Parthian Standards

[Dominicus]

Hey anyone have any info on the possible appearance of Parthia Standards/Banners and how they may have looked??? I wouldn't mind trying to do a mock up one to hang in the living room. Just curious,thanks!

[M. Demetrius]

Well, from Rome Total War, we *know* they were purple, and shaped like vex banners, but with a pointed bottom end. Sometimes they turn white. That's all I know about them. :wink:

Don't kill me.

No, really. Don't.

[Dominicus]

Thanks Demetrius,

Well thats at least Something to start with. Would they be drastically different from say Persian standards? As if I really know what they looked like either,but hey theres probably more sources for Persian images. I figure since the Parthians were primarily a mounted army that they mite have some variety of standards,vexes,banners,etc.

[Robert Vermaat]

If you do a Google search you stumble across several of them. There are also a few of them in the Osprey volume "Rome's enemies- Parthians & Sassanid Persians".

I would expect sun symbols, winged symbols (comparable to Achaemenid and later Sassanid Persia) and of course draco-like windsocks, like the one on this grafitto from Egypt, showing Persian troops:


Here's one I Googled from this article:

[Dominicus]

Nice images! Thanks. Seem simple enough to recreate.

[M. Demetrius]

Don't set your standards too high, or you can never live up to them. 8)

[Brennus]

Don't set your standards too high, or you can never live up to them. 8)

:lol: :lol: , that got me.

[ArtoriusRex(Nicholas)]

Hmm, Parthians used the sun shaped standard? I thought they just used the draco? *Shrugs* Oh well, my knowledge of the Parthians isn't really that good.

[Kai]

These pictures were made "On the Occasion of the Celebration of the 2500th Anniversary of the Founding of the Persian Empire", a whole series of 15 (?) books. The pictures were recently reprinted in Farrokh's Shadows in the Desert. Unfortunatly Farrokh neither tells from which book exactly they are, nor what the ancient sources are, on which these picture are based. Considering the overall weaknesses of the book, I would not trust them until I knew the evidence.
That said, Mithratic standards e.g. are not unconceivable, but then again, I'd need evidence for their use.

Maybe someone more knowledgeable can tell us.

regards

[Swampster]

This thread by Duncan on ancmed http://games.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/...sage/49881 gives some references to Parthian standards, including dracos.

[Robert Vermaat]

Unfortunatly Farrokh neither tells from which book exactly they are, nor what the ancient sources are, on which these picture are based. Considering the overall weaknesses of the book, I would not trust them until I knew the evidence.
That said, Mithratic standards e.g. are not unconceivable, but then again, I'd need evidence for their use.

the one on the left is a Roman(legionary?) standard, which is surely depicted on soem Persian rock relief. The one on the right is a Roman draco, taken from some Roman monumant. I know of only one Sassanid Persian draco, and that's from an Egyptian graffito, depicting a fabric standard, not one like this.

[Kai]

Thanks, Robert! I will look into Gall's Reiterkampfbild when I get my hands on it again, but that would be for Sassanid Persian standards indeed - not for Parthian standards. Unfortunatly only few rock reliefs from Parthian times survived. On none of them is a standard, although one might argue that one is fragmentarily depicted on the Tang-e Sarvak relief. In my book however this would require a lot fantasy though.
In general one should not infer from Sassanid times on Arsacid times without reservations, especially as the latter did a lot to set themselves apart from the Arsacids, including the massive damnatio memoriae which caused the lack of Parthian monuments. It would be rather dubious had Farrokh done so without telling the reader.

regards