Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/435

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 417 monarch .md his children. The summit of the pike CHAP. w sup])orted a crown of gold which enclosed the myste- _JJ_L_ rious monogram, at once expressive of the figure of the cross, and the initial letters of the name of Christ'". The safety of the laharuni was intrusted to fifty guards, of approved valour and fidelity ; their station was marked by honours and emoluments; and some for- tunate accidents soon introduced an opinion, that as long as the guards of the labarum were engaged in the execution of their office, they were secure and invul- nerable amidst the darts of the enemy. In the second civil war Licinius felt and dreaded the power of this consecrated banner; the sight of which, in the distress of battle, animated the soldiers of Constantine with an invincible enthusiasm, and scattered terror and dismay through the ranks of the adverse legions ". The chris- tian emperors, who respected the example of Constan- tine, displayed in all their military expeditions the standard of the cross ; but when the degenerate suc- cessors of Theodosius had ceased to appear in person at the head of their armies, the labarum was deposited as a venerable but useless relic in the palace of Con- stantinople". Its honours are still preserved on the medals of the Flavian family. Their grateful devotion has placed the monogram of Christ in the midst of the ensigns of Rome. The solemn epithets of, safety of the republic, glory of the army, restoration of public happiness, are equally applied to the religious and ™ Transversa X litera, summo capite circumflexo, Christum in sculis notat. Caecilius de M. P. c. 44. Cuper (ad M. P. in edit. Lactant. torn. ii. p. 500.) and Baronius (A. D. 312. No. 25.) have engraved from ancient monuments several specimens, as thus, D C> of these monograms, which became extremely fashionable in — f- ^j the christian world. " Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. 1. ii. c. 7, 8, 9. He introduces the labarum before the Italian expedition ; but his narrative seems to indicate that it was never shown at the head of an army, till Constantine, above ten years after- wards, declared himself the enemy of Licinius, and the deliverer of the church. " See Cod. Theod. 1. vi. tit. xxv. ; Sozomen, 1. i. c. 2 ; Theophan. Chro- nograph, p. 11. Theophanes lived towards the end of the eighth century, almost five hundred years after Constantine. The modern Greeks were not inclined to display in tlie field the standard of the empire and of Christianity ; and though they depended on every superstitious hope of defence, the pro- mise of victory would have appeared too bold a fiction. VOL. IL E e