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Roman standard (signum or signa Romanum) was a banner attached to a spar that identified a Roman unit or cavalry. The banner played a very important role in the army. It was a meeting point, a symbol of pride, and allowed for organized movements on the battlefield. In the case of a sound sign (a trumpet sound), all the soldiers belonging to the squad and the banner looked at the pennant in order to prepare for the appropriate orders. The ensign made various movements with the banner – he lowered, raised, waved – which indicated the tactics and subsequent movements of the unit.
The banners were so important in the Roman army that deliberate wars were fought or diplomatic efforts were made to recover the lost marks.
In Republican times, banners were usually marked with SPQR, meaning Senatus Populusque Romanus (Senate and People of Rome), which meant that the legion or cohort belonged to the citizens and the Republic. In the early republic, the proper military banner (signum militare) was simply a bundle of grass stuck at the end of a spar. Then the well-known sign of the open hand (manipulus) was introduced, and finally, the figures of symbolic animals were placed on the metal poles. Pliny the Elder in Natural History (X.16) lists five animals: wolf, eagle, boar, horse, or Minotaur. With the military reforms of Gaius Marius (at the end of the 2nd century BCE), the “quadrupeds” were abandoned and only the image of an eagle (aquila was used).
The tree-stand with the emblem or sign of the branch was made of wood. In its lower part, there was a point made of iron (cuspis), which made it possible to place a banner on the ground or, possibly, to repel attackers.
Sacramentum
Roman soldiers took the military oath of oath (sacramentum militareor militum/ militiae). The oath was taken to prove loyalty to the consul during the republican era and to the emperor during the empire. From the 3rd century CE the oaths were held every year on January 3. In the late Empire, the oath caused numerous conflicts with Christians who served in the army and who often became martyrs. Tertullian incl. he condemned the legionaries professing faith in Christ and taking an oath of allegiance to the emperor; unequivocally emphasizing that the only sacrament that every Christian should offer during his lifetime is baptism.
An example of the oath that legionaries had to take was given to us by Flavius Vegetius, a writer from the 4th century CE:
Iurant autem milites omnia se strenue facturos quae praeceperit imperator, numquam deserturos militiam nec mortem recusaturos pro Romana republica!
The soldiers, therefore, swear they will obey the Emperor willingly and implicitly in all his commands, that they will never desert and will always be ready to sacrifice their lives for the Roman Empire.
– Vegetius, De re militari, 2.5
Moreover, the oath amounted to the total commitment of the soldiers for the sign for which they were prepared to fall. In situations clearly unfavourable to Roman soldiers, they were thrown at the advancing and overwhelming enemies in order to force their own soldiers to counterattack.
Each maniple (later cohort or centuria) had its own sign (signum), usually in the shape of a raised hand placed on a shaft that was constantly carried by a designated ensign (signifer). There were 59 such banners in the legion during the empire. In each cohort, in the first century, the signifer was the most senior in the rank.
Signum also had the so-called phalarae, are medallions with outstanding battle behavior. They were worn not only in battle, but mainly during military parades and triumphs. Centuria or the entire cohort could be rewarded. Carrying the attached medallion to the pennant made the squad proud and the enemy terrified. It is likely that the maximum number of medallions on the banner was six; however, we have the image of the banner on the stele of Aurelius Alexandrus from the end of the 2nd century CE, where you can see seven phalarae. This type of decoration was also awarded to individual soldiers.
At the tip of the shaft was an upward arm (manus) or the head of a leaf-shaped spear. Another element sometimes approved on Roman banners was the orb, or ball symbolizing Rome’s domination over the world. Sometimes a bronze image of the goddess Victoria, accompanied by little Mars, was also placed. This is evidenced by the reliefs from Trajan’s Column and the Arch of Constantine. Sometimes an image of the