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A sceptre (or scepter in U.S. English) is a symbolic ornamental staff or wand held in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia. Sometimes, it could be used for showing a sense of divinity. ==Antiquity== The ''Was'' and other types of staffs were signs of authority in Ancient Egypt. For this reason, they are often described as "sceptres", even if they are full-length staffs. One of the earliest royal sceptres was discovered in the tomb of Khasekhemwy in Abydos. Kings were also known to carry a staff, and Pharaoh Anedjib is shown on stone vessels carrying a so-called ''mks''-staff. The staff with the longest history seems to be the ''heqa''-sceptre, sometimes described as the shepherd’s crook. The Bronze Age rulers of Mesopotamia are not regularly depicted with sceptres. However, in some instances they are shown armed, with bow and arrow and occasionally a mace. Use of a rod or staff as representing authority can be traced to the beginning of Classical Antiquity. Among the early Greeks, the sceptre (, ''skeptron'', "staff, stick, baton") was a long staff, such as Agamemnon wielded (''Iliad'', i) or was used by respected elders (''Iliad'', xviii. 46; Herodotus 1. 196), and came to be used by judges, military leaders, priests and others in authority. It is represented on painted vases as a long staff tipped with a metal ornament. When the sceptre is borne by Zeus or Hades, it is headed by a bird. It was this symbol of Zeus, the king of the gods and ruler of Olympus, that gave their inviolable status to the ''kerykes'', the heralds, who were thus protected by the precursor of modern diplomatic immunity. When, in the ''Iliad'', Agamemnon sends Odysseus to the leaders of the Achaeans, he lends him his sceptre. Among the Etruscans, sceptres of great magnificence were used by kings and upper orders of the priesthood. Many representations of such sceptres occur on the walls of the painted tombs of Etruria. The British Museum, the Vatican and the Louvre possess Etruscan sceptres of gold, most elaborately and minutely ornamented. The Roman sceptre probably derived from the Etruscan. Under the Republic an ivory sceptre (''sceptrum eburneum'') was a mark of consular rank. It was also used by victorious generals who received the title of ''imperator'', and its use as a symbol of delegated authority to legates apparently was revived in the marshal’s baton. In the Hellenistic period, the Biblical Book of Esther mentions the sceptre of the King of Persia. Under the Roman Empire, the ''sceptrum Augusti'' was specially used by the emperors, and was often of ivory tipped with a golden eagle. It is frequently shown on medallions of the later empire, which have on the obverse a half-length figure of the emperor, holding in one hand the ''sceptrum Augusti'', and in the other the orb surmounted by a small figure of Victory. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「sceptre」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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