I wonder what sculptures are around this one. The way the cloak is flared, I would bet the intent was to contrast these soldiers against St. Martin of Tours, who cut his cloak in half with his sword to share it with a beggar he met. Some legends say he later found the cloak hanging around the Corpus on a crucifix in a nearby church.
I wouldn't be all that surprised if Herod's troops looked a lot like Roman ones, though. After all, Judea had been subject to Rome for decades by that time. I'm sure there was a lot of borrowing Roman clothing styles -- and since Herod's rule relied on Rome's backing, he had every reason to want his troops to look like badass Roman ones. Herod did his best to play the part of the good Jew, but at the same time he was allied with the Hellenists who had been fighting the more separatist Jews since the days of the Maccabees.
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Date: 2007-11-11 09:21 am (UTC)I wouldn't be all that surprised if Herod's troops looked a lot like Roman ones, though. After all, Judea had been subject to Rome for decades by that time. I'm sure there was a lot of borrowing Roman clothing styles -- and since Herod's rule relied on Rome's backing, he had every reason to want his troops to look like badass Roman ones. Herod did his best to play the part of the good Jew, but at the same time he was allied with the Hellenists who had been fighting the more separatist Jews since the days of the Maccabees.