SIGNA MĪLĬTĀRĬA

( σημεῖα , σημαίαι ), military ensigns or standards. The most ancient standard employed by the Romans is said to have been a handful of straw fixed to the top of a spear or pole. Hence the company of soldiers belonging to it was called Man i pulus . The bundle of hay or fern was soon succeeded by the figures of animals, viz. the eagle, the wolf, the minotaur, the horse, and the boar. These appear to have corresponded to the five divisions of the Roman army as shown on p. 165 . The eagle ( aquila ) was carried by the aquilifer in the midst of the hastati , and we may suppose the wolf to have been carried among the principes , and so on. In the second consulship of Marius, B.C. 104, the four quadrupeds were entirely laid aside as standards, the eagle being alone retained. It was made of silver, or bronze, and with expanded wings, but was probably of a small size, since a standard-bearer ( signifer ) under Julius Caesar is said in circumstances of danger to have wrenched the eagle from its staff, and concealed it in the folds of his girdle. Under the later emperors the eagle was carried, as it had been for many centuries, with the legion, a legion being on that account sometimes called aquila , and at the same time each cohort had for its own ensign the serpent or dragon ( draco , δράκων ), which was woven on a square piece of cloth, elevated on a gilt staff, to which a cro -bar was adapted for the purpose, and carried by the draconarius . Another figure used in the standards was a ball ( pila ), supposed to have been emblematic of the dominion of Rome over the world; and for the same reason a bronze figure of Victory was sometimes fixed at the top of the staff. Under the eagle or other emblem was often placed a head of the reigning emperor, which was to the army the object of idolatrous adoration. The minor divisions of a cohort, called centuries , had also each an ensign, inscribed with the number both of the cohort and of the century. By this provision every soldier was enabled with the greatest ease to take his place. The standard of the cavalry, properly called vexillum , was a square piece of cloth expanded upon a cro in the manner already indicated, and perhaps surmounted by some figure. The following cut, containing several standards, represents the performance of the sacrifice called suovetaurilia . The imperial standard from the time of Const an tine was called labarum ; on it a figure or emblem of Christ was woven in gold upon purple cloth, and this was substituted for the head of the emperor. Since the movements of a body of troops and of every portion of it were regulated by the standards, all the evolutions, acts, and incidents of the Roman army were expre ed by phrases derived from this circumstance. Thus signa inferre meant to advance, referre to retreat, and convert ere to face about; efferre , or castris vellere , to march out of the camp; ad signa con venire , to re-a emble. Notwithstanding some obscurity in the use of terms, it appears that, whilst the standard of the legion was properly called aquila , those of the cohorts were in a special sense of the term called signa , their bearers being signiferi , and that those of the manipuli or smaller divisions of the cohort were denominated vexilla , their bearers being vexillar i i . In time of peace the standards were kept in the Aerarium , under the care of the Quaestor . IMG:6459379820872971714_ill343.jpg: Military Standards. (Bellori, Vet. Arc. Aug.)