The Christians of that age died at the stake, or by the sword, or by wild beasts, rather than to cast a pinch of incense into the sacred fires and say, "Proh Jupiter!" The pagans would have plunged into civil war, and would have endured or inflicted any pain, rather than acknowledge any feeling for Christ except hatred, loathing, and contempt. But Constantine both adopted the cross as a military standard, and also observed the heathen rites with customary ostentation and solemnity; having absolutely no conscientious scruples for or against any religion; regarding both the old and the new faiths as things proper enough for common men, but altogether indifferent to him; and using both alike as mere instruments convenient for the advancement of his own political purposes. After he had defeated Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge, he caused his own statue to be erected at Rome; and, while the general design and execution of the work were unexceptionable to his pagan subjects, the image bore in its hand the symbol of the cross, which, until that day, had been esteemed to be a badge of crime and infamy, as disgraceful to any Roman as the lewd Priapi of the gardens could have been to the Christians; and the thanksgiving which he offered to commemorate his victory was couched in such enigmatical terms that in applying it to Mars or Jupiter, the pagan did no more violence to the text than the Christian would do in ascribing it to Christ and God. So, when, to please the Christians, he decreed the solemn observance of Sunday, he inspired the pagans with confidence and respect, by calling the sacred day _Dies Solis_ (the Day of the Sun), a formula of heathendom with which they had been familiar all their lives.