doubt were in his own army, he constructed the
_labarum_,[A] afterward so called, that is, the sacred standard of the
Christian cross with the Greek monogram of Christ,[B] which he had also
put upon the shields of the soldiers. To this cross-standard, which now
took the place of the Roman eagles, he attributed the decisive victory
over the heathen Maxentius.

Accordingly, after his triumphal entrance into Rome, he had his statue
erected upon the forum with the labarum in his right hand, and the
inscription beneath: 'By this saving sign, the true token of bravery, I
have delivered your city from the yoke of the tyrant.' Three years
afterward the senate erected to him a triumphal arch of marble, which to
this day, within sight of the sublime ruins of the pagan Colosseum,
indicates at once the decay of ancient art and the downfall of
heathenism; as the neighboring arch of Titus commemorates the downfall
of Judaism and the destruction of the temple. The inscription on this
arch of Constantine, however, ascribes his victory over the hated
tyrant, not only to his master mind, but indefinitely also to the
impulse of Deity; by which a Christian would naturally understand the
true God, while a heathen, like the orator Nazarius, in his eulogy on
Constantine, might take it for the celestial guardian power of the _urbs
aeterna_.

At all events the victory of Constantine over Maxentius was a military
and political victory of Christianity over heathenism; the intellectual
and moral victory having been already accomplished by the literature and
life of the church in the preceding period. The emblem of ignominy and
oppression[C] became thenceforward the badge of honor and dominion, and
was invested in the emperor's view, according to the spirit of the
church of his day, with a magic virtue. It now took the place of the
eagle and other field badges, under which the heathen Romans had
conquered the world. It was stamped on the imperial coin, and on the
standards, helmets, and shields of the soldiers. Above all military
representations of the cross the original imperial labarum shone in the
richest decorations of gold and gems; was intrusted to the truest and
bravest fifty of the body guard; filled the Christians with the spirit
of victory, and spread fear and terror among their enemies; until, under
the weak successors of Theodosius II., it fell out of use, and was
lodged as a venerable relic in the imperial palace at Constantinople.