Silver-Gilt Phalera with the Head of a Horse

Circa	300 BC to 100 BC
Dimensions	5″ (12.7cm) wide
Medium	Silver
Origin	Mediterranean

This ‘phalera’ – a decorative plate worn on the cuirass of a soldier – is decorated with a central roundel containing a low relief image of a horse head. The horse is open-mouthed and wide-eyed, this possibly being a depiction of it in battle. His head takes up the whole central space of the plate, and when light runs across the surface it really comes to life. Around the circumference of the phalera are the remains of the heads of the bolts that would have attached it to the armour.