Dacian draco
[14] Among the Dacians, the draco was undoubtedly seen by the army as a special protective symbol, while it also played an important role in the religious life of the people.
[15] By the time of the phase D of Hallstatt Period (8th–6th century BC), the decorative pattern of a dragon head or a serpent had become quite common in Dacia.
[18] The image of the draco appears on a 4th-century BC ceramic piece discovered at Budureasca commune, Prahova county, Romania.
[30] Because of the great importance of this symbol in the religious and military life of the Dacians, some writers believe that the draco must have been directly adopted and reproduced on the so-called Danubian plaques dating to the 3rd–4th centuries.
[3] According to some researchers such as Dumitru Tudor, the presence of this military ensign on the Danubian plaques is explained simply as due to chance — the result of a fortuitous combination of horseman and sky-god themes through the imagination of native sculptors.
[3] The draco appears on coins of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius (r.138–161 AD), indicating that it was still the characteristic emblem in the 2nd century.
[35] A draco (considered in 1955 by R. P. Wright of Dacian or Sarmatian type) is depicted on a large stone found at Deva Victrix (Chester, England) in the North Wall (West) in 1890.
[36] A military diploma dated to AD 146 and found at Chester mentions among the units of the released soldiers the name of cohors I Aelia Dacorum.
The Dacians usually wore a soft Phrygian cap, but in the stele, the cavalryman wears a tall and conical Spangenhelm-type helmet of Sarmatian origin.
[39] 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).
[40] According to Franz Altheim,[46] the appearance of such ensigns in the Roman army coincided with the recruitment of nomad troops from Central and Southern Asia, and it was from this region that the image passed into Iran and subsequently to Europe.
[40] 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.
But, they are of an entirely different type, having short, round-nosed muzzles, protruding eyes, upright ears, gaping, circular jaws and no-gill fins.
[50] When Constantine placed the Christian symbol on military ensigns instead of the draco, the name outlived the change, and the standard-bearer remained the draconarius.
[51] The cavalrymen of the Carolingian dynasty continued raising the draco previously adopted by the Roman Empire over their forces in the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries.
[56] According to Saxon ethnographer Teutsch, Transylvanian Romanians may have inherited something of the "snake-cult" of the ancient Dacians, who are known to have had a dragon (or snake) as a "victory banner".
Furthermore, in Romanian villages in the Brașov's region surveyed by Teutsch, the vaults of certain gates bear snakes carved in the shape of garlands with their ends representing the "sun-wheel".
[57] According to historian Vasile Pârvan, the Dacian war flag, representing a wolf with a serpent's body, depicted the balaur.
