page_title: Dacian Draco
section_title: Votive tablets
hierarchical_section_title: Dacian Draco / Votive tablets
caption_attribution_description: English: Specific Dacian Draco, Dacian weapons and Dacian trumpet as they appear in the book Costume des anciens peuples, à l'usage des artistes by Michel-François Dandré-Bardon (1700-1783) printed in Paris, 1774. Drawn based on Trajan's Column Română: Stindard dacic, arme și trompetă dacică
context_page_description: The Dacian Draco was the standard ensign of troops of the ancient Dacian people, which can be seen in the hands of the soldiers of Decebalus in several scenes depicted on Trajan's Column in Rome, Italy. It has the form of a dragon with open wolf-like jaws containing several metal tongues. The hollow dragon's head was mounted on a pole with a fabric tube affixed at the rear. In use, the draco was held up into the wind, or above the head of a horseman, where it filled with air and gave the impression it was alive while making a shrill sound as the wind passed through its strips of material.
context_section_description: A draco banner is carried by one of the Danubian Riders, native Dacian deities, on a Danubian plaque ascribed to the first two decades of the 4th century. Because of the great importance of this symbol in the religious and military life of the Dacians, some writers believe that the draco must have been directly adopted and reproduced on the so-called Danubian plaques dating to the 3rd–4th centuries. According to some researchers such as Dumitru Tudor, the presence of this military ensign on the Danubian plaques is explained simply as due to chance — the result of a fortuitous combination of horseman and sky-god themes through the imagination of native sculptors.
caption: Dacian Draco and weapons from Trajan's Column by Michel-François Dandré-Bardon
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