Among those dedicated to archaeology Roman military in Hispania The news, published in El País, entitled "The dishonor of the eagle lost by the Roman legion that was sold on the internet" and signed by Vicente Olaya, has caused a minor stir. It refers to the seizure, by the police forces, of a metallic Roman eagle –probably bronze– that could have been looted from a site in the province of Badajoz. According to the author, at the time this object formed the top of a Roman military banner and, specifically, a legionary banner, that is, the famous eagle banner (aquila ) of which there would be one per legion and of which, to date, no copy is known to be preserved in the entire world. The same news refers to the simultaneous seizure of a batch of coins from the 2nd-3rd centuries AD. C., although without any relation to the eagle.
The news is accompanied by a photograph showing the back of the bird. Dimensions and material are not indicated, although from the image it appears to be bronze. The latter is enough to rule out that it is a legionary eagle , since the Latin sources are explicit in describing this banner as silver (Appian, Bell. Civ. 4,101; Cicero, Cat. 1,9,24; Pliny, Nat. Hist. 33,19) or gold (Casius Dio, 40,17-18; Herodian, 4,7,7; Dexippo, frag . 24), but never bronze. The fragments of a silver eagle found in Marengo, Italy, could perhaps correspond to one of these specimens, although in that case too they are subject to doubt and debate among specialists.
Ruled out, therefore, the possibility that it was the eagle of a legion, a second possibility remains, and that is to suppose that the specimen from Badajoz was part of a banner of a smaller unit , perhaps a maniple or cohort (about 160 or 480 men) –either legionary or auxiliary–, as the apex of a complete banner, that is, endowed with more pieces and ornaments along the shaft. This possibility is not entirely implausible, since we do know that, on occasion, some small unit banners were equipped with equally small eagles. However, here we run into another problem, such as the fact that, due to its formal appearance (and, specifically, the upright position of the bird's wings), we would have to date the piece between the middle of the 1st century AD. and middle of the III d. C. And, nevertheless, in this period the military presence in the region –corresponding to the Roman province of Lusitania– was very exceptional. We also have no evidence of any episode of such seriousness occurring in the region that it could justify the concealment of a military standard and its abandonment to the point that it was never recovered. The raids of mauri from North Africa that occurred at the end of the second century AD. C. they did not have, of course, the necessary entity for it.
Together, the impression provided by all these data is that the possibility that the Badajoz eagle had formed part of a Roman military standard is extremely remote. Now, in that case, what is it?
Even admitting a Roman chronology for the piece –which already implies an assumption, because it could be from the 19th century–, the range of possibilities is wide, since certainly in ancient Rome the The eagle was a ubiquitously used symbol, being found in temples and liturgical objects associated with the cult of Jupiter or the emperor, as decoration on furniture and litters, and even very often as metal sconces on carriages. For all the above, any of these options seems more likely than the military.