[421] Tertull. Apol. 23, 40.—Constitt. Apostol. VI. 9.—Arnob. adv. Gentes II. 12.—Hippol. Refut. omn. Hæres. Lib. VI.—Acts XIX. 19.
[422] Pauli Diac. Hist. Miscell. X., XI.—Euseb. Vit. Constant. II. 4-7, 11-12.—S. Nili Capita parænetica No. 61.—S. August. de Civ. Dei XXII. 8. Cf. Evodii de Mirac. S. Stephani.
The Labarum of Constantine was the Greek cross with four equal arms, a symbol frequently seen on Chaldean and Assyrian cylinders. Oppert attaches to it the root לבר, thus explaining the word Labarum, the derivation of which has never been understood (Oppert et Menant, Documents juridiques de l’Assyrie, Paris, 1877, p. 200). The fetichism connected with the cross probably took its rise from the Labarum. Maxentius, we are told, was an ardent adept in magic, and relied upon it for success against Constantine, who was much alarmed until reassured by the vision of the cross and its starry inscription, “In hoc vince” (Euseb. H. E. IX. 9; Vit. Const, I. 28-31, 36.—Pauli Diac. Hist. Miscell. Lib. XI.—Zonaræ Annal. T. III.). The melting of pagan superstitions into Christian is illustrated by the incident that when Constantine routed Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge he was preceded in battle by an armed cavalier bearing a cross, and at Adrianople two youths were seen who slaughtered the troops of Licinius (Zonaræ Annal. T. III.). The Christian annalists had no difficulty in identifying with angels of God those whom Pagan writers would designate as Castores.
[423] Cohen, Les Pharisiens, I. 311.—Lightfooti Horæ Hebraicæ, Matt. XXIV. 24.—Mishna, Sanhedrin, VII. 7; x. 16.—Talmud Babli, Shabbath, 75 a (Buxtorfi Lexicon, p. 1170).
[424] Minuc. Felic. Octavius (Bib. Mag. Pat. III. 7-8).—Tertull. Apol. 35; de Anima 57.—Acta SS. Justin. et Cyprian. (Martene Thesaur. II. 1629).—Constitt. Apostol. II. 66.—Lactant. Divin. Inst. II. 17.—Concil. Ancyrens. ann. 314 c. 24.—C. Laodicens. ann. 320 c. 36.—C. Eliberitan. circa 324 c. 6.
[425] Cato. Rei Rust. 5.—Sueton. Tiber. 63.—Lib. IX. Cod. Theod. xvi. 1-6.
For the care with which the Romans suppressed unauthorized soothsaying see Livy, xxxix. 16, and Pauli Sententt. Receptt. v. xxi. 1, 2, 3.
[426] Ammian. Marcellin. XIX. xii. 14; XXVI. iii.; XXIX. i. 5-14, ii. 1-5.—Zozimi IV. 14.—Lib. IX. Cod. Theod. xvi. 7-12.
Yet favoritism led Valens to pardon Pollentianus, a military tribune, who confessed that, for the purpose of ascertaining the destiny of the imperial crown, he had ripped open a living woman and extracted her unborn babe to perform a hideous rite of necromancy (Am. Marcell. XXIX. ii. 17). In the later Roman augury, contaminated with Eastern rites, omens of the highest significance were found in the entrails of human victims, especially in those of the fœtus (Æl. Lamprid. Elagabal. 8.—Euseb. H. E. VII. 10, VIII. 14.—Paul. Diac. Hist. Miscell. XI.).
[427] Augustin. de Civ. Dei x. 9; XXI. 6; de Genesi ad Litteram XI.; de Divinat. Dæmon, v.; de Doctr. Christ. II. 20-4; Serm. 278.—Concil. Carthag. IV. ann. 398, c. 89.—Dracont. de Deo II. 324-7.—Leon. PP. I. Serm. XXVII. c. 3.