Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Vexillum

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

VEXILLUM. A flag; consisting of a square piece of cloth fixed on a frame or cross-tree (Tertull. Apol. 16.); as contradistinguished from the standard (signum), which was simply a pole, with the image of an eagle, horse, or some other device, on the top of it. The flag was always the proper and only ensign of the Roman cavalry. In very early times it was also used by the infantry (Liv. viii. 8.); but it was afterwards employed for a distinctive banner of the allied troops, as the standard was for the legions; whence the two are frequently enumerated together when it is intended to comprise the Roman legions and the allies. (Liv. xxxix. 20. Suet. Nero, 13. Vitell. 11.) The illustration (Vexillum/1.1) represents the cross-tree upon which the flag was extended, from an original of bronze, with a miniature drawing of the flag and pole by its side.

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  Vexillum/1.1