Labaro

LABARO. - It is the standard caused to be made by the emperor Constantine himself, after he had had the vision of a luminous cross with the inscription τῶτα

νίχα; the description of the standard itself, according to the Vita Constantini (I, 31), is as follows. It consisted of a long shaft covered with gold, which in its upper part had a crossbar fitted into it in the manner of a cross. At the top was fixed a crown of precious stones enclosing the first two letters of the name ΧΡ(ιστός) intertwined in so that the shaft of the P was cut at the center by the X. To the pole was fastened a square purple cloth of regal magnificence, interwoven with gold and precious stones; beneath the cloth, placed there later, were the medallions of Constantine and of his sons.

The Vita Constantini places the vision in Gaul: it is well known how much its authenticity is debated (v. Eusebius of Caesarea, II, Historical Works); but the vision is attested, besides by Eusebius himself (Hist. eccl., IX, 1-11), by two panegyrics, one of 313 and the other of 321. Moreover, Lactantius speaks of a dream at the gates of Rome, before the battle ad saxa rubra (De mortibus persecutorum, 44). According to a version reported by Rufinus (Hist. eccl., IX, 9, 1) and later by Socrates (Hist. eccl., I, 3), Constantine would have heard in a dream from the angels the words τότον νίχα. Philostorgius (Hist. eccl., I, 6) relates that the Cross that appeared was in the midst of an iris of stars which formed the in hoc vince, in Latin. Eusebius in his history (IX, 9, 10), describing the statue erected by Constantine in memory of the battle of the Milvian Bridge and of the triumph over Maxentius, says that the Emperor was represented holding the l. H. Grégoire has brought out the importance of the text of Rufinus concerning the inscription placed beneath the statue of Constantine in the Roman Forum: in hoc singulari signo quod est vere virtutis insigne, to demonstrate that it was a true standard, a vexillum (La statue de Constantin et le signe de la Croix, in L'antiquité classique, 1 [1932], pp. 135-43). St. Ambrose in 388 calls the l. Christi sacratum nomine (Ep. 40: PL 16, 1152): shortly afterward Prudentius writes that Christus purpureum gemmanti textus in auro signabat labarum, clypeorum insignia Christi scripserat (Contra Symmachum, I, 487-89). Paulinus of Nola describes the monogram Christum and explains its composition by means of the two letters chi et rho (Poem., XIX: PL 61, 612-27). On the basis of the text of Eusebius, G. Wilpert reconstructed the l. (cf. Vision und Labarum Konstantinus des Grossen, Cologne 1913), a reconstruction which he later published in color, having re-examined the data of Eusebius, of Lactantius and of the monuments (cf. Mosaiken, pp. 28-52 and pl. 51, 2).

A valuable documentation on the l. and on some of its variants is provided by Constantinian numismatics. The monogram is that same coeleste signum Dei mentioned by Lactantius in his De mortibus persecutorum, seen in a dream by Constantine and had painted on the soldiers' shields and placed on Constantine's helmet. The mint of Siscia struck in the year 37 a coin with the monogram on Constantine's helmet. A coin of the Numismatic Cabinet of Vienna, published by G. Wilpert (Mosaiken, p. 33, fig. 2) and by A. Alföldi shows very clearly the monogram on the Emperor's helmet (A. Alföldi, The helmet of Constantine, with the christian monogram, in Journal of Roman Studies, 22 [1932], pp. 9-23, pl. 4, 17). A coin of Vetranio presents the l. with the monogram in the center of the cloth and around it the inscription "Hoc signo victor eris" (Wilpert, Mosaiken, p. 42, fig. 9). That this monogram is the Signum Christi is attested by a graffito existing in the cemetery of Priscilla in which, after wishing the deceased Gregory and Sabbazia "in pace x," there is added by way of explanation of the monogram "signu Christi" (Wilpert, Mosaiken, 29 and photographic reproduction in Sarcofagi, fig. 201).

But the l. with the monogram in the center of the cloth is found in a quinarius of Constantine and in medallions of Constans. A coin of Constantine offers the l. with the monogram without the crown at the top of the shaft fixed in the ground, crushing a serpent (Wilpert, Mosaiken, p. 37, fig. 5). In the celebrated diptych of Aosta, on the other hand, on the cloth of the l. held by the emperor Honorius one reads: in nomine ΧΡΙ νιώας semper; and the monogram is found at the end of the shaft inside the crown. Recently H. Grégoire, after having studied the Etymologie du Labarum (in Byzantium, 4 [1929], pp. 477-82) and having denied that Eusebius is the author of the Vita Constantini (ibid., 13 [1938], pp. 561-83), held that he could also dispose of Constantine's vision (La vision de Constantin «liquide» (ibid., 14 [1939], pp. 341-51); he was answered by J. Zeller (Remarques sur la vision de Constantin, ibid., 14 [1939], pp. 331-39) and A. Alföldi (The conversion of Constantine and Pagan Rome, Oxford 1948, pp. 16-17). Also on a stele of Larissa in Macedonia the monogram surrounded by a crown is called signum Christi (CIL, III 7315): the monogram found in S. Agnes also has in hoc signo... vinces (G. B. De Rossi, Cimitero di S. Agnese, in Bull. di arch. christ., 2nd series, 6 [1875], pp. 80-82); as likewise in the inscription of Symphonia seen by A. Bosio: in hoc vinces and beneath it the monogram (A. Bosio, Roma sotterranea, Rome 1632 p. 215). At Sicca Veneria (today El-Kef in Tunisia) around the Cross with the letters α and ω is written: in hoc signum semper vinces (CIL, VIII, 1767); at Deir-Sanbil, in Syria, beneath the words ΤΟΥΤΙΣ ΝΙΚΑ are engraved two monogrammatic crosses with α and ω (M. De Vogüé, Syrie Centrale, Architecture civile et religieuse, Paris 1865-77, p. 151). - See pl. XLVIII.

Enrico Josi