(fig 24) The so-called “Saljuq-style” heads of the
alive and of enormous size; that they were born
fabulous beasts are turned towards the back thus
in Persia a little way beyond Iberia; that they are
confronting each other with their wide-open jaws
bound to long poles, and raised on high, create
terror while the Parthians are coming from a dis-
terminating in upward curled tips and revealing
tance; that in the encounter itself at close quarters
the tongues, the long cusped ears projecting at the
they are freed and sent against the enemy; that
top The quadruped protomes with snugly-fitted
in fact they had swallowed many of our men in
feet are oriented towards the edge of the chape,
this way and coiled themselves around others
their serpentine bodies with slender, curved wings
and suffocated and crushed them 46
forming five loops attenuating towards its tip It
is interesting to note a closely related depiction
Later on the emblem was introduced into the
found on a twelfth- or thirteenth-century silk
Roman army where the standard-bearer bore the
fragment from Samangan province in present-
title draconarius Such a banner with a dragon
day Afghanistan, also housed in the al-Sabāh
ensign belonging to the Dacians and their Sar-
Collection in Kuwait, which is woven with an
matian allies is portrayed on the narrative reliefs
upright pair of dragons with gaping jaws, here in
of Trajan’s column which commemorates the
confronted position and wearing beaded collars,
Dacian wars of the early second century ad The
their winding serpent-like bodies having clusters
fluttering dragon ensigns were described by the
of three dots in the bends and set against a back-
contemporary Greek historian Flavius Arrian in
ground of foliate scrolls (fig 25)
his Tactica (XXXV 2–5) as being of “Scythian”
origin:
The dragon motif on banners
Scythian ensigns are serpents of good length, tied
In the Middle Iranian period, a dragon (azhdahā)
to staffs They are made out of pieces of dyed
material The heads and the bodies through to
was often depicted on standards carried in battle
the tail are made in order to appear as terrify-
as a symbol of martial valour, intended to frighten
ing as possible … They swell in the wind of a
the enemy by its ferocious aspect and to show the
ride so that they look like those serpents and
ruler’s power 44 These banners are referred to sev-
even begin to whistle when the breath of air is
eral times in the Shāh-nāma, in which the ancient
strong enough 47
history of Iran, from its legendary origins down
to the dissolution of the Sasanian dynasty was
The dragon banner in the Roman army appears
recorded, as azhdahā-paykar (“having a drag-
to have been instituted in the wake of the deploy-
on’s body”) 45 In his De historia conscribenda
ment of new tactical divisions as part of the Roman
sit (XXIX) the second-century Greek writer
emperor Diocletian’s (r 284–305) reorganisation
Lucian describes the war against the Parthian
of the military machinery 48 Such dragon ban-
king Vologesus III who defeated the Romans
ners are again described by the fourth-century
at Elegia in 162, destroying the Roman legion
Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus, who
and killing the commander Severianus Lucian
served in the army of Constantine II (337–361)
notes that the Parthians used banners with dif-
in Persia, in his Rerum gestarum libri (XVI 10 7
ferent emblems to differentiate the divisions of
and 12 39) In his record of Constantine’s entry
their army, a dragon ensign (dracōn) preceding
into Rome in 357 (XVI 10 7) Marcellinus writes
a thousand-man division He refers to another
that the emporer:
historian’s vivid report of these dragon ensigns,
was surrounded by dragons, woven out of purple
which were made of light material, attached to
thread and bound to the golden and jewelled tips
open-jawed heads and mounted on poles, so that
of spears, with wide mouths open to the breeze
they would move in the breeze like enormous
and hence hissing as if roused by anger, and leav-
serpent-dragons, so much so that they appeared
ing their tails winding in the wind 49
to the Romans to be:
44
46
It is of note that the Indian makara, discussed above
Lucian, Quomodo historia conscribenda sit, tr Kilburn,
(p 36, n 12), also formed the head of the battle standard
K , London, 1959, vol VI, pp 42–3 Cf Widengren, 1969,
(makaradhvaja) of Rudra or Shiva, and was later also carried
pp 17–8 and n 38; Shahbazi, “Derafš,” EIr
47
by Siddhārtha’s son, Rāhula It served as battle standard for
Arrian, Tactica (XXXV), cited after Lebedynsky, 1995,
the hosts of Mara, who attacked the Buddha The makara also
pp 93–4
48
served as designation for specific battle formation of troops
Haussig, 1992, p 29
49
that take the form of a makara during battle manoeuvres
Cf Widengren, 1969, p 18, n 39 (with further refer-
Cited after Beer, 2004, p 68
ences)
45 Skjærvø, “Aždahā I,” EIr
the dragon motif on portable objects
41
According to Moses of Chorene, in commemora-
akin to the dragon banners represented on wall
tion of the Armenian king Tigran’s resettlement
paintings in Chinese Turkestan (present-day Xin-
of the defeated Medes to the area of Goghtʿn
jiang), discussed below Marcus Mode tentatively
and around the foot of Mount Ararat, the wind-
ascribes the plaque to the reign of the Xiongnu
sock-like silk dragon (vishap) banner, adopted
king of Sogdiana (Su-te) in the 30s of the fifth
from the Parthians, became the Armenian king’s
century attested by The History of the Wei (Wei-
heraldic sign 50 In his account of the battle of
shu) 57 The Xiongnu were known to have fought
Jiraw the sight of the banners (III 37) is similarly
under the dragon banner, a traditional ensign of
vividly conveyed:
the military forces of the steppes 58
Similar banners, some rendered in serpent or
the sinuous rippling of the dragon [banners],
dragon-like form, are depicted on wall paintings
puffed up by the blast of air, their jaws yawning
in Chinese Turkestan, a region whose pivotal posi-
frightfully 51
tion at the crossroads between China and Central
An account of the anonymous fifth-century Arme-
Asia resulted in a broad cultural synthesis which
nian Epic History or Buzandaran Patmutʿiwnkʿ
embraced the western Turks or Kök Türks ( T’u-
(IV 2) also describes the battle standard of the
chueh or Tujue) In the Cave of the Painter at Kizil
Arsacid Armenians (54–428) as a silk dragon
(Kezier), a sixth- to seventh-century wall paint-
banner 52 A description of the advance of the
ing illustrates an army with a dragon banner 59
Iranian army is given in the grand heroic epic,
During the German Turfan expeditions at the
Firdawsī’s Shāh-nāma, which states that:
beginning of the twentieth century, Albert von
le Coq recorded several such banners At Kizil,
behind each banner, there followed another
in the “Cave of the Dove,” a seventh- or eighth-
banner – some with dragons, others with the
century wall painting features a senāpatiratna, a
image of eagles
deity who symbolises the wrathful power to over-
showing that different royal emblems could be
come enemies, carrying a banner in the form of a
used concurrently 53
serpentine body terminating in a swallow-tailed
A dragon banner may be depicted on a bone
pennant with projecting dragon head with gaping
plaque which is incised with a battle scene and
jaws,60 and in the “Caves with Fireplace,” a warrior
probably served as a belt element 54 It was found in
riding a war elephant also holds such a dragon
a necropolis near the vil age of Orlat in the district
banner 61 A wal painting discovered in the eighth-
of Koshrabad, west of Samarqand, and, according
century “Cave of the Doves” at Kirish, the ruins of
to Boris Marshak, does not reflect a local but a
Simsim, portrays a dragon-king (nāgarāja) above
Central Asian nomadic tradition 55 The mail-clad
whom floats a large banner with lupine head and
combatants are wielding lances, bows, swords and
what appears to be a serpentine body 62 The wolf
battle axes 56 Strapped to the lancer on the lower
was one of the prevalent emblems on the military
left is a military emblem, which may have served
standards of Turkish tribes; other such emblems
as badge of rank, a long, flowing banner on a pole
seem to have been the moon or the dragon 63
50 Russell, 2004, pp 621–40, esp 624 and 622–23 (for
and Rusanov, 1997–8, pl IV:1; Mode, 2006, p 444, fig 1 Cf
a discussion of the historical Tigrans that could have in -
Brentjes, 1989, p 40, fig 3
57
spired the orally transmitted legend); also pp 1047–8 (with a
Mode, 2006, p 433 For a comprehensive list of sug-
translation of the late twelfth-century Armenian Catholicos
gested dates of the plaques, cf esp pp 421–2, 433
58
Nersēs Šnorhali’s text Interpretive Explanation, Mingled with
Idem, p 433
59
Supplication, of the Standards of the Kings of Armenia which
G 356; von Le Coq, 1925, p 54, fig 50
60
recalls the king and his banner)
G 274; idem, p 72, fig 117
51
61
Idem, p 627
G 50; idem, p 55, fig 53
52
62
Idem, pp 624–5 and n 9 It is interesting to observe
G 432; idem, p 68, fig 101 The lupine figures recall
that such dragon standards are still represented in thirteenth-
the fact that the T‘u-chüeh tribe, which was part of the
century Armenian miniatures (Washington, DC, Freer Gal-
Xiongnu confederacy, is said to have depicted a wolf on their
lery of Art, Ms 32 18, p 513; “Judas leading the Multitude,”
banners; Eberhard, 1979, pp 52–3
63
see Der Nersessian and Agemian, 1993, vol 2, fig 251)
Roux, 1979, p 170 The seventh-century Chinese
53 Tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878, vol 3, p 589, ll 2107–2108
dynastic annals, the Pei shih, as well as the Chou shu (50,
54 Mode, 2006, p 420 and n 4
4a), explicitly state that the Turks put wolf heads on their
55 Marshak, B I , “Iskusstvo Sogda,” Tsentral’naya Aziya.
standards; Sinor, 1982, p 233 and 1996, repr 1999, p 329;
Novye pamyatniki pis’mennosti I iskusstva. Sbornik statey, eds ,
Liu, 1958, p 9 It is interesting to observe that wolf-stan-
Piotrovskiy, B B and Bongard-Levin, G M , Moscow, 1987,
dards were sometimes referred to as dragon-standards; see
p 235, as cited in Mode, 2006, pp 421–2 Cf Brentjes, 1989,
Schmidt, 1980, p 63 The dragon, the wolf and the moon
p 41
were also emblems on the respective flags of Rustam, Gurgīn
56 Bone plaque with battle scene Orlat, Koshrabad dis-
and Farīburz ( Shāh-nāma; tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878,
trict, west of Samarqand, present-day Uzbekistan Ilyasov
vol 3, p 66)
42