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+--- Thread: Dedication ceremonies for unit standards (/showthread.php?tid=16585)
Dedication ceremonies for unit standards - Semisalis Abruna - 03-12-2010
Us chaps in The Batavi want to stage a dedication ceremony for our new Draco at our first event of the year.
Does anyone have any sources for such a thing, preferably from the later Empire, that we might base our dedication on.
Thanks
Re: Dedication ceremonies for unit standards - Quintius Clavus - 03-12-2010
Any ceremony will depend in part on WHEN in the Late Empire you are. In other words, whether it would be a Christian dedication or a pagan one. With Theodosius the Great everyone in the army was pretty much being compelled to be Christian. However, many of the ceremonies before Theodosius would already by Christianized to a large extent.
You might search Vegetius - for example -the oaths soldiers were to make upon joining the army have a distinct Christian flavor in his work.
A couple years back (or more) my legion held an event and included within it the Rosenalia Festival (in the month of May), which included decorating the standards with roses - the festival was in the Roman army's religious calendar. Of course, we are 1st Century and I'm not sure that the festival itself continued into the late empire