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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
One would naturally expect that the standards of the Christian emperors of Rome, which are often represented on Roman coins, would be decorated with well-known Christian symbols, and that they would show the cross when not the monogram. In fact part of them do bear the emblems we expect, but certainly not all: a great number of the banners show devices we never learned to look upon as Christian. Very frequent, for instance, is a big circle, or two concentric circles; a combination of five small this matter: they do not distinguish between the various forms of the standards, but call them all labarum.
page 248 note 1 See for inst. Cohen, , Méd. imp., VII, p. 421, n. 113; p. 469, n. 193Google Scholar; Gnecchi, , Medaglioni romani, I, pl. 30, 12, 13Google Scholar; pl. 32, 15; Catal. Hess, 1917, pl. xx, 4459, xxi, 4474.
page 248 note 2 Gnecchi, op. cit., p. 13, 5; Maurice, Numism. constantinienne, pl. xiii, 6; Catal. Hamburger, 1923, pl. 56, 1365.
page 248 note 3 Gnecchi, op. cit., pl. 29, 15; pl. 33, 14.
page 248 note 4 The portraits of the emperor and his sons were attached to the shaft of the labarum, not to the vexillum; compare de'Cavalieri, Franchi, Studi Romani, I, p. 170Google Scholar.
page 248 note 5 Cohen, VII, p. 91, n. 30; p. 109, n. 40; p. 132, n. 51; Catal. Hess, 1917, pl. xxii, 4574, 4605; 1929, pl. 23, 982; 1933, pl. 32, 1108.
page 248 note 6 BM Imp. Byz. Coins, II, pl. li, 14, 15; pl. lii, 7.
page 248 note 7 Sabatier, Monn. byz. pl. lv, 7; lvi, 13; lvii, 13, 22; lviii, 6; lxv, 6.
page 248 note 8 Sabatier, pl. xlviii, 2; BM Imp. Byz. Coins, II, pl. lvii, 3.
page 249 note 1 Sabatier, pl. xlix, 13; lii, 9; liii, 2, and elsewhere.
page 249 note 2 Sabatier, pl. xlix, 3, 4, 10, 16; xliii, 14; xlvii, 15; 1, 6; li, 4, 8, 13.
page 249 note 3 BM Persis, pl. xxviii, 7–11; xxix, 1–12; xxx, 1–8; lii, 11, 12.
page 249 note 4 Cohen, I, p. 133, 483–485.
page 249 note 5 Domaszewski, , Die Fahnen im röm. Heere, 1885, p. 46Google Scholar.
page 249 note 6 Cohen, III, p. 19, n. 174.
page 249 note 7 De la Tour, Atlas des monn. gaul., pl. xxi, 6493, 6522, 6527, 6533; pl. xxiii, 6833, etc.; Hucher, , L'art gaulois, I, 1, 2Google Scholar; 6, 1; etc. On the coin shown in II, p. 58, fig. 81, a wheel with four spokes takes the place of the rectangle.
page 250 note 1 Hucher, I, pl. 83, 2.
page 250 note 2 Hucher, I, pl. 83, 3.
page 250 note 3 Jacobsthal, , Einige Werke kelt. Kunst (Die Antike, 1934, p. 39)Google Scholar, after pointing out different parallels between Iranian and Celtic animal motives concludes: “Schon diese wenigen Parallelen … stellen eine Berührung der frühen La Tène Kunst mit dem skythischen, thrakischen und iranischen Kreis sicher.” Compare also Roes, , Greek Geometric Art, p. 6 ffGoogle Scholar.
page 250 note 4 Roes, op. cit., p. 32 ff. and fgs. 24–28.
page 250 note 5 Herzfeld, , Mitt, aus Iran, 1933, p. 88, fig. 15Google Scholar; p. 89, fig. 16; p. 90, fig. 17.
page 250 note 6 BM Greece, pl. i, 3. Another coin of the same description is in the Dublin collection. They date from the VIth century B.C.
page 250 note 7 Roes, , Greek Geometric Art, p. 34 ffGoogle Scholar.
page 250 note 8 Tertullian, , Apologeticum, XVI, 9Google Scholar: Alii plane humanius et verisimilius solem credunt deum nostrum. Ad Persas, si forte, deputabimur, licet solem non in linteo depictum adoremus, habentes ipsum ubique in suo clupeo.
page 250 note 9 Proc. Brit. Acad. 1929, p. 440Google Scholar.
page 250 note 10 Cumont, , Textes et monuments, I, p. 176Google Scholar; Glück, , Die Christl. Kunst. des Ostens, p. 7 fGoogle Scholar.
page 251 note 1 King, Bronze Reliefs from the Gates of Shalmaneser, pl. xix, shows an Assyrian standard of this shape, undoubtedly meant for the sun-disk, with two tassels attached to it. In early Christian art it occurs on a wall painting at Doura; AJA 1933, p. 379, fig. 2Google Scholar. Here the rays with which it is surrounded do not leave any doubt about its meaning.
page 251 note 2 Genava, 1929, p. 181 ffGoogle Scholar.
page 251 note 3 MacMillan, , Scottish Symbols, pp. 84, 86Google Scholar; Seymour, , The Cross in Tradition, History and Art, p. 366Google Scholar.
