Standards

Signs You Could See From a Distance

A Roman army on the move was loud and crowded. Thousands of soldiers all needed to know where their unit was and where it was headed.

The answer was the standard: a tall pole topped with symbols a soldier could pick out above everyone’s heads.

But a standard was more than a signpost. It stood for the unit itself, and soldiers treated it with real respect.

What Kinds Were There?

Several. A signum was a pole hung with metal disks, wreaths, and other fittings, used to mark a smaller group within a legion. A vexillum was a small square flag on a crossbar, handy for detachments sent away from the main body.

And then there was the aquila — the eagle.

A carved stone relief of a Roman soldier in scale armour holding a pole topped with a small eagle figure. — Gnaeus Musius, eagle-bearer (*aquilifer*) of the 14th Legion, on his tombstone at Mainz, first century AD. The small eagle on the pole beside him is the *aquila*; he wears scale armour and a harness of medallions won for bravery. Landesmuseum Mainz. Photo: Carole Raddato (cropped) · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Why an Eagle?

The aquila was the standard of a whole legion and one of its most valued possessions: a metal eagle on a pole, carried by a hand-picked soldier called the aquilifer, the “eagle-bearer.”

Losing it to an enemy was a deep disgrace. Roman armies would go to extraordinary lengths, sometimes for years, to win a captured eagle back. It stood for the honor and identity of the entire legion, not just the men around it.

Who Carried Them?

Standard-bearers had a hard job: keep something tall, heavy, and precious upright and visible while everyone around them was marching or fighting.

Roman art usually makes them easy to spot. Many are shown with an animal skin draped over the helmet and shoulders, though the look varied.

Our Standard

At Bethlehem Revisited our Romans carry an aquila with a golden eagle, because the eagle is the symbol visitors recognize as Roman on sight.

A small group away from its legion would more likely have followed a signum or vexillum, so our eagle is partly an interpretive choice. But the idea behind it is entirely Roman: a standard told a soldier who his comrades were, where they were, and which unit they belonged to. Where it stood, the unit stood.