Bandifer/Bandoforos from the 6th century Roman army.

Bandifer/Bandoforos from the 6th century.

Until the fifth century, the main cloth banner of the Roman army remained the ancient Vexillum, a standard mostly roughly square in shape, hung vertically.During the first half of the 6th century, it was replaced in this position by a new type of banner called "Bandum" in Latin, but most often attested in the Greek variant as "Bandon" (in the west and in the reconquered Italian territories, the variant "Bandus" was also used).

The origin of the name is probably derived from the Gothic word "Bandwō" translated as "sign", "mark" but also "band" which is interesting because in the Roman army the word "Bandon" was quickly adopted not only as a term for a flag but also figuratively for "a military unit" that marched under its Bandon/flag. This was the same process as had occurred already earlier with the old Vexillum, where in time the same term began to be used also for smaller detachments that marched under Vexillum ("Vexillations").In addition, this other meaning of Bandum as "a group" persists in many languages to this day (e.g. English "Band"),in some languages still also in meaning of a flag.

The words Vexillum and Bandum were sometimes confused or overlapped in meaning-Paulus Diaconus, for example, left us the formulation "Vexillum which they call Bandum."

The non-commissioned officer in charge of carrying it was called in Latin "Bandifer",in Greek "Bandoforos".

The Bandum already looked like a modern flag in that, unlike the Vexillum, it was hung horizontally on a pole.

It is not clear how exactly Bandum came to replace Vexillum(and most of other standards) and when exactly this started to happen. The earliest Roman depiction of a horizontal Bandon with the typical fluttering triangular arms is known from the late 5th and early 6th centuries but as early as Trajan's Column and the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus in Rome, Dacians and Parthians are shown with vertical banners (like the Vexillum) with a trio of fluttering triangular arms on the underside, suggesting the eastern origins of the Bandon - indeed, horizontally oriented banners with long fluttering arms are well known from distant Asia and China and were used by numerous nomads from the Eurasian steppes.

Each individual Bandon (in the sense of a division or a regiment) had its own flag but within regiments or subdivisions of the same larger battle group these flags differed only in the colour of their (usually but not always) triangular flying arms.The actual body of a regular Bandon was most often decorated with some simple geometric motif (the cross is unsurprisingly the most commonly depicted) and the colour of the flag's own body was uniform for all flags within one battle group.

The size of the flag was further determined by the size of the unit or the fact that it belonged to a section where one of the highest officers was located. The general's flag was always the largest and otherwise visually designed so that it stood out above all others and was easily recognizable by all. It was also easily recognized by the enemy, a fact which was sometimes used to play tricks-for example, commander gave it to someone else and actually positioned himself on a completely different part of the battlefield.

Gradually the number of flying arms also began to correspond with the number of men in the unit. The bandon with more than 7 arms became known as the "Octopus" .

"Flammula" was a term originally applied only to small flags and flying arms attached to the main body of the banner but in much later times ( especially from the 11th century onwards) it replaced Bandon as the main name applied to the banner as a whole. "Flammula" is a word derived from the Latin "flamma", translated as "flame".The flying arms clearly got this name because they were similar in shape and movement in the wind to moving flames, which is further suggested by the fact that both Vegetius and Lydos associated flammula with red or fire-like colour.