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.
However, I beg to differ with Caligula on his interpretation of the
Constantinian oracle as crytographemic (forgive my audacity!), that
is, as conveying a password. There was nothing a password could do for
Constantine, whereas displaying the monogram of Christ on his military
standard might lend him some supernatural assistance--perhaps to put
the fear of God in the enemy, which, in fact, as Ed mentioned,
Constantine's standard is re****ted to have done. So it makes more
sense for "signum" (in "in hoc signo vinces") to refer to a standard
which is emblazoned with the monogram or symbol of Christ. Constantine
must have seen either a standalone symbol or a military standard in
his vision. Either way, there was an implicit injunction in that
oracle for Constantine to impress Christ's symbol on his standard
(and, more im****tantly, in his heart). Indeed, symbol and standard are
so connected in this tale that the monogram itself, not just the Chi-
Rho standard, came to be known as the "Labarum Christi".
Rodericius
|
