Yes, yours is broken. However, it is also genuine and that is nice to know given that this is a heavily faked
type.
Not 100% sure of the date but the
pin catch is very similar to that found on many
Roman types that can be dated to the 2nd through mid-3rd century AD so that is a likely date.
One should be careful in calling these
legionary eagles though. It is an
eagle and the
eagle was a
legionary symbol but it was also a symbol of
Jupiter and other things. This
type of flat
plate fibula would only go through a
bit of cloth so they were not used to fasten
military cloaks like
bow fibulae were. They are
scarce enough that they were not used by all legionaries. And there is no iconographic evidence of their use by soldiers.
So all we can say is that they are 2nd-3rd c AD
Roman plate fibula. They might have some association with legions or
Jupiter or both. They were almost certainly private purchase items, not official uniform insignia. Could have been meant for women (wives or girlfriends) as well as, or instead of,
men.
Shawn
