Vexilloid

The vexillum of the Roman Empire, emblazoned with S·P·Q·R (senātus populusque Rōmānus), "senate and people of Rome".

"Vexilloid" is a term used tenuously to describe vexillary (flag-like) objects used by countries, organizations, or individuals as a form of representation other than flags. Whitney Smith coined the term in 1958, defining it as:

An object which functions as a flag but differs from it in some respect, usually appearance. Vexilloids are characteristic of traditional societies and often consist of a staff with an emblem, such as a carved animal, at the top.

"Vexilloid" can be used in a broader sense of any banner (vexillary object) which is not a flag (that is, taking only Smith's first sentence into account). Thus it includes vexilla, banderoles, pennons, streamers, standards, and gonfalons.

The first most primitive proto-vexilloids may have been simply pieces of cloth dipped in the blood of a defeated enemy in pre-historic times, and the precursors of all later vexilloids and flags.[1]

The use of flags replaced the use of vexilloids for general purposes during late medieval times between about 1100  to about 1400 . However, vexilloids still remain in use for specialized purposes, such as for some military units or to symbolize various organizations such as fraternal organization in street parades.[2]

Vexilloids of ancient empires

The vexilloid of Cyrus the Great, Emperor of the Achaemenid Empire
The Vergina Sun was displayed on the vexilloid of Alexander the Great's Macedonian Empire
Illustration of the Ashoka Chakra, as depicted on the National flag of the Republic of India.

Vexilloids of medieval empires

Emblem of the Palaiologos dynasty and the Byzantine Empire

Vexilloids of modern empires

Source

References

  1. Vexilloids, Flags of the World.
  2. Smith, Whitney (1975). Flags Through the Ages and Across the World. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-059093-1.
  3. Vexilloid of the Carthaginian Empire:
  4. Wiesehofer, Joseph Ancient Persia New York:1996 I.B. Tauris
  5. Website honoring Dr. Kourosh Aryamanesh—Depicts images of the Derafsh Kaviani:
  6. Image of the Derafsh Kaviani:
  7. Hitler and the Rise of Nazism (Museum of World War II--Navick, Massachusetts, USA):
  8. Image of an SS vexilloid:

External links

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