"Count Caylus has published several; among others two leopards, male and female. Ensigns upon colonial coins, if accompanied with the name of the legion, but not otherwise, show that the colony was founded by the veterans of that legion. There were also standards called pila, or tufa, consisting of bucklers heaped one above the other.
"The ancient Franks bore the tiger, wolf, &c., but soon adopted the eagle from the Romans. In the second race, they used the cross, images of saints, &c. The fleur-de-lis was the distinctive attribute of the king.
"Ossian mentions the standard of the kings and chiefs of clans, and says that it (the king's) was blue studded with gold. This is not improbable, for the Anglo-Saxon ensign was very grand. It had on it the white horse, as the Danish was distinguished by the raven. They were, however, differently formed from the modern, being parallelograms, fringed, and borne, sometimes at least, upon a stand with four wheels. A standard upon a car was, we have already seen, usual with the ancient Persians. Sir S. R. Meyrick admits that it was of Asiatic origin, first adopted by the Italians, and introduced here in the reign of Stephen. That of Stephen is fixed by the middle upon a staff, topped by a cross pattée (wider at the ends than in the middle), has a cross pattée itself on one wing, and three small branches shooting out from each flag. It appears from Drayton, that the main standard of Henry V. at the battle of Agincourt was borne upon a car; and the reason which he assigns is, that it was too heavy to be carried otherwise. Sir S. R. Meyrick adds, that it preceded the royal presence. Edward I. had the arms of England, St. George, St. Edmond, and St. Edward, on his standards. The flag or banner in the hands of princes, upon seals, denotes sovereign power, and was assumed by many lords in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries."
We observe that the invention of standards is ascribed to the Egyptians. Layard, in "Nineveh, and its Remains," says of the standards of the Assyrians:—
"Standards were carried by the charioteers. In the sculptures, they have only two devices: one, a figure (probably that of the divinity) standing on a bull, and drawing a bow; the other, two bulls running in opposite directions," probably, as is stated in a note, the symbols of war and peace.
"These figures are inclosed in a circle, and fixed to the end of a long staff ornamented with streamers and tassels." Here we see the early use of pendants as emblems of supreme authority. In our own day, we frequently hear, Commodore ——'s broad pendant was hoisted on the ship ——. In Queen Anne's time, on the union of England and Scotland, we find the use of pendants by the ships of her subjects, expressly prohibited in the following words: "Nor any kind of pendants whatsoever, or any other ensign than the ensign described in the side or margent hereof, which shall be worn instead of the ensign before this time [1707] usually worn in merchant vessels." In reference to the flags of the national vessels, the following language is used: "Our flags, jacks, and pendants, which, according to ancient usage, have been appointed to a distinction for our ships." Every one will observe the distinction made in the case of the pendants, which were absolutely prohibited to the subjects. We return now to the consideration of the standards of the Assyrians. "The standards seem to have been partly supported by a rest in front of the chariot, and a long rod or rope connected them with the extremity of the pole. In a bas-relief of Khorsabad, this rod is attached to the top of the standard."[1]
The reader will have observed what Fosbroke says of the introduction into England of a standard borne on a car, that it was in imitation of the eastern nations. In the case of the Romans, the force of this habit was even more strikingly illustrated. They at first used a bundle of bay or straw; as they extended their conquests over the neighboring colonists from Greece, and doubtless from Egypt, they assumed the wolf and other animals. The wolf, perhaps, referred to the foster-mother of Romulus. As they extended their conquests further, they borrowed the custom of the Greeks, of placing a shield with the image of a warlike deity upon it on a spear, still, however, retaining the reference to the manipulus in the hand, above it.
In the time of Marius, they adopted the eagle with the thunderbolt in its claws, the emblem of Jove. We are also told that different divisions had certain letters, frequently the name of the commander, inscribed on their standards. This practice was also introduced among the Romans from Greece. It was introduced among the Grecians by Alexander the Great, who observed it among the Persians and other eastern nations. Intoxicated with his triumphs, when he began to claim for himself a divine origin, he caused a standard to be prepared, inscribed with the title of "Son of Ammon," and planted it near the image of Hercules, which, as that of his tutelary deity, was the ensign of the Grecian host. In the same way, the Franks borrowed the eagle from the Romans.
The same holds good of the dragon-standard, which, borrowed from the Dacians and other barbarians, was for a long time the standard of the Western Empire, of England, and of Normandy.
After the Crusades, however, the cross seems to have taken a prominent place on the standards and banners of European nations.