ENSIGN, in the military art, a banner or colours under which soldiers are ranged, according to the different companies or parties they belong to. See FLAG, COLOURS, STANDARD, &c.
The Turkish ensigns are horses tails; those of the Europeans are pieces of taffety, with divers figures, colours, arms, and devices thereon. Xenophon tells us, that the ensign bore by the Persians was a golden eagle on a white flag; the Corinthians bore the winged horse, or Pegasus, in theirs; the Athenians, an owl; the
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See Eagle
the Messenians, the Greek letter M; the Lacedæmonians, the A. The Romans had a great diversity of ensigns; the wolf, minotaur, horse, boar, and at length the eagle, where they stopped: this was first assumed in the second year of the consulate of Marius †. A military ensign on a medal of a Roman colony, denotes it a colony peopled with old soldiers.