British Flags: Their Early History, and Their Development at Sea: With an Account of the Origin of the Flag as a National Device — John Shaqi
British Flags: Their Early History, and Their Development at Sea: With an Account of the Origin of the Flag as a National DevicePerrin, William Gordon
History
British Flags: Their Early History, and Their Development at Sea: With an Account of the Origin of the Flag as a National Device
Perrin, William Gordon
Flags -- Great Britain
After the submission of those cities to Alexander the Great in 333 B.C.
the globe and crescent seems to have been exchanged for a cruciform
standard similar to that shown in the left hand of the goddess Astarte
in the coin of 87 B.C. depicted in Plate II, fig. 4. This cruciform
standard was probably adopted by Alexander from the Athenians, the
most prominent naval power of Greece, among whom it seems to have been
an object of great significance[14]. On two great amphorae awarded
to the victors in the Panathenaic games of 336-5 B.C., now in the
British Museum, it is represented in a manner which can leave no doubt
as to its symbolic importance. On one of them Athene holds in her
hand a long cruciform staff, the head of which is expanded in ovoid
form. On the other amphora the goddess has by her side a short column
which is surmounted by a winged Victory (Nike) holding in her left
hand a similar standard, and in her right the aphlaston of a galley.
Unfortunately for our purpose, the Athenians did not represent ships
upon their coinage, but similar standards are seen in the hand of the
nymph Histiaea upon the coins of the Euboean town of that name, dated
circa 313-265 B.C., two of which are represented in Plate II, figs.
7 and 8. Many other instances, too numerous to detail, will be found
upon later Greek coins. In these the crosses are not all of the same
design, and Prof. Babelon has collected examples of thirty-six forms,
all more or less different, from the plain cross to a more elaborate
form in which the head terminates in a ball and two small winged
figures of Victory kneel at the ends of the arms. Some of these forms
are decorated with narrow streamers; in many of them the cross-piece is
not at right angles to the staff, but it is possible that this may be
due to an attempt at perspective. One other instance deserves mention:
the excavations on the site of the important city of Pergamum in Asia
Minor, once the capital of the kingdom of Pergamus, and afterwards that
of the Roman province of Asia, have brought to light the bas-reliefs
which decorated the balustrade of the Portico of Athene Polias. On
this bas-relief, which, in the opinion of M. Collignon[15], alludes to
naval victories under Attalus (241-197 B.C.) or Eumenes II (197-159),
the cruciform standard is twice represented in highly ornate forms
terminating in pine cones at the head; in each case it is accompanied
with the aphlasta and beaks of galleys.
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