Roman soldiers affixing body parts to their helms?

[Longshanks]

A few months ago I read a NY Times about the upcoming miniseries Rome, and in the article the writer was talking about the set and props. Here is the relevant paragraph, "Her research also showed that Roman soldiers sometimes affixed small parts of vanquished rivals' bodies, not excluding genitals, to their battle helmets. Ms. Ferry's costumes reproduce this, but when she tried one recent afternoon to find an example, the helmets nearby dangled only fake fingers; the faux phalluses were nowhere to be found."

I thought it was interesting though I had never read anything on the practice. Do we know that they did in fact do this? Just curious, though of course no mention of the taking of grisly war trophies wouldn't prove that it didn't happen. Whether or not it is recorded by history I suspect the taking of such trophies is probably as old as war itself.

[Randal]

There are depictions of "headhunting" Romans on Trajan's column. They're auxiliaries, though, and it's quite likely they originate from a people where this was customary. I don't know about any other examples of trophy taking. Which means very little, of course.

[Watchman]

*shrug* Seems possible enough for me. The Roman soldiery was famed for iron discipline, excellent organisation and fearsome professionalism, not for being nice and wholesome people. About contrary, in fact - the Romans fully appreciated the value of psychological warfare and routinely used terror tactics, mass atrocities and sundry other niceties to terrify enemies into submission. (The Assyrians were keen on the same too, by what I've read.)

Grisly trophies fit in readily enough, especially if the troopers concerned hailed from amongst recently assimilated peoples with traditions along those lines. It would also be perfectly conceivable for a sneaky commander to specifically order the demonstration of such quaint decorations if he thought this would help to unnerve the enemy or something...

[Steppe Merc]

Celts were big on head hunting... not head throwing, as in RTW though.
This might be were she heard of this, since Celtic auxilaries probably still took heads as trophies.

[Longshanks]

There are depictions of "headhunting" Romans on Trajan's column. They're auxiliaries, though, and it's quite likely they originate from a people where this was customary. I don't know about any other examples of trophy taking. Which means very little, of course.

Interesting! Thanks for the info.