Draco (military standard)
The draco ("dragon" or "serpent", plural dracones) was a
The draco may have been introduced to the Roman army after the Dacian wars by Dacian, and Sarmatian units in the second century.[citation needed] According to Vegetius, in the fourth century a draco was carried by each legionary cohort.[2]
Literary descriptions
The Greek military writer
The Scythian banners are dracontes held aloft on standard-length poles. They are made of colored cloths stitched together, and from the head along the entire body to the tail, they look like snakes. When the horses bearing these devices are not in motion, you see only variegated streamers hanging down. During the charge is when they most resemble creatures: they are inflated by the wind, and even make a sort of hissing sound as the air is forced through them.[3]
Arrian says the colorful banners offer visual pleasure and amazement, but also help the riders position themselves correctly in the complicated drills.[4] The Gallo-Roman Latin poet Sidonius Apollinaris offers a similar, if more empurpled, description.[5]
Depictions
The draco is depicted on the
See also
- Dacian Draco
- Clan of Ostoja
- Koinobori
Notes
- ^ Yust 1953, p. 570.
- ^ Vegetius 2.13; Pat Southern and Karen R. Dixon, The Late Roman Army (Yale University Press, 1996), p. 98.
- ^ Arrian, Technē Tacita 35.2–4.
- ^ Arrian, Technē Tacita 35.5.
- ^ Sidonius, Panegyric on Maiorianus 5; Southern and Dixon, The Late Roman Army, p. 126.
- ^ Southern and Dixon, The Late Roman Army, p. 126.
- ^ "Niederbieber Draco".
References
- Scott-Giles, Charles Wilfrid (1957). The romance of heraldry. Dutton.
- Yust, Walter (1953). Encyclopædia Britannica: a new survey of universal knowledge. Encyclopædia Britannica.
External links