Re: Locutorium Virtuale Scholae

On Jul 5, 8:50=A0am, "Ed Cryer" <e...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "Caligula" <caius.calig...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>
> news:486f58f0$0$21145$7a628cd7@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> > Ed Cryer a =E9crit :
>
> >> The usual word was simply "signum".
>
> > Yes, it was. Like the password given by the christian's god to
> > Constantine...
>
> > In hoc signo vinces.
>
> > --
> > Caligula
>
> Yes indeed. So C had it emblazoned on his soldiers' ****elds and banners,
> and then marched into battle. And according to writers of the time
> (Christian, of course) it threw dread and fear into the enemy.
> I guess the "chi-rho" was as powerful as the sign of the fish had been
> earlier.
>
> It is noticeable that "signum" was also the word used for a Roman army
> standard.
>
> Ed


I agree that tessera and signum are far choicier words for 'password'
than the Graeco-Latin crytographema, which is unattested anyways.

I disagree with Caligula's take on the Chi-Rho symbol as some kind of
password. You do not need a password to conquer anybody. But
displaying the monogram of Christ on your military standard might
help--in which case the "signum" (in "in hoc signo vinces") actually
refers to the image on a standard or to the standard itself. Hence,
the Chi-Rho standard was known as the "labarum Christi"--or, in the
poetic words of Venantius Fortunatus (6th cent.), as the "Vexilla
Regis".