85 



" person:" it is also plain, that national standards had their com- 

 mencement, like gentilitial heraldry, in devices attached to in- 

 dividuals ;* vi'ho, in the first instance, were the primitive leaders 

 of a tribe, or the patriarchal ancestors of a nation ; as, in the 

 other, they were the first distinguished heads of a particular fa- 

 mily. 



' The use of armorial distinctions, as personal insignia in the field, was subsequently 

 very general. See Plin. Nat. Hist. 35. 3. ; Juv. 11. 106. Sil. Ital. Punic, a. 5. v. 78, and 

 many other authorities quoted by Edmondson, &c. See also Herodotus, Clio, 172, 

 &c. Accordingly we find that the warriors of antiquity were often known to each other, 

 although sheathed in armour, and unacquainted with each other's countenances or foims': 

 Horn. 11. 6. V. 110, &c. but this right was at all times the privilege of rank, or the distinction of 

 merit. (Sueton. in vita Aug. & Dio. 51. 4.58.) Thus Amphiaraus, in the Tragedy of 

 •EffTa i5ri ©)i?ai?, declines to assume a mark of honour so esteemed ; and, desiring to be, not 

 seem the best, he bore his shield plain, s a-ijjiTi ?xm» iS^ia-fih' or " significantia arrogantiam," as 

 Barnes translates it, (jEschyl. & Eurip. Phaen. 1. HI7-8.) Alexander the Great is said 

 to have rewarded the attachment and fortitude of his followers by an armorial emblem, as a 

 memorial (Edmondson's preface) ; and it was the common practice of chivalry, as well as 

 of earlier days, for a warrior to wear his armour plain, until he had atchieved a device by 

 some great exploit. (Don Quix. c. 2. p. 1. b. 1. and Horn. II. 10. v. 259, &c.) It is cu- 

 rious to observe, that names were not given by the antient Britons to their sons, until they 

 had performed some signal action. (Henry's England b. 1. 4. 57.) It appears then that these 

 distinctions were always estimated highly, by the warriors of all times, as well as of the age of 

 chivalry. The insignia mentioned by Virgil to have been borne upon the shields of the Grecian 

 soldiers, and which enabled the Trojans who slew them to escape from the ruins of their 

 burning city, by changing arms with the deceased, could only have been the common em- 

 blem of their leader, or of their nation : indeed a personal mark for each individual soldier could 

 have been accomplished by the use of letters alone; and we find that, at the precise time 

 when Virgil flourished, the names of individuals were first written on their .shields, by the order 

 of .Augustus. (See Vegetius de Re milit. b. 2. c. 18, and Virg. JEn. 2. 389.) The Spartans 

 who invaded Messenia in the year before Christ 682, under the command of -tlieir poet and 

 general Tyrticus, used written billets, by which they hoped to be recognised after death, in 

 case their features should he disfigured in the conflict ; but these were not armorial. (Cast's 

 Greece v. 1. p. 213.) Mottoes were in use previous to the Trojan war: Agamemnon offered 

 to Jupiter Olympus a shield inscribed with one, and witli a device of a lion. 



