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Byzantine Empire: Reconstructed and replica flags

Presentation of the flags
Standard of Constantine the Great (323)
Byzantine flag after 395
Standard of Nikephoros II Phokas (963-969)
Standard of Constantine IX Palaiologos (1449-1453)

See also:

Byzantine Empire

Presentation of the flags

The Byzantine flags shown on this page, unless specified, are displayed in the Cretan Naval Museum in Chaniá. Crete was part of the Byzantine Empire from 395 until 1204.
The flags are square (or nearly-square rectangles), hung from flagpoles projecting at an angle from the museum wall, just like modern flags. I don't know how historically accurate that was - presumably not. The museum didn't depict any Roman-like standards along with them.

Bruce Tindall, 20 May 1996

Standard of Constantine the Great (323)

Standard attributed to Constantine the Great - Image by Ivan Sache, 26 February 2000

Constantine the Great (270/288-337) was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. He established Christianism as the official religion of the Empire and founded Constantinople, later the capital of the Byzantine Empire, as the "Second Rome".

Ivan Sache, 25 October 2003

The flag attributed to Constantine is white with a blue couped cross. In each corner of the cross is a B-shaped firesteel; those to the left of the cross are backwards.

Bruce Tindall, 20 May 1996

Byzantine naval flag - Image by Ivan Sache, 26 February 2000

A similar flag, but forked, is described in Hellenic Flags [k7k97], as "Another flag used by the navy in the same [Byzantine] period. Replica, Hellenic Maritime Museum.

Norman Martin, 26 February 2000

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 25 November 2023

There is a 1865 tile panel on the St Constantine church in the Italian town of San Costantino Albanese. Painted in a naļf style, it shows the saint in his usual stance, clad in battle gear and riding a horse which in turn is trampling a snake. See photo of this tile panel at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chiesa_San_Costantino_il_Grande_(San_Costantino_Albanese)05.jpg

In this depiction Constatine sports a white flag with a thin black cross throughout, with modest swallowtailing, and bearing Greek text on its quadrants. This is set in black handwritten serif capitals (in the same style as the Italian language legend at the bottom of the panel), reading the well known Constantinian motto usually given in Latin as "in hoc signo vinces".

Although this is in turn a lose translation of a Greek original ("ἐν τούτῳ νίκα", merely "in this, conquer"), the Greek text on this flag is less terse and reads thus: "ΕΙΣ ΤΟΥ" on the upper hoist quadrant, "ΤΟ ΤΟ" on the upper fly, "ΣΗΜΕΙΟΝ" on the lower hoist, and "ΝΙΧΗΣΕΙΣ" on the lower fly. This is apparently meant to read "Εις τουτο το σημειον νικήσεις" (litt. "You win at this point", though meant to translate the Latin form by including "σημειον" to mean "signum"), but the letterform chosen for kappa is unexpectedly a ")(" shape, characteristic rather of a chi (surely so in the 4th century, let alone in the 19th!), yielding instead the theologically perplexing "Εις τουτο το σημειον νιχησεις" = "At this point, you will laugh". Which I did.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 25 November 2023

Byzantine flag after 395

Byzantine red flag - Image by Ivan Sache, 26 February 2000

The flag, labelled "after 395", is red with a white couped cross. Thin diagonal rays extending from the upper left and right corners of the cross and the Greek letter Ρ above the cross, all in white, form the Chi Rho chrismon; the symbol is an abbreviation for ΧΡΙϚΤΟϚ, Christ.

Bruce Tindall & Phil Cleary, 22 July 2000

Byzantine naval flag - Image by Ivan Sache, 26 February 2000

A similar flag but with different colours is described in Hellenic Flags [k7k97], as "Military and naval flag at the time of Constantine the Great. The cross and the symbols of Christianity have replaced the Roman eagle. Replica, Hellenic Maritime Museum."

Norman Martin, 26 February 2000

Standard of Nikephoros II Phokas (963-969)

Standard attributed to Nikephoros II Phokas - Image by Ivan Sache, 26 February 2000

Nikephoros II Phokas (912-969), Emperor from 963 to 969, conquered Cilicia, Cyprus and a part of Syria, and was eventually murdered and succeeded by his nephew John I Tzimiskes (925-976, Emperor from 969 to 976).

Ivan Sache, 25 October 2003

The flag attributed to Nikephoros II Phokas is like the preceding ones, but with a blue instead of red field.

Bruce Tindall, 20 May 1996

Standard of Constantine XI Palaiologos (1449-1453)

Constantine XI Palaiologos (1403-1453), the last Byzantine Emperor (1449-1453), was killed during the seizure of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmet II.

Ivan Sache, 25 October 2003

The flag attributed to Constantine XI Palaiologos is yellow with a black double-headed eagle holding an orb and a sword.

Bruce Tindall, 20 May 1996