What was the flag of the Roman Empire?

Over two thousand years after its foundation, the Roman Empire is one of the most studied historical realities, which attracts the work of scholars and the attention of enthusiasts and the curious, but even more so in light of this attention, a question that many ask is: what was the flag of the Roman Empire? The Roman Empire was founded in 27 BC, it remained a single entity until a gradual federalization and the definitive division between East and West in 395 AD, after which the two Empires took different paths: the Western one fell in 476, the Eastern one in 1453 with the Fall of Constantinople, while since 800, the year of the Translatio Imperii, the Holy Roman Empire has also been able to claim succession with that Empire. Different times, different eras and also different places, in which the role of the flag has always been different.

 

 

But at its origins, when the Roman Empire was born, and in the first centuries of its existence, before its division, did it have a flag? Two thousand years ago, well before the formation of modern nation states, the flag had a completely different function, especially to distinguish an army at war. This function was fulfilled by the insignia of the Legions, which were carried into battle by special soldiers called signifer and vexillifer. These insignia, in addition to the names and symbols of the Legions, often depicted animals that represented symbols of strength and which were borrowed from the insignia of the Republican era. Among these symbols they also carried the Eagle, a very important symbol among the military and linked to Jupiter, whose presence in all the Provinces of the Empire contributed to making it one of the symbols of the power of Rome and of unity among the Romans. This image often decorated the poles of the standards and the soldier who carried it was called aquilifer. The banners were also red, a reference to the Roman god of war Mars: red remained a color associated with such banners.
But the Eagle, although a recognized symbol of Rome and of the unity among the Romans, which decorated both the poles and numerous monuments and coins, did not appear in a unique flag of the Roman Empire. The same can be said for another symbol of Rome, the writing SPQR (Senatus PopulusQue Romanus), which although linked to the Republic was widely used under the Empire: these four letters represented Rome, but were not included in a unique flag.
Another element that in some way performed the functions of modern national flags, symbolizing the unity of all the subjects of the Roman Empire, was the effigy of the reigning Emperor. The Emperor, in fact, until the definitive Christianization of the Empire also represented a divinity, and his image appeared in all the provinces, as well as on myriads of coins that spread far and wide. Among the numerous images that have come down to us there is even evidence of cakes with the image of the Emperor printed on them.

Coin of the Emperor Constantine showing the labarum with the Christogram

The progressive Christianization of the Roman Empire brought about the introduction of Christian symbols, and in this sense the story of Constantine and the battle of the Milvian Bridge is emblematic, according to which the Emperor, before the battle against his rival Maxentius in 312, had a vision of a cross and the writing ἐν τούτῳ νίκα, translated into Latin as "In hoc signo vinces", or "with this sign you will win", which led him to insert the Christogram composed of the Greek letters chi and rho in his labarum, a fact that according to tradition would have been decisive for victory. This labarum appears on various coins of the time, with the Christogram placed both at the top of the mast and on the flag, and soon became widespread among the Imperial images. According to the Life of Constantine by Eusebius of Caesarea (who was a close associate of the Emperor), the Emperor's original labarum featured both a cross with the Chi-Rho and a portrait of Constantine, demonstrating the importance of the emperor's portrait in the regalia of the time.
In the following centuries, the imperial regalia featured an increasing presence of religious symbols, and it took centuries, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, for the Eastern Roman Empire (often conventionally called the Byzantine Empire) and the Holy Roman Empire to begin adopting a national flag in the modern sense of the term, leading to the Late Middle Ages, a period in which many state entities began this process.

 

Flag with the four betas of the Eastern Roman Empire

 

Over the centuries, the Eastern Roman Empire first adopted the cross of Calvary, which appears on numerous coins from the time of the Heraclius dynasty (between the 6th and 7th centuries), but also others such as the double-headed eagle of the Palaeologus, which appeared in the 13th century and was also used by the Mega Comneni of the Empire of Trebizond, and the golden Greek cross on a purple background, the Emperor's personal emblem, also at the time of the Palaeologus, but nevertheless also in that period, from 1259 until the fall of the Empire, appeared what was the flag of the Eastern Roman Empire, the golden cross with four betas in the cantons on a red background.

 

The double-headed eagle symbol of the Holy Roman Empire

As for the Holy Roman Empire, the symbols used were different before arriving at a real flag. Some testimonies report that in the 10th century, Henry I of Saxony and Otto the Great used the Image of St. Michael the Archangel in their banners, while Frederick Barbarossa used an eagle, Otto IV an eagle flying over a dragon. However, it is from the 14th century that the Eagle, black on a yellow background, established itself as the flag of the Holy Roman Empire, soon in its two-headed version, in which the two heads represented the titles of "King of the Romans" and "Emperor", which will be used continuously - with some variations over the years - until 1806.