SCEPTRUM
SCEPTRUM In Homer the king carries a sceptre as a badge of his
power (cf.
Il. 2.86,
σκηπτοῦχοι βασιλῆες; ib. 206,
βασιλεὺς ᾦ ἔδωκε Ζεὺς σκῆπτρον τ᾽ ἠδὲ θέμιστας),
but it is not distinguished by name from other staves, since
σκῆπτρον is used not only of those borne by men
of rank and heralds, but of a beggar's cudgel (cf.
Od. 17.195 and 199, where it is synonymous with
ῥόπαλον). The king's sceptre, however, was
richly ornamented, being covered with gold foil (
χρύσεον,
Il. 1.15, &c.) and studded with gold
nails (
χρυσεἵοις ἥλοισι πεπαρμένον,
Il. 1.245), which were doubtless for the
purpose of attaching the gold plating to the wood. Among the objects found
at Mycenae are the head and butt of a staff of this kind, of beaten gold and
decorated with a spiral and a leaf pattern
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Sceptres of silver plated with gold. (Schliemann's Mycenae.)
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(Schuchhardt,
Schliemann's Ausgrabungen, Leipzig, 1890. p.
285, fig. 251). In classical times, when kings were but little known in
Greece, the chief bearers of sceptres were the gods, goddesses, and heroes
in works of art. A good instance is the sceptre of the Zeus Olympios of
Pheidias, which was adorned with all manner of metals, and surmounted by an
eagle (
τῇ δὲ ἀριστέρᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ χειρὶ ἔνεστι
σκῆπτρον μετάλλιος τος πᾶσιν διηνθισμένον. ὁ δὲ ὄρνις ὁ ἐπὶ
τῷ
[p. 2.612]σκήπτρῳ καθήμενος ἐστὶν
ὁ ἀετός,
Paus. 5.11,
1).
Flowers and fruit are even more common as badges, the sceptres of the gods
being in fact strangely like those of men of rank in Assyria described by
Herodotus (
1.195), surmounted by an apple, a
rose, a lily, or some such thing (cf. Murray,
Journal of Hellenic
Studies, 1889, vol. x. p. 251).
In the Tragedians the word
σκῆπτρον, though
often used metaphorically of royal power (e. g.
Soph.
O. C. 426), is still quite general in meaning,
the old man's staff or the wayfarer's stick being both so called (
Soph. O. T. 456;
O. C. 84;
Aesch. Ag. 75). The staff, however, that was in everyday use in
the fourth and fifth centuries, was plain, and seems only in such
exceptional cases as that of Parrhasius to have been of Homeric magnificence
(
σκίπωνί τε ἐστηρίζετο χρυσᾶς ἕλικας
ἐμπεπαισμένῳ,
Athen. 12.543 c).
At Rome, even more than in Greece, the sceptre, whose Latin name is
scipio (a word originally borrowed from the Greek),
was unknown except as a relic of the heroic and kingly age (cf.
Verg. A. 12.206) and an attribute of the
gods. There is one important exception, that of the magistrate, who appeared
in triumphal costume in the
processus
consularis at the games, bearing in his hand a sceptre of ivory,
surmounted by an eagle (
Juv. 10.43; Prudent.
Peristeph. 148, “aquila ex eburna sumit arrogantiam
gestator ejus ac superbit belluae inflatus osse, cui figura est
alitis” ). This, however, was an emblem of apotheosis, and, unlike
the other
ornamenta triumphalia, was never worn
on other occasions during the life of the
triumphator, nor was it carried at his funeral. Even when the
emperors are represented on coins as bearing it (cf. Antoninus and
Volusian's coins), the sceptre is the token of their triumph and not of
supreme power.
Livy's story (5.41) of M. Papirius, the senator, striking the Gaul
scipione eburneo, is held by Mommsen to be at
variance with the usages of after-times and to be a poetic exaggeration, as
are the many descriptions which late authors give of the costume of the
early Romans. (Buchholz,
Die homer. Realien, ii. p. 8;
Helbig,
Das homerische Epos, 1887, p. 378; Daremberg and
Saglio,
Dict. Antiq. art.
Baculum; Mommsen,
Staatsrecht, 2nd edit., 1.140;
Staatsverwaltung, ii. p. 587; Marquardt,
Privatleben, 2nd edit., p. 742; Mayor
ad
Juv. 10.35 foll.)
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W.C.F.A]