12-03-2010, 10:36 AM
Quote:the colour purple was not the imperial colour. Yes, the emperors used the colour as colour representing their status, but as I've shown from other examples, that does not have to mean that each time we come across the word 'purpure'an imperial connection is meant. It was also used to describe a colour red. If indeed the colour of the tail was reddish rather than purple, the imperial connection fails.
I've shown even more evidence than you about purple tals! But also a Persian one of the same colour.
Robert - you make a good point regarding the use of the latin word 'purpure' - there is some ambiguity here that I will need to think about. However, I would like to draw your attention to Arrian's Ars Tactica 35.1-6 where he talks of dragon standards of many colours. This seems to have shifted by the 3rd century to an exclusive colour which I believe to be purple (although your comments give me food for thought) - indeed in our literary sources for this period I cannot find reference to dragon standards of another colour in the 3rd or 4th Century (happy to be proved wrong however)
