Quote Originally Posted by Cyclops
I thought they had coloured flags hovering above each group of them and thats how they identified themselves?

I think the kinship group is the basis of human identity everywhere. "Son of" is I think the most common epithet

However there are alternate identities available to pretty much everyone. In Australian Aboriginal society theres kinship systems (son-of, brother-of etc) but also a complex system of totems or animal-identities which mesh with kin-identites. These identites extend beyond family bounds and even to other clans, tribes and (IIRC) language groups.

Likewise in Athens a person could be an Athenian (probably his number 1 identity) but also an Ionian, a hellene, a pentacosiomedimnoi, an Eleusinian initiate, a Roman citizen, depending on who he wanted to fight or appease.

I think he flags were introduced later. In medieval times they sure had, but except from Romans I haven't seen depictions of armies holding flags.