Jeeps and Hummers in Antiquity?
Crossover Vehicles and Conspicuous Consumption
Elizabeth Tylawsky, Norwich Free Academy, CT
Introduction
To anyone who has used the Ecce Romani series the raeda, the carriage, stuck in the ditch for several chapters to be ultimately abandoned and forgotten is a passing frustration. But to the hypothetical Cornelius family the raeda may not only have represented a significant expense but a conspicuous social statement as well. The raeda, and the essedum, a light two-wheeled chariot, were Roman equivalents of SUVs, crossover vehicles, which were adopted by the Romans in the course of their military ventures among the Gauls and Germans.
Raeda is not a Latin word. It describes a heavy, four-wheeled covered transport carriage. The earliest attestation of the term comes from Caesar. It is the Germans who use raedae. “Then necessarily the Germans led out their own troops from the camp and formed them up by tribe spaced equally: the Harudes, the Marcomanni, the Triboces, the Vangiones, the Nemetes, the Sedusi, the Suebi. And they surrounded their entire line with raedas and carts, so that no expectation of getting away might remain.” (Note2) The reference dates to early in Caesar’s sojourn in Gaul. He and his troops must have seen advantages in these vehicles of capacity, utility and speed (Note3). Or, it may be, that Caesar and his soldiers, like soldiers everywhere, went a little native, and adopted local items for their own.
