Hew Morrison Collection > Adhamh agus Eubh, no Craobh Sheanachais nan Gàël

CELTIC LANGUAGE. 277
tliat reptilo,' the same as Eph. The Hivites who were left
* to prove Israel.'t inhabited Mount Lebanon, ' from Mount
Baalhermon uuto the cntering in of Hamath.' The children
of Israel intermarried with them, ' and served tìieir (jods^
These were called Baalim, which, being in the plural num-
ber, niay mean the god Baal or Bel, under different forms
of worship ; of which that of the serpent was one ; as we
have seen uuder the article ' Ophiolatreia in Babylon.' "
" Jeronie Colonna attributes the name of Opici to the people
of Campania, from a formerking bearing upon his standard the
figure of a serpent.J But this would be the necessary conse-
quence of his being an Ophite ; for the military ensigns of
niost ancient nations were usually the images of the gods
whom they worshipped. Thus a brigade of infantry among
the Greeks was called 7rtTa.iiti.rns ;§ and the Romans, in the
age of Marcus Aurelius, had a dragon standard at the head
of each cohort, ten in every legion. The legion marched
under the eagle. \\ These dragons were not woven upon any
fabric of cloth, but were real images carried on poles.f
Some say {as Casaubon not. in Vopis. Hist. Aug. 231.)
that the Romans borrowed the dragon standard from the Par-
thians: but their vicinity to the Opici of Campania may per-
haps suggest a more probable origin. The use of them by
the Parthians may have induced the emperor Aurelius to ex-
tend them in his own army ; but this extension was, perhaps,
rather a revival than an introduction of the dragon ensign.
They are mentioned Vjy Claudian in his Epithalamium of
Honorius and Maria, v. 193.
Stent bellati'ices aquilse, saevique dracones.
* Bryant. Anal. ii. 199. f Judges iii. 3.
X Enni Vita, xv. ^ Hesychius.
II Salmasius, iVb^ in Jul. Capitol. Hist. August. Script. 95.
t See Description in Ammiauus Marcellinus, lib. xv.