On the origin of military ensigns in antiquity

A review is made of the initial tactical and purely practical role, and the added symbolic connotations, of military insignia in the ancient world, from the Bronze Age to the end of the Roman Republic. Emphasis is placed on long-term trends, and on the analysis of the process by which an eminently functional object acquires strong
symbolic and even religious connotations, which eventually spread from the military to the civilian environment.