Dacian Draco As Adopted By The Roman Army After 106 AD
The first sculptural representation of a draco borne by a Roman soldier dates from the time of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (r.161 to 180 AD).
Scholars believe that the draco was adopted by the Roman army following their conquest of the Dacians. Some scholars such Osborne (1985) Ashmore (1961) consider that serpent (draco) was adopted by the Romans from the Dacians. It became the standard of the cohort in the same way that the aquila or Imperial eagle was the standard of the Roman legion. The adopted standard in the Roman cavalry was borne by a draconarius. Later, the draco became an imperial ensign.
The draco was specific not only to Roman occupied Dacia but also to the Sarmatian and Parthian regions. As a result, some alternative origins for the Roman army's draco have been proposed. According to Franz Altheim, the appearance such ensigns in the Roman army coincided with the recruitment of nomad troops from central and southern Asian, and it was from this region that the image passed into China, Iran and subsequently to the West. The Dacians and Germans would then have inherited it from the Sarmatian people.
Compared to those of the Dacians and Romans, the Sarmatian Draco was more Oriental in appearance with prominent ears, dog-like teeth and even fins. It did not usually have scales or the distinctive crest of the dragon-like gilded head of a late Roman standard found at Niederbieber, Germany. Its head may have been represented by the legendary Iranian senmurv — half-wolf, half-bird.
The heads of the Dacian draco-standards represented on Trajan's column are also canine. But, they are of an entirely different type, having short, round-nosed muzzles, protruding eyes, upright ears, gaping, circular jaws and no-gill fins.
Regardless its origin, Mihăilescu-Bîrliba (2009) suggests that at the end of the 1st century A. D., the Romans associated the draco with Dacians. Draco was an icon symbolizing the Dacians (the same was the Dacian falx).
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