The so-called "Monogram of Christ "--a term which has at one time or another been applied to each of the symbols {image "solarwheel1.gif"} or {image "asterisk.gif"}, {image "monogram1.gif"} or {image "monogram3.gif"}, and {image "monogram2.gif"} or {image "monogram4.gif"}, as but variations of one and the same symbol--deserves a chapter to itself. Though not first placed upon the coins of the Roman Empire by Constantine any more than was the right-angled cross of four equal arms or the so-called St. Andrew's cross, the symbol {image "monogram3.gif"} was, like the {image "x.gif"} cross and the many varieties of right-angled crosses of four equal arms, first brought into prominence as a Roman symbol by the Emperor in question. From the evidence at our disposal it would appear that Decius was the first Roman ruler to make use of this form of the so-called Monogram of Christ. Anyhow, as has already been remarked, this symbol {image "monogram3.gif"} occurs upon a coin of the Emperor Decius struck at Maeonia about A.C. 250; and therefore more than half a century before the days of Constantine. And it is noteworthy that it was as a Pagan symbol that the {image "monogram3.gif"} thus first appeared upon the Roman coinage. The coin in question is a bronze one, and the "Monogram of Christ" occurs in the centre of a Greek inscription surrounding a representation of the Sun-God Bacchus; and, apparently, as an amalgamation or contraction of the two Greek letters equivalent to our R and CH, _viz._: the Greek letters P and X.[50] Why these particular letters should have been contracted, is, however, uncertain; and the question arises as to whether the {image "monogram3.gif"} first arose as a contraction of such Greek letters, or as an amalgamation of the Roman letters P and X, or as the cross {image "x.gif"} _plus_ the Greek P (our R) as the initial letter of the Greek name for Rome. Moreover if it be decided that the symbol first arose as a contraction of certain letters, yet further questions arise; _viz._; in what order those letters were first read, and what word they first represented. Before going into such matters as these, however, it is important that we should fully realise how certain it is that the so-called Monogram of Christ was originally a _Pagan_ symbol. For even if this be not considered demonstrated by its occurrence upon a Roman coin long before, according to our Church, the Christ caused Constantine to use it as the military standard of the Gauls, it is clearly shown by its occurrence upon many relics of pre-Christian date.