Ignatius states that there was in the library of Constantinople the intestine of a dragon one hundred and twenty feet long, on which were written the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ in letters of gold. There is no ambiguity in Lucan's[204] description of the Æthiopian dragon: "You also, the dragon, shining with golden brightness, who crawl in all (other) lands as innoxious divinities, scorching Africa render deadly with wings; you move the air on high, and following whole herds, you burst asunder vast bulls, embracing them with your folds. Nor is the elephant safe through his size; everything you devote to death, and no need have you of venom for a deadly fate." Whereas the dragon referred to by Pliny (_vide ante_, p. 169), as also combating the elephant, is evidently without wings, and may either have been a very gigantic serpent, or a lacertian corresponding to the Chinese idea of the dragon. Descending to later periods, we learn from Marcellinus[205] that in his day dragon standards were among the chief insignia of the Roman army; for, speaking of the triumphal entry of Constantine into Rome after his triumph over Magnentius, he mentions that numbers of the chief officers who preceded him were surrounded by dragons embroidered on various points of tissue, fastened to the golden or jewelled points of spears; the mouths of the dragons being open so as to catch the wind, which made them hiss as though they were inflamed with anger, while the coils of their tails were also contrived to be agitated by the breeze. And again he speaks of Silvanus[206] tearing the purple silk from the insignia of the dragons and standards, and so assuming the title of Emperor. Several nations, as the Persians, Parthians, Scythians, &c., bore dragons on their standards: whence the standards themselves were called dracones or dragons. It is probable that the Romans borrowed this custom from the Parthians, or, as Casaubon has it, from the Dacae, or Codin, from the Assyrians; but while the Roman dracones were, as we learn from Ammianus Marcellinus, figures of dragons painted in red on their flags, among the Persians and Parthians they were, like the Roman eagles, figures in relievo, so that the Romans were frequently deceived and took them for real dragons. The dragon plays an important part in Celtic mythology. Among the Celts, as with the Romans, it was the national standard. While Cymri's dragon, from the Roman's hold Spread with calm wing o'er Carduel's domes of gold.[207]