During its incredibly long history, the Roman Republic and later Empire conducted countless wars big and small, mostly against neighbours or itself, and many of these are almost lost to history thanks to a lack of evidence. A handful, however, have survived in the memory thanks to good source material, and these include the wars of Trajan against Dacia at the start of the second century. These were partly justified as retaliation for raids on Roman territory, but quickly became wars of conquest, and by 106 most of Dacia had become a Roman province, and would remain so for over 160 years.
We don’t normally talk of primary sources in our reviews, but in this case we need to. Apart from written accounts, there are two main visual sources for these campaigns. The first is the famous Trajan’s Column, still standing in Rome today, and offering an amazing bas relief illustrating many aspects of the operation. The second is much less well known, the Tropaeum Traiani at Adamclisi, which included 54 metopes depicting the same campaigns. Historians generally believe Trajan’s column was erected to tell the official story, and as such should be seen as partly propaganda. It also contains several obvious mistakes, as well as several aspects which are not now understood, so it needs to be treated with caution. The Tropaeum Traiani is much less sophisticated artistically, but was also built around the time of the wars, and apparently under the direction of those that were actually present. Therefore, crude though it may be, it is seen as the more accurate depiction of events, and as we shall see, is clearly the inspiration for much in this set.
As can be seen, this set is split between the Roman troops (the first eight figures pictured above) and the Dacians. Taking the Romans first, all appear to be legionaries as all carry the curved rectangular shield (Trajan’s Column occasionally shows auxiliaries carrying one too, but there is much debate as to whether that is significant, or just a sculptor’s mistake). They all wear the imperial Gallic helmet with reinforcing cross pieces as well as the usual brow bar, but their body armour consists of an array of segment, mail and scale shirts. Trajan’s Column only shows legionaries in lorica segmentata, but it is thought that other armours were also brought out for the Dacian campaigns, and these are illustrated on the Tropaeum Traiani, which helps to give it more credibility, and by extension also promotes the accuracy of this set of figures. Some of these legionaries also seem to have pteruges at the shoulders, but perhaps the most interesting aspect of them is that they all have the flexible segmented arm protection (manica) on their sword arm. It seems highly unlikely that all the legionaries involved in these wars had such protection, so it is speculated that only a certain number were equipped with this extra protection, perhaps specifically to deal with the Dacian’s most feared weapon. Another indication of this is that all the Romans wear greaves, tied around the calves, which again is unlikely to have been universal issue. The men have the ordinary boots (caligae) and the usual military belt (balteus), but in all cases this has been sculpted here with just three leather strips (‘apron’) down the front. Trajan’s column either omits these, or only shows a weird truncated version, and the Tropaeum Traiani skips them entirely, but they were popular by this time, so we think Linear-A are right to restore them for these figures, though we have never seen as few as three straps depicted.
The Dacians are much more simply rendered. They are all bare-chested, and wear trousers tied at the waist and ankles, and boots. Every man also wears a pointed soft cap in the Phrygian style, which is a famous mark of a Dacian. Some historians believe that only the nobles or those in authority wore such a cap, but we find this hard to accept simply because they seem to be depicted so often in the sources. Be that as it may, many also believe that the falx was only carried by a sort of elite type of warrior, and all four of these poses carry this fearsome weapon, so perhaps they should be viewed as elite troops anyway. The falx is, of course, the Dacian’s most feared weapon, and with a long blade and double-handed shaft, it is easy to see why. Designs did vary, including the length, but those here look fine, and certainly plenty fearsome enough. If the Romans did create specialist squads with extra protection to deal with such men, then their presence here is entirely appropriate.
The Romans all carry the scutum, which is properly done with the front boss and horizontal bar handle at the back, although the curve is markedly less pronounced than the real thing would have been (for good production reasons of course). None of these have any sort of design engraved on the face, which we like. Half of the Romans are wielding the pilum, which the Linear-A box describes as ‘hurl[ing] their javelins to break the force of the Dacian attack’, which is fine, although of course they were also used in offense. The pila are of the classic design, with the shaft and long shank, at the base of which is a weight. The remaining four have their sword out, and so are in close with the enemy.
Linear-A have established a reputation for producing multiple sets for a given subject, and this one is simply identified as ‘Set 1’, but the theme here seems to be the falx, and how the Romans responded to it, rather than a typical overview of both armies. With that in mind, what about the poses? Well, the four pila poses include two good ones of men about to throw their weapon, plus two that we did not like. The third man in the top row seems to have just released his pilum as he does not grip it at all, yet he throws it as if it were a dart, and throws it to his side, so cannot get much energy behind it. The moment of release is a very tricky pose to do with a traditional two-piece mould, and a nice idea, but in our view this figure does not make it work. The first man in the second row is better, but he is moving forward and holding out his pilum to the side at arm’s length. Our question is – why? It is not impossible of course, but it does seem like a really unlikely position to take, even if it is easy to mould. The four swordsmen are much better, since all hold their shield to the front and seem to be preparing to deliver the blow after they parry that of their opponent. The last man in the second row looks very strange, but we will explain him shortly.
The Dacians are in some really nice poses. Three of them are busy swinging or striking down with their weapon, and while this is also not an easy pose to get right, we thought the effort here was very good and convincing. The fourth man is on his knees, clearly more at the receiving end of a blow than giving them out, and is here for a reason.
If you look at the metopes on the Tropaeum Traiani, it quickly becomes apparent that many are the inspiration for these poses. Pair up the four swordsmen with the four Dacians, and you can pretty much recreate several of these scenes. Crude as they are, the ancient carvings show some nice one-on-one combats between Romans and Dacians with a falx, and this set provides the realisation of those scenes in miniature plastic. Of particular note is the last Roman, and the Dacian on his knees. The scene this recreates shows a Roman soldier stabbing down on a kneeling Dacian with his sword, apparently either through the shoulder or in the back. Thus in this set, you need to position the Roman directly behind the Dacian, at which point it becomes obvious what he holds in his hand – the hilt of a gladius which is otherwise embedded in the shoulder of the Dacian. Unfortunately this is not depicted on the box (which has clumsily faked a sword blade), and our initial reaction to this figure was that it had a sword which had not been properly filled, but once you know what was intended, it makes for a dramatic duo. Of course, it also means the Roman is not much use for anything else, so there is also a down side.
The sculpting of these figures is not exactly pretty. Although the sculptor has put a lot of detail into them, it is not of the finest quality, and many elements are particularly chunky. This is perhaps most apparent with the pila, which look much too short but are actually the correct length, but are so thick as to make them seem wrong. The faces and musculature are not bad, but there is an unrefined style here which we have seen many times before, but compares less well with the best sculpting coming out in recent years. There is flash on all the seams, sometimes quite substantial, so some customers will want to do a lot of cleaning up before using these models, but there is very little unwanted plastic in hard to reach places, which is no mean achievement for figures holding bladed weapons and large shields.
All the Dacians are long-haired and unshaven, which perhaps speaks more of Roman stereotypes of ‘barbarians’ than the reality, but is not a big issue for us. The first Roman in our top row is holding his shield upside down, which is odd. Did the Romans do that? In extremis, anyone would hold their shield in whatever way they thought offered the best protection, but since all he is doing is launching his pilum, we wondered at this particular design choice. However, all the swordsmen hold their shields as if they are defending themselves from a blow from above, and the Dacians are offering just such a blow, so the matching of poses is excellent. In general we were very keen on the swordsmen and Dacian poses, and less so some of the men with pila, while the sculpting is adequate but nothing to get excited about. The accuracy seems a fair fit with the best available sources, so while this set has good and bad points, it is an interesting idea that largely pays off.