Sub-Roman Britain (Cavalry etc)

[Robert Vermaat]

Yet sometimes "evidence" comes to us beyond the written word, and I'm referring to the Welsh flag and its probable link to the Equites Taifali's dragon and pearl shield. Nowhere in ancient British literature can we find mention of a dragon. Likewise in Celtic art, we do not see a dragon until the seventh century, about the same time it shows up in early Norse art. The dragon and pearl originated in China, found on Sun Quan's sword, again on a sword now in the Met, and still used in Bhuddist gongs. It was never British or even Western European... until adopted, or carried forward, onto the Equites Taifali Iuniore's shield. This outside influence was strong enough to make a significant impression on British folk memory, probably enhanced by the Roman cavalry draco.

Well, I'd like to comment on that. I'm not an expert on Welsh/Brythonic/Celtic languages so I could not say whether that's true. Simply because we do not HAVE ancient British literature (it all starts with the Romans, remember?) it's probably a safe thing to say but it proves absolutely nothing. Dragons from Medieval literature (such as the fighting white and red dragons at Dinas Emrys) were not originally called 'dragons'' but called by other names such as ‘worm’ or ‘serpent’, which have the same meaning. Roman mythology did know dragons, taking the word from the Greek ‘drakon’, which also meant ‘serpent’.

Furthermore, the dragon/draco needs no Sarmatian connection at all. It's a thing seen with steppe cavalry, sure, but also with Persian armies, and we have no idea where the influence originated. the Dacian/Sarmatian connection and it's dracos depicted on Trajan's Column is but a possibility, because Roman cavalry could have received this influence from other sources besides these.
And even IF the draco originated from Sarmatian influence, it's use then spread throughout the Roman army over centuries, and ended up as the very common battle standard of every 100-man cohort (or smaller unit) in the late Roman army. An original Sarmatian origin had long since faded and even IF that LR draco became to origin for the early medieval British dragon, this cannot be used for proving ties between Sarmatians and Britain.