Pagan Rome

Constantine the Great (February 27, 272 AD – May 22, 337 AD) won the Battle of the Milvian Bridge which led him on the path to become the sole emperor of the Roman Empire. Battle of Milvian Bridge Before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge Constantine claimed he had seen a cross emblazoned on the sun and hear a voice tell him, “In this sign conquer.” Actually there are a few different renditions of what Constantine saw and heard from Wikepedia: Maxentius organized his forces—still twice the size of Constantine’s—in long lines facing the battle plain, with their backs to the river. Constantine’s army arrived at the field bearing unfamiliar symbols on either its standards or its soldiers’ shields. According to Lactantius, Constantine was visited by a dream the night before the battle, wherein he was advised “to mark the heavenly sign of God on the shields of his soldiers … by means of a slanted letter X with the top of its head bent round, he marked Christ on their shields.” Eusebius describes another version, where, while marching at midday, “he saw with his own eyes in the heavens a trophy of the cross arising from the light of the sun, carrying the message, In Hoc Signo Vinces or “with this sign, you will conquer”; in Eusebius’s account, Constantine … Continued