Deskford Draco

[Nathan Ross]

my Latin is poor to nothing when it comes to the faithfulness of the original wording.

Mine too! I got my translation from the book I linked above, which seemed the most 'literal' I could find - so you could be right, but we'd need a latinist to tell us...

'Hovis', our own draco

Ah yes, the famous standard of the Pistores Seniores!

I knew there'd been several attempts to replicate the 'hissing' sound of the draco, but I wasn't sure what techniques anybody had used. The 'hollow pole' idea might work, although I can't imagine it would be very loud...

I was thinking of the line in Sidonius where he has the draco's 'throat swelling', and says 'the hollow stomach can no longer take so much air' - it does sound like the 'tail' itself becomes inflated, like a huge bag, and the noise is produced by the air escaping somehow. A tube or whistle at the narrow end of the tail might do it - although, as you say, the air might not escape easily enough and the whole thing could become rather unmanageable!

On the other hand, the whole 'hissing' thing might just be a poetic conceit,  although it does seem that quite a few people mention it.