Standards

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Standards. The Assyrian standards were emblematic of their religion, and were, therefore, the more valuable as instruments for leading and guiding men in the army. The forms of the standards were

imitations of animals,

emblems of deities, and

symbols of power and wisdom.

Many of them were crude, but others were highly artistic, and of great cost. The Egyptian standards were designed in the same idea as those of the Romans, exhibiting some sacred emblem, or a god in the form of an animal, a group of victory, or the king's name or his portrait as, of lower, and of upper, Egypt, or an emblematic sign.