Legionary Officers and NCOs - Late Roman Army (284 - 565 AD)

[Robert Vermaat]

Hi Adrian,

Here is the part of the Silvanius episode your interested in-

Thanks! Found it myself in the meantime. :wink:
Interesting:

he tore the purple decorations from the standards of p145the cohorts and the companies, and so mounted to the imperial dignity. ' Amm Bk XV, 2, 15-17

Looks like a lot of dracos and vexilla had purple enough to make a garment large enough for Silvanus. So, probably, this was the nortmal colour, and many cohorts had it.

This passage should also be of interest to you, whilst it does indeed describe draco's in conjuction with the Emperor, you get the sense that it is the standards of all the legiones and auxilia units that are being paraded, not just the Emperor's personal standard, much as modern military parades have the units displaying their colours etc in t he presence of their rulers-

Looks like it.