The ''Praetorians Relief'' is a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

marble relief dated to AD from the Arch of Claudius in Rome, now housed in the Louvre-Lens. It depicts three soldiers in

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in the foreground, while two others in the background, accompanied by a standard bearer, are made in

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

. The standard-bearer holds an aquila standard, where the eagle grasps a thunderbolt in its talons. The soldiers have been identified as Praetorians due to the richness of the apparel, particularly the helmets, the ceremonial dress and oval shields. The figures are wearing calcei and not caligae, worn by ordinary soldiers. However, according to Boris Rankov, "the Attic-style helmets are almost certainly an artistic convention". Rankov suggests that "early in their history the Praetorians were still using the Montefortino-style helmet normal in the legions of the

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and early

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". The relief was previously dated to the early 2nd century AD. The lower half of the left-hand figure, portions of the middle two and the heads of all three foreground figures are modern restorations. In 2006 the relief underwent restoration by N. Imbert and A. Méthivier. File:Relief historique dit Relief des Prétoriens --- MBALyon 2018 02.jpg File:Relief historique dit Relief des Prétoriens --- MBALyon 2018 04.jpg File:Relief historique dit Relief des Prétoriens 03.jpg File:Relief historique dit Relief des Prétoriens 02.jpg

Provenance

The Praetorians Relief was once part of the Arch of Claudius, erected in AD 51 to commemorate the conquest of Britain. The relief is mentioned as early as the 16th century. The head of the standard-bearer is depicted in ''Album'' by of Reims, on the page dated to 1577. The relief was once in the possession of the Mattei family, in 1824 it was purchased by the French.

References

External links

{{Commonscatinline Ancient Greek and Roman sculptures in the Louvre 50s in the Roman Empire Marble reliefs Marble sculptures in France Praetorian Guard Roman Empire sculptures Reliefs in France