The Bull Standard

[Titus Manlius Verus]

I think that Marius replaced the older standards: minotaur, wolf, boar and bull by the eagle.

I always think that capricorns, bulls, rams, lions,..., were shield emblems and not properly standards... :???:

True, Marius did reform the old republican system of military standards. However,the emblems that each legion carried were, according to Matyszak, like mascots, and he theorizes that the ones who ordered legions to be formed, assigned them an animal as a mascot. Often, it would appear, the legions were given the zodiac signs of the one who raised them (i.e. a bull for Caesar [although it's speculated that Caesar attributed this to the Gaulic bull-god], the capricorn for Augustus, etc.). Also, I believe shields were painted by cohort, so shields varied from cohort to cohort; while having some uniformity per legion.