by Burckhardt and others denied to Lactantius, but was at all events composed soon after the event, about 314 or 315, while Con- stantine was as yet on good terms with Licinius, to whom the author, c. 46, ascribes a similar vision of an angel, who is said to have taught him a form of prayer on his expedition against the heathen tyrant Maximin. ' In his Vita Constant, i. 27-30, composed about 338, a work more panegyrical than historical, and abounding in vague declamation and circumlocution. But in his Church History, written before 326, though he has good occasion (L ix. c. 8, 9), Eusebius says nothing of the occurrence, whether through oversight or ignorance, or of purpose, it is hard to decide. In any case the silence casts suspicion on the de- tails of his subsequent story, and has been urged against it not only by Gibbon, but also by Lardner and others. 22 THIKD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. Italj (the spot and date are not specified), the emperor, whilst earnestly praying to the true God for light and help at this critical time, saw, together with his army,' in clear daylight towards evening, a shining cross in the heavens above the sun, with the inscription : " By this conquer^'' " and in the following night Christ himself apj^eared to him while he slept, and di- rected him to have a standard prepared in the form of this sign of the cross, and with that to proceed against Maxentius and all other enemies. This account of Eusebius, or rather of Constantino himself, adds to the night dream of Lactantius the preceding vision of the day, and the direction concerning the standard, while Lactantius speaks of the inscription of the in- itial letters of Christ's name on the shields of the soldi ei's. According to Eufinus,^ a later historian, who elsewhere de- pends entirely on Eusebius and can therefore not be regarded as a proper witness in the case, tlie sign of the cross appeared to Constantino in a dream (which agrees with the account of Lactantius), and upon his awaking in terror, an angel (not Chi'ist) exclaimed to him : " Hoc vinceP Lactantius, Eusebius, and Rufinus are the only Christian writers of the fourth cen- tury, who mention the apparition. But we have besides one or two heathen testimonies, which, though vague and obscure, still serve to strengthen the evidence in favor of some actual occurrence. The contemporaneous orator N^azarius, in a pane- gyric upon the emperor, pronounced March 1, 321, apparently at Rome, speaks of an army of divine warriors and a divine assistance which Constantino received in the engagement with Maxentius, but he converts it to the service of heathenism by ' This is probably a mistake or an exaggeration. For if a whole army consisting of many thousand soldiers of every nation had seen the vision of the cross, Eusebius might have cited a number of living witnesses, and Constantine might have dispensed with