History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2Gibbon, Edward
History
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2
Gibbon, Edward
Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
33 (return) [ The derivation and meaning of the word _Labarum_ or
_Laborum_, which is employed by Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose, Prudentius,
&c., still remain totally unknown, in spite of the efforts of the
critics, who have ineffectually tortured the Latin, Greek, Spanish,
Celtic, Teutonic, Illyric, Armenian, &c., in search of an etymology.
See Ducange, in Gloss. Med. et infim. Latinitat. sub voce _Labarum_,
and Godefroy, ad Cod. Theodos. tom. ii. p. 143.]
34 (return) [ Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. l. i. c. 30, 31. Baronius
(Annal. Eccles. A. D. 312, No. 26) has engraved a representation of the
Labarum.]
35 (return) [ Transversâ X literâ, summo capite circumflexo, Christum
in scutis notat. Cæcilius de M. P. c. 44, Cuper, (ad M. P. in edit.
Lactant. tom. ii. p. 500,) and Baronius (A. D. 312, No. 25) have
engraved from ancient monuments several specimens (as thus of these
monograms) which became extremely fashionable in the Christian world.]
36 (return) [ Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. l. ii. c. 7, 8, 9. He
introduces the Labarum before the Italian expedition; but his narrative
seems to indicate that it was never shown at the head of an army till
Constantine above ten years afterwards, declared himself the enemy of
Licinius, and the deliverer of the church.]
37 (return) [ See Cod. Theod. l. vi. tit. xxv. Sozomen, l. i. c. 2.
Theophan. Chronograph. p. 11. Theophanes lived towards the end of the
eighth century, almost five hundred years after Constantine. The modern
Greeks were not inclined to display in the field the standard of the
empire and of Christianity; and though they depended on every
superstitious hope of _defence_, the promise of _victory_ would have
appeared too bold a fiction.]
38 (return) [ The Abbé du Voisín, p. 103, &c., alleges several of these
medals, and quotes a particular dissertation of a Jesuit the Père de
Grainville, on this subject.]
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