SOLITARY AND GREGARIOUS. 47 



the Roman legionary standards, because he is " the 

 king- of all the birds and the most powerful of them 

 all, whence he has become the emblem of empire and 

 the omen of victory*;" and this conclusion is sin- 

 gularly enforced by Aldrovand, who tells us that the 

 eagle "challenges dragons to battle and fights with 

 them ; attacks bulls and slays them ;" adding the 

 anticlimax that "he overcomes leverets ; tears foxes ; 

 and feeds upon snakes f." 



" Caius Marius," says Pliny, " in his second con- 

 sulship, ordained that the legions of Roman soldiers 

 only should have the eagle for their standard, and no 

 other ensign ; for before-time the eagle inarched 

 foremost indeed, but in a ranke of four others, to 

 wit of wolves, minotaurs, horses, and boars, which 

 were borne each one before their own several 

 squadrons and companies. Not many years past, 

 the standard of the eagle alone began to be advanced 

 into the field to battle, and the rest of the ensigns 

 were left behind in the camp ; but Marius rejected 

 them- altogether and had no use of them at all. 

 And ever since this is observed ordinarily, that there 

 was no standing camp or leaguer wintered at any 

 time without a pair of eagle standards J. 5 ' 



Josephus and Pliny, however, were wrong if 

 they thought the ensign of the eagle peculiar to 

 the Romans ; for the golden eagle with extended 

 wings was borne by the Persian monarchs , from 

 whom it is probable the Romans adopted it, as 

 it was subsequently adopted from them by Napoleon 

 and the United States ; while the Persians them- 

 selves may have borrowed the symbol from the 

 ancient Assyrians, in whose banners it waved till 

 Babylon was conquered by Cyrus. This may serve 

 to explain why the expanded eagle is so frequently 



* Josephus, De Bello Judico, iii. 5. f Ornithologia, i. 10. 



J Holland's Piinie, x, 4. Xenophon, Cyropaedia, vii, 



