If we suppose that the so-called monogram arose as a combination of the Greek letters in question occurring in the order P X, the student of such matters can scarcely fail to note that the letters in question occur in that order as the centre both of the word APXH, the _Head_, _Chief_, or _First_; and also as the centre of the kindred word APX{omega}, _to be first_, the only remaining letters of which, and therefore the first and the last of this word as of the old Greek alphabet, are, as will be seen, Alpha and Omega, the letters so continually placed on either side of the symbol {image "monogram3.gif"} in Christian times. In this connection it should be pointed out that according to some of the best authorities the first {image "monogram3.gif"} which occurs upon any Roman coin, coming as it does after the letter _alpha_ in a Greek inscription, should be taken with that letter as forming the PX of APX, the latter being an abbreviation of some form or other of the title _Archon_. This title was that given to the dignitary who was at one and the same time the chief magistrate of the state and its chief priest, and it may be worth remark that as Bacchus was the deity worshipped in Lydia, the Archon in question would therefore have been the chief priest of the Sun-God. Several writers have, in their zeal for our religion, outrun their discretion, and gone so far as to assume that the existence of the so-called monogram of Christ upon this coin of the Emperor Decius is due to some Christian having been employed in turning out the coin in question, and having in _his_ zeal surreptitiously introduced a symbol of his faith. But though gravely supported by more than one great authority, this is obviously an absurd position to take up. And in any case the facts remain that it was in this instance placed over a representation of the Sun-God, and had for centuries been in use as a Pagan symbol. Passing on, however, we have next to note that, as before hinted, even if the symbol {image "monogram3.gif"} arose as a combination of two letters, though we know that symbol to have been often used as a contraction of the Greek letters P and X (our R and CH), there is no proof that it arose as a combination of two Greek letters; and the symbol may have arisen as a combination of the Roman letters P and X. It should therefore be pointed out that in the inscriptions which have come down to us from the Gaulish Christians of the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries after Christ, the symbols {image "monogram3.gif"} and {image "monogram4.gif"} are continually used as contractions of the Latin word PAX, _Peace_. For though the fact that the Monogram was often so interpreted by Christians centuries A.C. can by no means be considered evidence that it was thus that it first arose as a Pagan symbol centuries B.C., such a possibility should be kept before us.