Dacian Draco The Dacian Draco was the standard ensign of troops of the ancient Eastern European 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 . Name and etymology . " Draco " ( Latin ) and " Drakon " ( Greek ) mean " serpent " , " dragon " . The root of these words means “ to watch ” or “ to guard with a sharp eye ” . Apparently , it is a derivative of Greek " drakōn " " gazing " . Origins . The origin of the standard is unknown and still a matter of dispute among scholars . A specific and certain origin is still difficult to be determined . Dacian , Thracian , Scythian , Sarmatian or Parthian origins have been proposed in dedicated historiography . According to Lucreţiu Mihăilescu - Bîrliba by the 2nd century AD , i . e . after the conclusion of the Dacian Wars , the draco symbol was assimilated in the Greco - Roman world with the Dacian ethnos . According to Jon N . C . Coulston the Romans associated this standard with 1st and 2nd century Danubian barbarians . The Roman historian Arrian wrote that the Romans took the " draco " from the Scythians , most probably a term for the contemporary Sarmatians . The original purpose was probably to provide wind direction for archery . Significance . Among the Dacians , the " draco " was undoubtedly seen by the army as a special protective symbol , while it also played an important role in the religious life of the people . The " draco " shows a religious syncretism between the wolf and the dragon as well as the serpent . It was supposed to encourage the Getae and to scare their enemies . By the time of the phase D of Hallstatt Period ( 8th – 6th century BC ) , the decorative pattern of a dragon head or a serpent had become quite common in Dacia . In the La Tène Period ( 3thBC – 1st century AD ) , it served as a standard for the Dacians . The image of the " draco " appears on a 4th - century BC ceramic piece discovered at Budureasca commune , Prahova county , Romania . Dacian Draco in warfare . Dacians marched into the battle accompanied by the howl of boar - headed trumpets and following their sinister multicolored dragon - head standard . As intended , they made a terrifying audiovisual spectacle . The " draco " first appears on Trajan ' s Column in Rome , a monument that depicts the Dacian wars of 101 – 102 AD and 105 – 106 AD . German historian Conrad Cichorius notes that , even though Dacians carry the " draco " , it was called the Scythian " draco " in Arrian ' s " Tactica " written around 136 AD . According to Ellis Minns , the dragon standards of the Arrian were those of the Dacians . Representations of the Dacian Draco . Trajan ' s Column in Rome . On Trajan ' s Column ( 113 AD ) , Dacian soldiers are represented carrying a " draco " in 20 scenes . One depicts the " draco " borne by Dacian cavalry crossing the Danube by swimming with their horses . In another , the " draco " is planted in the center of a Dacian citadel and surrounded by the skulls of several Roman prisoners . On Trajan ' s Column the draco is the symbolic image of victory although it is absent from pictures on the column that illustrate Trajan ' s second war against the Dacians , when the Romans conquered Dacia . Roman coins of Dacia . The " draco " appears on coins of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius ( r . 138 – 161 AD ) , indicating that it was still the characteristic emblem in the 2nd century . In AD 250 on a coin of Decius the Roman province of Dacia holds a wolf - or hound - dragon standard . The same type also occurs on antoniniani coins of Claudius Gothicus ( r . 268 – 270 ) and Aurelian ( r . 270 – 275 ) . Arch of Galerius in Thessaloniki . The characteristic Dacian dragon emblem is carried by a group of Dacian horsemen depicted on the Arch of Galerius and Rotunda in Thessaloniki , Greece . A Funerary Sculptured Monument of Chester . A draco ( considered in 1955 by R . P . Wright of Dacian or Sarmatian type ) is depicted on a large stone found at Deva Victrix ( Chester , UK ) in the North Wall ( West ) in 1890 . The dragon flag is represented horizontally , as held by the cavalryman but its head is not visible , because the stone is rather deteriorated . Most scholars consider the horseman is a Sarmatian , wearing a Sarmatian helmet and carrying a Sarmatian standard . According to Mihăilescu - Bîrliba ( 2009 ) the depiction of the Dacian standard is certain and similar representations can be observed on the most important monuments of the Roman triumph over Dacians . A military diploma ( dated to 146 AD ) found at Chester mentions among the units of the released soldiers the name of cohors I Aelia Dacorum . Therefore , the horseman depicted on the tombstone at Chester could be a Dacian cavalryman , belonging to the cohors Aelia Dacorum ( or more precisely to a vexillatio of that cohort ) . P . A . Holder suggest that the cohort was created in 102 or a little earlier , with Dacians settled in the Empire , and it received the name of Aelia later . Dacian Draco as adopted by the Roman army after 106 AD . The first sculptural representation of a " draco " borne by a Roman soldier dates from the time of Emperor Marcus Aurelius ( r . 161 to 180 AD ) . Scholars believe that the " draco " was adopted by the Roman army following their conquest of the Dacians . Some scholars such Osborne ( 1985 ) Ashmore ( 1961 ) consider that serpent ( draco ) was adopted by the Romans from the Dacians . It became the standard of the cohort in the same way that the aquila or Imperial eagle was the standard of the Roman legion . The adopted standard in the Roman cavalry was borne by a draconarius . Later , the " draco " became an imperial ensign . The " draco " was specific not only to Roman occupied Dacia but also to the Sarmatian and Parthian regions . As a result , some alternative origins for the Roman army ' s " draco " have been proposed . According to Franz Altheim , the appearance such ensigns in the Roman army coincided with the recruitment of nomad troops from central and southern Asian , and it was from this region that the image passed into China , Iran and subsequently to the West . The Dacians and Germans would then have inherited it from the Sarmatian people . Compared to those of the Dacians and Romans , the Sarmatian Draco was more Oriental in appearance with prominent ears , dog - like teeth and even fins . It did not usually have scales or the distinctive crest of the dragon - like gilded head of a late Roman standard found at Niederbieber , Germany . Its head may have been represented by the legendary Iranian senmurv — half - wolf , half - bird . The heads of the Dacian draco - standards represented on Trajan ' s column are also canine . But , they are of an entirely different type , having short , round - nosed muzzles , protruding eyes , upright ears , gaping , circular jaws and no - gill fins . Regardless its origin , Mihăilescu - Bîrliba ( 2009 ) suggests that at the end of the 1st century A . D . , the Romans associated the " draco " with Dacians . Draco was an icon symbolizing the Dacians ( the same was the Dacian falx ) . Votive tablets . 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 . Copies . The only copy left is a dragon - like gilded head of the late Roman standard found at the Niederbieber , Germany . Legacy . The " draco " was generally introduced in the 4th century as a Roman standard . When Constantine placed the Christian symbol on military ensigns instead of the dragon , the name outlived the change , and the standard - bearer remained the " draconarius " . Sometimes the ancient symbol is found joined to the new , the dragon being placed beneath the cross . The cavalrymen of the Carolingian dynasty continued raising the " draco " previously adopted by the Roman Empire over their forces in the 8th , 9th , and 10th centuries . Draco probably continued in use in Sub - Roman and Anglo - Saxon Britain ; the Bayeux tapestry has Harold ' s standard bearer holding one . The legendary King Arthur and his knights may have their origins in the Saramatian heavy cavalryman stationed in Britain , the surname " Pendragon " borne by Arthur and his father Uther may refer to draco standard . It is also possible that the story of a fight between a Red and a White Dragon related in the Historia Brittonum refers to two Draco standards carried by rival sub - Romano British factions . The Red Dragon on the modern Welsh national flag may derive from the draco carried by Roman , and presumably Romano British cavalry units stationed in Britain , i . e . the Sarmatians stationed in Ribchester . Art and Literature . Michel - François Dandré - Bardon included the Dacian Draco in his " Costume des anciens peuples , à l ' usage des artistes " The Romanian artist Adam Nicolae created the sculpture " Steagul Dacic " ‘ The Dacian Flag ’ that can be seen in Orăștie , Romania . According to Saxon ethnographer Teutsch , Transylvanian Romanians may have inherited something of the " snake - cult " of the ancient Dacians , who are known to have had a dragon ( or snake ) as a " victory banner " . He mentions that some doorknockers are shaped like snake heads ( protective ones in this case ) . Furthermore , in Romanian villages in the Brașov ' s region surveyed by Teutsch , the vaults of certain gates bear snakes carved in the shape of garlands with their ends representing the " sun - wheel " . Mythology . According to historian Vasile Pârvan , the Dacian war flag , representing a wolf with a serpent ' s body , depicted the " balaur " . The " balaur " is not identical to the other creature of Romanian myth . , the " zmeu " . The biggest difference is that the " zmeu " , even if it has some lizard features , nevertheless is a human - like figure , while the " balaur " is the true form of the dragon . It is to be noted that usually , in all Romanian myths , legends and fairy tales , the " balaur " always has three , five , seven , nine or twelve heads . The " balaur " sometimes is a malefic figure , but most of the times is a neutral figure , guarding various places , objects or knowledge . Also , in various myths and lore , there will be a series of dragons that have to be defeated in order to obtain the precious objects or entrance to the guarded places , usually three dragons , with scales of iron , silver and respectively gold , or silver , gold and respectively diamond , each stronger than the previous one , the number of their heads increasing with the difficulty . Some motifs developed in the folk tradition that defines the snake as protective of the household correspond , to some extent , to the interpretation of a protective Dacian “ Dragon ” symbol .