Roman Bifacial Green Jasper Gemstone with Saddled Male Donkey and EVM
1st century A.D.. The intaglio with a donkey (mule?) grazing, body facing right; Latin inscription on the verso ‘EVM’ (him). Cf., for a similar gemstone in the Venezia Archaeological National Museum, inventory no.G138; cf. Sena Chiesa, G., Gemme del Museo Nazionale di Aquileia, 1966, no.1050, p.349.
0.98 grams, 12 mm (1/2 in.).
Acquired in the late 1980s-early 1990s.Important North West London collection. Donkeys were used by the Roman army from circa 200 B.C. but mules, the hybrid offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, were to become the most important working animals for the military and were used to pull heavy artillery such as catapults. It has been estimated that there were probably half a million mules serving in the Roman army by the time of Augustus (31 B.C.-A.D. 14). DNA studies have now shown that mules may have comprised up to 50% of the equids in the Roman Empire. The use of pack-mules for the army continued in the Eastern Roman army until the fall of Constantinople.