Under the eagle or other emblem was often placed a head of the reigning emperor, which was to the army an object of worship or veneration. ДЄnother figure used in the standards was a ball (orb), supposed to have been emblematic of the dominion of Rome over the world and for the same reason a bronze figure of Victoria was sometimes fixed at the top of the staff, as we see it sculptured, together with small statues of Mars, on the Column of Trajan and the Arch of Constantine. Each cohort had for its own ensign the draco, which was woven on a square piece of cloth textilis anguis, elevated on a gilt staff, to which a cross-bar was adapted for the purpose, and carried by the draconarius. Under the later emperors the eagle was carried, as it had been for many centuries, with the legion, a legion being on that account sometimes called aquila (Hirt. It was made of silver, or bronze, with outstretched wings, but was probably of relatively small size, since a standard-bearer ( signifer) under Julius Caesar is said in circumstances of danger to have wrenched the eagle from its staff and concealed it in the folds of his girdle. After the devastating Roman defeat at the Battle of Arausio against the Cimbri and Teutons the consul Gaius Marius undertook an extensive military reform in 104 BC in which the four quadrupeds were laid aside as standards, the eagle ( Aquila) alone being retained. x.16) enumerates five: the eagle, the wolf, the ox with the man's head, the horse, and the boar. The bundle of hay or fern was soon succeeded by the figures of animals, of which Pliny the Elder ( H.N. Hence the company of soldiers belonging to it was called a maniple. The most ancient standard employed by the Romans is said to have been a handful ( manipulus) of straw fixed to the top of a spear or pole. The signa militaria were the Roman military ensigns or standards.

Roman legion eagle standard