Roman Standard -- Ancient History Encyclopedia

Definition

A standard was a banner or a flag carried by the head of a Roman army that denoted the legion number and name.

It also served as a symbolic calling card to whatever group they were marching upon. It was usually marked with "SPQR", a Latin abbreviation of Senatus Populusque Romanus, literally meaning "Senate and People of Rome".

The Roman standard was carried in processions and battles by the standard-bearer. This man could be either a soldier of a civilian, and it was a duty of high distinction. In times of battle the standard-bearer was a full time duty, often bestowed upon an officer of the Roman army. For ceremonial occasions, a civilian might have been chosen to carry the standard as an honor.

The Roman standard could be either a flag or another type of mobile, visual object that was carried by the bearer in order to act as a warning or demonstration of the Empire, the military unit, or the province.

Written by writer873, published on 28 April 2011 under the following license: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms.

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