SPQR, eagles and standards: the symbols of Rome explained through the pieces

What SPQR means, and where you still see it in Rome

SPQR stands for Senatus Populusque Romanus, "the Senate and the People of Rome": the formula the Republic used to name the state, and one the emperors kept. Written out in full, it opens the dedication on the Arch of Titus at the edge of the Forum, cut under Domitian around AD 81–82. In full or as four letters it turns up on coins and inscriptions across the empire. It is on the coat of arms of the Comune di Roma, which is why you find it on manhole covers, drinking fountains, lamp posts and litter bins. A good part of the SPQR you photograph in Rome is modern casting.

The eagle and the standards of the legion

A legion marched behind an eagle. According to Pliny the Elder, Gaius Marius made the aquila the sole standard of the legion in 104 BC, retiring the wolf, boar, horse and minotaur. The aquilifer carried it, and losing it was a disgrace a unit did not live down. Of the three eagles lost with Varus in the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9, Germanicus recovered two; the third came back only in AD 41. The standards Crassus lost at Carrhae in 53 BC returned from the Parthians in 20 BC. Below the eagle came the signa of the centuries, poles stacked with discs and crescents, carried by the signifer. Then the vexillum, a square cloth hung from a crossbar, for detachments and cavalry. One honest note: SPQR on every banner is mostly a cinema habit; the ancient evidence is inscriptions and coins.

The scutum and what was painted on it

The legionary's shield was the scutum: tall, curved, built from layers of wood, faced with leather, with an iron boss at the centre. Held edge to edge it made a wall; raised overhead it made the testudo. The face was painted with a purpose: Vegetius writes that each cohort had its own device so a soldier could find his unit in the confusion. Jupiter's winged thunderbolt is the design that keeps returning on the shields of Trajan's Column. The only near-complete rectangular scutum to survive, a third-century piece found at Dura-Europos in Syria, is painted with Victories, an eagle and a lion. Red, gold and a thunderbolt are not a modern invention.

The centurion's crest

A centurion commanded a century, about eighty men. Vegetius, writing in the late fourth century about the legion of earlier times, says centurions wore silvered crests transversely, from ear to ear, so they could be recognised. Surviving helmets and reliefs show that the crests of the ranks, when worn at all, ran front to back. That sideways crest is the point of a centurion's helmet: in a line of identical iron it told eighty men where their officer stood. The red on modern replicas is a convention, not a record.

The symbols on our pieces, one by one

Site prices, at least 5% below Etsy.

• SPQR pugio with eagle pommel (€61). The legionary's belt dagger as a decorative replica: dark metal, gold-toned details, an eagle's head on the pommel, the four letters along the blade and a laurel motif worked into the scabbard.
• Centurion helmet with steel stand (€76). Steel with brass details and the red transverse crest; wearable, and it comes with a steel stand.
• Centurion helmet, collector edition (€190). Same helmet, more metal and more shine: a piece for the shelf, not for the head.
• Roman scutum (€205). Hand-painted replica: Jupiter's thunderbolt in gold on a red field, purely decorative.
• Julius Caesar bust (€100). Bronze-effect resin made in Italy; on the breastplate a Medusa and an eagle, in the style of the armour of his day.
• Augustus of Prima Porta (€140). Bronze-effect resin made in Italy, after the marble in the Vatican Museums, whose breastplate shows the return of Crassus's standards.
• Roma SPQR mosaic (€4,750). Stone tesserae and 24-karat gold leaf, 28x36 cm, framed; its page gives the Vatican as the place of making, with the artist's stamp and signature. It shows the SPQR shield and the word ROMA.

Choosing one: gift or shelf piece

For someone who reads history, the pugio or the scutum comes with a story to tell, and the pugio travels easily in checked luggage. Where a helmet would be too much, Caesar and Augustus sit on a shelf or a desk and everyone recognises them (more in our emperors guide). For steel, weight and polish, read the helmet and armour guide, then come and lift them: we are open every day from 10:00 to 20:00. Online it works the same way: free pickup in store, free tracked shipping in Italy (2–4 working days), €20 to the EU (3–7) and €50 elsewhere (6–14). Dispatch in 1–2 working days, 14 days to return the piece. Company order? See the corporate gifts guide; chess, the chess set guide.