After 2,5 months without hobby I was finally enabled to get some hours for brushing yesterday. Keith from Aventine has kindly given me some weeks ago this lovely mini, actually a door figure for Albanich 2013 show.
In the meantime the miniature is available by Aventine in their web shop as charity item:
http://www.aventineminiatures.co.uk/catalog/index.php?cPath=106
I’ve painted him as dismounted praetorian guard cavalry officer. No idea what officer he could be, my knowledge about the command structure in the Roman cavalry units is very limited. What I know is that Equites Singulares Augusti, emperor’s own home guards were formed apparently by Trajan himself. Governers of the provinces were allowed to have their own mounted bodyguard troop (mostly non-Romans, serving in the alae), and so Trajan, being the governer of the Upper Germany, took his elite troops on his way to Rome, where he wouldn’t have his loyal legions behind them. That perhaps was the birth of the Praetorian cavalry troop. This assumption also based on the fact that the core of the imperial guard cavalry were originally the Batavi, so Germans.
I’m guessing the colours I’ve used for his uniform aren’t that entirely correct but I didn’t care much about it to be honest. I only was intented to have a bright nice looking figure and give some credit to Aventine. Also it’s scarcely possible that they were wearing cloacks with the depiction of a scorpion (actually only known from the shield depictions) but I just couldn’t withstand to paint it.
