units not within the ranks of the Roman legionary Force but as Cavalry units archers or Slingers for much of the earlier parts of the Republic for example the Cavalry was sufficient well in combat with other states within the mountainous Italian Peninsula but once Rome started to expand her territory her Cavalry was no longer satisfactory based purely on the number of Cavalry Rome was starting to face in battle for example in the Second Punic War Between Hannibal and Rome it was the carthaginian Cavalry that helped them secure both the battle of Kane and trebia Kane in the year 218 BC being one of the worst defeats in all of Roman history Hannibal using his trademark double envelopment to encircle the enemy of roughly 85 000 Romans and Allied troops and brutally massacred them like cattle thought to be one of the most lethal single days in history especially in the ancient world probably not rivaled until World War One the ground and the soil died red with the blood of Romans despite the Roman legion's power it had some deficiencies that needed addressing around the year 200 a Roman legion of 4200 infantry had Cavalry arm of just 300 Horsemen or seven percent of the total Force as opposed to in the first and second Century A.D when the Imperial Roman army had roughly 20 percent of its effective fighting force made up of cavalry this was mainly due to the structure of the Roman class system in The Early Republic then later in the Republic and the Empire period the Roman Cavalry was taken from the equitas a equestrian class this class was normally defined by wealth and property rights the rank was normally passed from father to son although if he no longer met the wealth requirements when the census came around often conducted every five years then you could be removed from this class as history continued the first class of commoners the class below the equestrians effectively were required to serve as cavalrymen to bolster the numbers of the army this was also due to the fact that the equities class were needed to serve as officers within the Roman legionary Corps and as the number of Legions grew the requirements for officers grew and as such less members of the equity class went into the Cavalry if you see because of this class system the equities class were required to be the offices within the legion as well they couldn't just go into the Cavalry because the class system was divided in this very strict manner the number of people that could fill these roles in the Cavalry and in the officer Corps started to dwindle due to this Rome used its wide-reaching arms to acquire experienced Cavalry troops from the ghoulish and Germanic tribes the Romans would also use Allied Nubian Horsemen from North Africa for example to help finally bring an end to the Second Punic War in 202 BC at the Battle of Zama taking place in modern day Tunisia Rome had learned its lessons and would now carry a much larger Cavalry Force but predominantly not made up of Roman citizens but of auxiliary troops and mercenaries from across the empire side tracking enough into Cavalry and auxiliaries the eagle that was at the head of the Roman Legions is thought to have first appeared on the battlefield as one of the five animals held above the head of a manipul a manipul being one of the Tactical units employed by the Roman Republican Army coming about as a replacement to the Phalanx taken from ancient Greek armies these standards that the Romans held started off as a handful of hay at the end of a poll shaped into an Insignia or emblem called a manipulus hence the name manipul but during the Marian reformers of the Roman army after the Roman defeats against the kimbrian tutons in around 105 BC the other four animal totems were stowed away in the past the wolf Ox horse and bear were now to be put aside and only the eagle or Aquila would remain before we get into some of the reasons that the eagle was to be chosen as The prominent animal symbol of Roman might for the next centuries and through that inspiration the next two Millennia I would like to look into some of the cult-like Traditions within the Roman army their Insignia and their honor they helped them become one of the most effective killing machines in history the Roman legion was a product of its incredible dedication and discipline but there was some cult-like tendencies that weren't added to the mixing bowl create a combination of fanaticism and cold hard calculation that was unrivaled those who carried these symbols of the cult the eagle or Aquila were called equilifas Aquila translating as eagle and fur meaning bringing or carrying in Latin and so together you have equilifa these men were viewed with enormous Prestige one ranked below that of a centurion and earning double the pay of an ordinary legionary there would be an easily recognizable site on the battlefield not just due to the standard they bear but due to the fur over their back and the lion head mounted on their helmet during a battle a typical mode of communication was a horn if the soldiers were to hear a hornblast they would look to their emblem the equilifa was then to raise lower or wave the eagle to direct troops on their next strategic move a standard bearer was expected to die before losing the Aquila and so were the men around him death was seen as a far better fate than the abject's shame one would feel to have lost their ego the eagle was a symbol for the men to place the legion as a collective ahead of any one individual if an eagle was lost in battle the surviving men would be plagued with the shame of failing their fallen Brothers but not just the shame the surviving Legion would be broken up and disbanded in disgrace some soldiers dedicated their lives to campaigns involved in reclaiming the lost eagles in a desperate bid to be able to regain their honor and the Ever Needed favor with the gods there are many known stories and direct accounts of equilifas in history two quick ones coming directly from Julius Caesar's writings one talking of the invasion of Britannia as the Britain showed resilience and resolved to the Roman Invasion Force the britons met them at the shore and delayed any large-scale aggressor question from the Romans due to this the attack was stolen one of the equilifas still on his ship and seeing the stagnation of the attacking forces shouted out as loud as he could muster getting the attention of all those soldiers around him declaring that despite the lack of initiative within their ranks he would fulfill his office for Julius Caesar his General and for the Republic jumping from the ship he charged towards the shore such an act of Bravery undoubtedly inspiring the Romans allowing them to organize and start deploying not just inspired by the act of Bravery but the absolute inability to allow this man to die alone with the eagle a symbol of power a power of the Legion and Rome itself as is common with human Affairs though things aren't always as smooth in practice as they appear in novels or films although the men did become inspired to press on the offensive within the excitement and Chaos the legionary started grouping towards the equilifa who had just delivered the inspired speech as opposed to the one Aquila they had been assigned causing all sorts of problems within the initial push the less poetic but more realistic story as the men trip over themselves in the water and try to figure out what the hell they're doing and to not die in the confusion the second account is also from Julius Caesar but this time his first hand accounts written as a third-person Narrative of the Golic Wars he mentions the equilifa by name Lucius Petra Sidious during the winter of 55-54 BC in Northern ghoul Caesar and his Legions were embedded within the gallic tribes forcing them to give the Romans quarter and food for the winter the tribes had come to hate their Roman neighbors but as the Romans winced in their Fort they had a high degree of defensibility but as a Detachment who had been out of the fort entered the narrow end of a valley below the ghouls attacked ambushing their Roman subjugators almost every legionary was slain including the two commanders as the remaining Soldiers made a break towards the fort and the only glimmering but faint hope of survival Caesar describes witnessing this from his fortifications the men trying to make a final break just a short distance separating them from life and death the law large group of ghouls massively outnumbering Caesar's men chasing down and masking the remaining troops Lucius petrocidius ran for his life clearly recognizable with his standard and lion's head addition to his armor as he neared the walls The Cult of the eagle Shone through he thought north of survival but of launching the eagle over the entrenchments and into the camp to the surviving legionnaires allowing himself to die in the process the honor such an act of Bravery bestowed on a man's Legacy at the time is hard to relate to in the today's 21st century Society a society where often times it seems people's honor and values come secondary to the pursuit of materialistic Endeavors and temporary validation I'm not trying to prescribe one way of living over the other people choose their own paths but the juxtaposition between the ideals are there nonetheless we still speak of this Aquila for today and utter his name Lucius petrocidius due to the absolute respect his contemporaries had for him his acts wrote his name into the great chapter that is Roman history a man never to be forgotten the Romans put a huge deal of emphasis on honor and their name many of the Great families believing that they were descended from the gods and also having runes within their great Mansions dedicated to their ancestors with a death mask sat on a stand and often a group of writings describing their achievements and what they had managed to accomplish for the family's Legacy this attitude was spread across Roman culture and many wanted to climb the ranks of the social classes this could be done through gaining wealth in the Mercantile sectors of Roman Affairs not an easy task or through progression and Accolade in the Army and using that as leverage to try and climb the many rungs of Roman society also not an easy feat The Cult of the eagerly inspired dedication it brought out was not just based on Eternal honor or short-term social clout it was a type of carrot and stick approach imposed by Roman society as a whole and specifically within the legion characterized by the offer of reward in eating the carrot or the everlooming threat of the stick should it be deemed to require it the Roman Legions had a selection of awards for bravery and strict punishments for insubordinate actions or ill-discipline this was used to maintain the soldiers incredible quasi-religious dedication to the eagle and what it represented the carrots or rewards came in many forms from titles to public events War trophies cash Rewards or even crowns I find the crowns to be one of the more interesting of this list the crown and its origin within Rome goes right back to the Roman Beginnings with the expelling of the last king and the 6th Century BC and the establishment of a republic whether it has been mythologized or not it was the end of a system that could be governed by one tyrannical man or so they thought thereafter Kings no longer wore crowns but men were awarded them for great feat to honor them and to honor the god Apollo the Roman god was associated with the sun and the laurel tree hence the highest of these Honors that could be disposed on any man was the crown of Laurel leaves that is so famous in Roman history this would be given to a triumphant general or Consul to wear during their Triumph a March through the city of Rome at the head of their army used to display the success of the campaign and the riches that had been brought back for the city of Rome this was obviously limited to those who had the ability to lead an army or to be Consul so it was reserved for a very select group but the push that Roman society gave men to achieve more and to spread the power of Rome was unmatched the recipients of the triumphal honors was able to have a bronze stature erected in the Forum of Augustus and for a further statue of himself to be displayed in the vestible of his own house but the rewards were not limited to just the upper rungs of society a whole slew of crowns existed in fact crowns that could take you from being a nobody from a minor family to being honored by Senators of Rome a feat unimaginable without such cultural pushes to honor the dedication and bravery of the military it really was a very clever system A system that put bravery and honor ahead of all else so what other crowns were there and how did they help to inspire men to commit acts of such bold disregard for their own health we can start maybe with the crown of the preserver an award given to those who have shielded and saved any of the citizens or Allies the crown would be presented by those civilians or citizens the soldier had saved the man thus preserved also references his preserver as a father all through his life and must treat him in every way like a parent an incredible thought for that to even be an Award presented to a soldier some might think it is the Soldier's duty to protect a citizen but still in the system of loyalty the ACT is rewarded and encouraged the mentality of saving citizens and preserving honor Paramount Above All Else the also existed Battlement crowns gold crowns decorated with turrets representing a fortress or Palisades representing a camp I often think about just how brutal ancient battles were and the incredible devotion required to be on the front line of two armies charging towards each other in what seems from the outside a recipe for certain death for what man would want to be at the top of a ladder climbing into an enemy fortification when the first man to climb over that wall is going to be outnumbered one thousand to one well this Crown was for doing exactly that the mural Crown given to the first man to climb the wall of a besieged city and place the standard of the Roman army upon its walls the camp Crown being similar to the mural Crown but this time awarded to the first man to break through the Palisades of an enemy entrenchment or Camp these types of awards change it would have seemed like the most suicidal jobs imaginable to ones that men would risk their lives to achieve throwing caution to the wind to be able to change their lives forever another Crown simply titled the Gold Crown awarded both centurions and potentially some principales who killed an enemy in single combat and held their ground to the end of the battle the naval Crown awarded the first man to board an enemy vessel made of gold and surmounted by the beaks of ships beaks being at the tip of the boat and often made of metal used as a ramming tool in ancient Naval battles to try and smash into the enemy vessel and sink them thought to be the second highest ranking of the military crowns was the Civic Crown a common Chaplet of oak leaves woven to form a crown this was given for saving the lives of multiple citizens by slaying an enemy on ground that was held by the enemy on that very same day once again inspiring soldiers to be aggressive and offensive reluctance give any ground to the enemy the citizens saved by the soldier must admit this fact and is the only potential witness in such a case it is the ultimate honor in a society that values dignity and stoicism above all else to have another citizen or group of soldiers publicly espouse your virtues and recommend you for merit a feat that will help your family name from Fading Into The Sands of Time poverty and ill repute during the reign of Salah the man who helped set the template for the possibility of ending the Republic the template that Julius Caesar would observe and put into action just years after sulla's death making himself dictator for Life Salah however like many great Romans was as much a part of this Eagle on occult as anyone else making constitutional reforms during his lifetime to Grant any recipients of the Civic Crown entry into the Senate one of the highest positions in Roman society the crown also came with some unique features for example a man born into an undistinguished family who won this Crown would now legally be required to wear this Crown at every public gathering and it was expected even men of higher rank than him were to stand and clap at his arrival this type of reward that took a man to a level of respect in society that could not have been dreamed of the Patrician class that would once not even look you in the face or utter your family name because it was below them now due to your dedication to bravery and honor your willingness to die in the name of the Legion now these high-born men would honor you and would be legally bound to do so you would be seated among Senators at public events and your father and paternal grandfather would be exempt from all public duties The Cult of the eagle and its ability to drive ambitious and brave men to Glory was almost unequaled in shaping the Roman Legions and their ability to commit acts of an unbelievable nature their entire existence depended on these acts it is clear to see that giving incentives like these crowns and other awards that are littered throughout the Roman system bread a type of man and Warrior who saw all his opportunities and dreams in life through the lens of bravery and achievement there were no runner-up prizes the choice was to win and Achieve or live in obscurity a fate worse than death the final crown on this list was the grass Crown similar to that of the Civic Crown in the sense that it was awarded for saving life but this rarest and most distinguished Crown was specifically given to a general or Commander that saved an entire army or Legion it would bestow all the rewards given by the Civic Crown but the amount of Honor alongside it was unmatched an example of saving an entire Legion could be breaking a blockade around beleaguered soldiers in Mortal Peril this Crown was not made of gold or silver like some of the others but was taken from the very Battlefield from where it was earned made up of foliage from the ground in which the ACT took place grasses flowers and wheat it was presented to the general by the Army he had saved other crowns were awarded by generals to soldiers but this unique Crown was never awarded without the crisis of extreme desperation and had to be voted upon by the whole Army no easy feat to get thousands of battle-hardened Roman veterans to put their honor to one side and admit without this one man none of them would be alive aside from these most secretive crowns the Romans also had honorary titles that could be earned through statesmanship and Military success gold necklaces and armbands for distinguished bravery gold silver or bronze discs to be worn on the breastplate even small replicas of Standards cups for infantry men who had slain and stripped an enemy not in the throes of battle but voluntarily in single combat after launching themselves into a life or death struggle in the cultural reinforcements of this maniacal bravery it was not just geared towards getting the best out of the men through reward there was also a list of extreme punishments for insubordination and failures of Bravery the most revered and brutal of this list was decimation an act of absolute brutality in extreme circumstances to punish a mutinous or cowardly Army the soldiers of the aforementioned cohort would be separated into groups of ten the ten soldiers would then cast lots or Draw straws effectively the unfortunate soul out of the ten who drew the Short Straw would be then beaten or stoned to death by his brothers and comrades a punishment this cruel is almost impossible to imagine it neither punishes the individuals who may have actually been responsible for the cohort's failures instead just singling men out at random but it also has an undoubtedly horrific effect on the soldiers who are forced to beat a friend to death this no doubt did not affect morale in a positive way although it seems counter-intuitive to me in some ways it was an absolute show of force and the Roman generals who ordered this punishment viewed it very differently to how the modern mind might for example in today's age there is a lot of emphasis put on individual freedoms and rights the idea of a sort of lottery-like system with a collective punishment framework to decide how to discipline a group of people seems very unfair for example imagine if the street that your house is on had become rather messy rubbish strewn about the place and some graffiti on the walls you might not be responsible for it it's just the street you live on where you happen to be at this point in life not a great deal you can do about it but the government's idea to fix this problem and to not have it happen again is to pick a straw just like that old Bob your housemate through the Short Straw now let's go beat or stone old Bob to his death Bob might not have littered or written any graffiti on the walls but Bob could have and should have done something about it before living in such squalor even the Romans themselves had mixed feelings on it which in my opinion is quite unsurprising but the practice is recorded in most periods of Roman history when talking about these periods of Roman history though it is always important to remember when going back through these accounts of The Early Republic that history is still like a puzzle we are trying to piece together sometimes these pieces have been molded and shaped by those also trying to complete the puzzle and those who came long before us for example the earliest accounts of decimation in ancient Rome were in 471 BC in The Early Republic but Levy the great Roman historian from which we have these accounts was writing over 450 years after this first recorded Act of decimation in the time of Augustus at the Inception of the Empire also like I mentioned earlier bias cannot be understated in history due to Libby living in the time of Augustus his writings were looking at history through the lens of Rome and glory and their great achievements almost mythologizing the stories the further back through Roman history he went so find finding reliable sources for these periods of history and understanding and researching what information is going to have a higher likelihood of being true is just part of trying to gain some understanding of what this puzzle might actually look like and the realization that some pieces will never be found but it is also notable when dealing with ancient historians like Livy we do not have any idea of the source material and histories he did have at his disposal when he came to write his Collective history of the city of Rome and we will never know so although Olivia's well over 450 years from the events in which he is writing about the first account of decimation is recorded in 471 BC during the early Roman Republic when Rome was still predominantly engaging in Warfare to try and capture the Italian Peninsula when a Roman Consul appius Claudia Sabinas regelinus enraged at his army being forced back and Scattered by their foe so upset he was he had all the centurions standard bearers and soldiers who had thrown down their weapons in fear before fleeing scourged and beheaded the remaining soldiers were then assigned into groups and chosen by lot to be executed decimation is mentioned throughout the Republic and Empire the punishment was thought to instill discipline within the troops and also to intimidate and demoralize the enemy who might watch just how dedicated these Romans were beating each other to death in an organized structural way to display their loyalty to the cause and the shame and disgrace their Commander fell towards them but as could be expected there were many problems with this punishment in reality the Eastern Roman Emperor Maurice wrote in his Manual of war in the late 6th Century A.D that decimation be forbade stating that if Rankin files saw their comrades Dying by their own Brothers in Arms it could lead to a collapse of morale and even from a purely practical perspective you were depleting your fighting force some Emperors are said to have changed the punishment to kill one in 100 men instead of one in ten but the absolute Madness of the idea of decimation once again feeds into the madness surrounding the levels of discipline and bravery that were expected as a given if you were in the Roman army if you're in the legions you had the ability to change your life forever by gaining an honorary crown and having Senators rise for you honor you but if things go really wrong you don't have to just worry about the enemy killing it you mess up badly enough or you were just caught in a situation that takes an unfortunate turn and your brothers and arms might be the ones beating you to death the Romans bred this fanaticism into their armies and it ran extremely deep in an absolutely quasi-religious manner with links to paganistic cultural rituals and a dedication to the eagle if you think of what is considered an experienced Army today you would hope they have a few generations of soldiers who have fought in similar Wars with somewhat similar weapon systems and have enough commonalities between the decades that the older Generations May accurately understand the progression of war in the modern world and help pass on their knowledge to the next generation of soldiers in the world we live today there are a few countries with the ability to pass down that military tradition successfully in the Roman World however the Weapons Systems they used were mostly the same with small tweaks like shapes of helmets and shields lengths of certain swords and Spears maybe the early Republican manifold changes would shape the formation differently or the Marian reforms may have altered things again creating a more professional and permanent Army but you could take a legionry from 150 BC and take him to a Roman Battlefield 300 years in the future and he would be able to understand and relate to everything that those soldiers were going through and have an almost total grasp of their military tactics and Maneuvers I say this to emphasize the Roman army had hundreds of years of culture tactics and experience embedded deep in their Army's DNA no military in the modern world is at all comparable to the strength of culture held within the Roman legion now just to say getting sidetracked in the journey to look into the eagle is an unfortunate inevitable feature of this journey to stay the course totally when discussing these time periods civilizations and people that are so wondrous and interesting is an impossible task although have no doubt I have not covered the Romans or the Roman army in the detail that is possible all that I would like to if I had no time constraint I have simply given a perspective surveying the ever-present manifestation of history that is the puzzle with its missing pieces I look at the work that's incredible historians have done over the years and attempt to turn their beautifully written manuscripts histories and translations into my own type of screwed crayon drawing so although this drawing was supposed to Encompass many time periods in the more medieval and modern period I think it is more apt now to talk of the way the eagle was chosen as the standard of the Roman army the army that conquered the Mediterranean and left its mark on the world for Millennia it all comes down to the founders of Rome Romulus and Remus and one of the most significant men in Roman history a man who shaped the Roman world in the image of the eagle born in the year 157 BC Marius was a leading general and Statesman holding the position of conso an unprecedented seven times his story is what enabled Rome to ultimately head down the path of becoming an Empire whether that was his intended consequence or not Marius really deserves his own podcast dedicated entirely to him in his life but he finds himself embroiled in many stories of the Republic and there is one other man whose Legacy and life was also tied to marius's another man we have already briefly mentioned in this story and that is Lucius Cornelius sulla both these men laid the blueprint for the Roman civil war between Pompey Magnus and Julius Caesar Julius Caesar and Gaius Marius on the side of the populare although from high birth these men represented those lower rungas in society meanwhile Pompey Magnus and before him sulla represented the class of senatorial Elites and Wealthy landowners these classes are not always easy to distinguish though for example Marius and Julius Caesar although representing those lower classes came from some of the oldest Bloodlines in all of Rome Julius Caesar tracing his origin back to the time of the founding of Rome a common Trend you can note in these periods of Republican history is men of extreme wealth and power linking themselves to the people in doing so representing the people's needs as publicly and effectively as possible this earned them a form of protection and admiration within society as a whole there was hard for any Rivals to combat the notion of populism is still one seen today and used in politics across the world the basic breakdown of These two factions vying for control in Rome is as follows the optimates represented by people like sulla were seen as Aristocrats who were interested in defending their own property rights material possessions and political interests behaving similar to how political conservatives might today or fiscal conservatives opposing wealth redistribution and large-scale government keeping the power in the hands of those that already held it the populares on the other hand were those that maybe had more of an inclination to gain power and popularity by seeming to look out more for those who needed the most for example lobbying for extra grain rations voting rights and tribunal Authority it is not always easy to divide Roman society down these lines because as is often the case in politics politicians can play Both Sides very effectively when they feel it is to their benefit to give real insight into the details of this bubbling disputes that brought the Roman Republic to an end I think I need to dedicate more time to this topic as an individual episode so to keep with Gaius Marius and the cult of the eagle that he is responsible for creating he was born into a minor Noble family in central Italy in 157 BC by the way that isn't think he came from poverty but Roman society was divided up in lots of ways from families believed to be descended from the gods to the richest families to those old sacred names who had fallen into ill repute or those families who had come from the Mercantile class and had become rich over the last few Generations all these types of families were viewed in different ways by various factions within Roman society Marius was born into a family with maybe not the best name but he was certainly from money taking up politics from a young age and his younger brother Marcus Marius also being entered into Roman public life a feat that was not achievable under a simple laborer salary which is the claim putak makes of Gaius maris's father's occupation a rather unlikely story in my opinion Mario's deployed into the army in his early twenties under the command of Scipio emilianus or Scipio Africanus the younger not to be confused with Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus the man who won the Second Punic War against Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC and often viewed as one of the greatest military strategists of all time no emilianus was actually the adopted grandson of the great Scipio Africanus Marius found himself under the command of emilianus on what was likely marius's first military campaign in umansha Spain the Romans found themselves engaged in conflict over Roman land in the Iberian Peninsula which would become the Hub of many Roman gold and silver mining operations this campaign ended with the Iron Age hilfort encircled by a nine kilometer barrier erected by emilianus another nod to the Roman structural Ingenuity securing the Barack with Towers moats and impaling rods soon enough famine set in within the city and still the new Mansions refused to surrender after a year of Siege the surviving inhabitants are said to have decided to commit suicide rather than becoming slaves burning the city to the ground a historic and Final Act of defiance it was written by Plutarch that during this campaign well in conversation at dinner with the other men within the General's tent emilianis is said to have been asked where the Roman people would find a worthy successor to him he is said to have clasped a hand on maris's shoulder and remarked perhaps in this man we have found it Marius Rose quickly through the ranks helping achieve triumphs and console ships for other great men along his journey after leading his own minor campaign in Spain he is said to have governed a minor Province there for two years greatly increasing his wealth on his return he made a long-sighted tactical decision the type of decision that defined his life he married Julius Caesar's Aunt Julia gaining the respect of marrying into a patrician family and the trade-off of allowing the July Caesarean Clan to have a man of ambition and great prospects help further the family name Julius Caesar no doubt took a lot from watching Marius navigate the Roman political world the way he did from here Marius Rose quickly winning his first console ship in 107 BC and bringing an end to the jagerthine war a war that had been plaguing Rome for nearly the last decade the numidian king jagertha had slain his own half-brothers and massacred Italians in his civil war against said half Brothers after some high-level political maneuvering involving taking advantage of his position as a man of the plebs and using concilium plebis a legislative judicial assembly made up of plebeians to override a senate order he gave himself command of the armies in North Africa an extremely risky strategy but within two years had captured jagatha and had him being led through the streets of Rome at the head of its triumphant procession it was common practice to have prisoners and high-ranking members of the defeated Army within the procession alongside Rich's conquered standards and even rare animals this is where it is said what looks like is going to be one of my future projects starts the Rivalry between Marius and sulla for although Maris was in charge of the campaign that secured this war it was sulla himself who was responsible for capturing to girtha despite not being wanted by Marius he was assigned to the Army as a questor a sort of judicial administrator if you like a rung in the ladder of climbing the ranks of office using his connections within the court of another North African king sulla was sent to enter this Kingdom as a mediator between Marius and the King despite the risk of betrayal Salah went forward receiving to girth there is hostage and massacring his surviving followers Marius and sulla would debate who was truly responsible for bringing the war to an end for the rest of their lives although both went on to achieve more honors than many great Roman families Bloodlines combined this was the start of their hate for each other hate that would one day lead to assassinations of family members and friends on a scale Rome had not yet seen the first prescriptions lists of men who any citizen had the right to kill for a cash reward these would set the tone for the late Republic period but before that period of absolute Anarchy a period I truly love to be honest Marius was still to shape the Roman world he is known for his military reforms which are from the same time the eagle takes its place as the face of the Legion these military reforms involved abolishing the requirements of property ownership to join the Roman army recruiting soldiers from all classes of society greatly increasing the pool of men that the Roman army could recruit from an important evolution of the system as the Roman territory started to expand outward before the Marion reforms to join the Army you were required to be of at least the fifth census class or higher own property worth over 3500 substations in value and be able to equip yourself with weapons and armor this type of system was sustainable while military campaigns were short and just lasted the campaigning season but as the number of enemies had grown and their territories ever expanded this no longer worked before the reforms a farmer might be asked to go and campaign and be back to tender's farm within a relatively short amount of time but with larger and more distant campaigns lasting several years such Farmers would become destitute and run into Financial ruin the Army also had a poor record of administrative Effectiveness in paying its soldiers often releasing wages far later than agreed this combination of Citizen rights and a growing Empire LED some serious problems as the Army was raised from the populace for a single campaign traditionally the men would be separated into Legions then go through an intensive training process then on campaign they would gain experience of battle and discipline but once the campaign was over the men would be disbanded losing all of the cohesion and fighting Effectiveness they had developed this did not make sense in marius's eyes as a way to ensure Rome had an experienced fighting force that could Vanquish any adversary Marius new reformers were needed and took it upon himself to enact them he saw that drawing from the property owning class was far too small a pool to be able to have the numbers needed to rule an Empire so instead he took the absolutely radical decision to remove the limitations on joining the Army instead even offering rewards of property and land to those who completed service turning the system on its head by doing this he now creates the throng of disenfranchised masses who would become professional soldiers dedicating their lives to The Cult of the eagle and an opportunity to take their Destiny into their own hands with very little hope of climbing the ladder in other ways this caused masses to flock to marius's Army when joining the service the men would be entering into a contract of 16 years this is the first time the poorer Roman citizens were allowed in the Army the men would also no longer be expected to bring their own equipment looking a lot less like a ragtag group of mercenaries who found their Shields and weapons out of the cupboard from last year's campaign now the gender of the army was expected to provide weapons and armor the Army would now be made up of career Soldiers with contracted employment and consistent training and drilling staying in Peak Physical shape across the entire year not just in times of War this turned the heavily trained and equipped legionary into the buttress in which the Roman Army's structural Integrity relied after a campaign the Roman general leading the Army would now be responsible for issuing The Spoils of War giving plots of land in the Concord provinces to the soldiers along with a pension for those who completed their service this new system of retiring soldiers and conquered lands also had the effect of the increased romanization of distant lands with the new Roman provinces now being settled by Roman citizens who had loyalty to the Empire and would help create a homogeneous Roman society that was a lower likelihood of uprisings and far-flung provinces these reforms are the most important to the Society of Romans as opposed to certain changes made the manipal structure that purely affect military strategy these large-scale changes had certain consequences that took Rome towards the downfall of the Republic the soldiers no longer saw loyalty to the Senate as their priority but to the general who led them for he was the man who supplied them fed them and would fight within the Judiciary to gain the soldiers their just rewards generals now had the ability to use this well-trained permanent Force to influence the Senate and consolidate their individual power leading to generals like Sula Marius and later pompe and Caesar to declare war on their political enemies and use their loyal well-armed bloodthirsty armies as a tool to Hoist the banner of their own political Ambitions over that of the Republic before we get to this last point and the reason that the eagle became the standard of the Roman legion the sole standard of the Roman legion I would just like to thank everyone that's listening and just say that this is my first time doing a podcast if this is a podcast or whatever this is or anything like this so if you have made it this far I greatly appreciate you whoever you are and um I'm going to be trying to do some other similar things to this I'm not really sure where any of this is going to go at this point it's just a bit of a project but if you are listening to this then I greatly appreciate you the last point and the reason we have taken this journey through the Republic is the establishment of the eagle as the sole symbol of the Roman legion as The Story Goes when Rome was founded by the brothers Romulus and Remus they were quarreling over where the city of Rome should be founded they agreed to let the gods decide Remus spotted six Eagles first and then later Romulus spotted 12 Eagles the argument then continued Rima stating that since he had first seen the Eagles that the gods favored his plan Romulus Although seeing his Eagles after Remus believed that the number of eagles was more important than which of the birds appeared first as the legend goes Romulus later killed his brother and started the building of Rome on the Palatine Hill since this point the Romans have viewed the Eagles as symbols of power and authority and they're linked to the god Jupiter Eagles have often been uncovered in archaeological sites surrounding burial grounds the they were also said to be placed on an Emperor's funeral pyre in cages as the cage lit on fire the eagle Broke Free and would saw Skyward representing the manifestation of the deceased Emperor's transition to godhood during marius's reforms when he retired the other four animal standards the eagle took their place as a symbol of power and bravery the epitome of what a legion represents according to Legend however there was another reason Marius chose the eagle as a child Marius found an eagle nest containing seven eggs as opposed to the typical two or three Marius is said to have gone to visit an oracle to interpret this Omen and was informed that he would be console seven times in his life and never before achieved feet this gave Maris an otherworldly tie to the eagle to Rome's founder Romulus and to the god Jupiter a tie who had used to make the eagle the trademark of Roman dominance and his own destiny intrinsically tied together leaving his mark on the Republic in more ways than any other The Cult of the eagle was born elevated overhead ethereal projected across every coast of the Mediterranean Ocean its wings spread wide set to inspire for millennia

Channel: Embers of the Past

Views: 909

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Id: zrHrKoyn0KA

Length: 64min 13sec (3853 seconds)

Published: Sat May 13 2023