into a significant dream which marked an epoch in his life. No reflecting person will on that account doubt the seriousness of Gardiner's conversion, which was amply proved by his whole subsequent life, even far more than Constantino's was. ^ Numbers xii. 6 : " I the Lord will make myself known in a vision, and will speak in a dream." Job xxxiii. 15, 16 : "In a dream, in a vision of the night, when § 2. CONSTANmSTE THE GEE AT. 27 Tlie facts, tlierefore, may have been these. Before the battle Constantine, leaning already towards Christianity as probably the best and most hopeful of the various religions, seriously sought in prayer, as he related to Eusebius, the as- sistance of the God of the Christians, while his heathen antag- onist Maxentius, according to Zosimus,^ was consulting the sib3dline books and offering sacrifice to the- idols. Filled with mingled fears and ho23es about the issue of the conflict, he fell asleep and saw in a dream the sign of the cross of Christ with a significant inscription and promise of victory. Being already familiar with the general use of this sign among the numerous Christians of the empire, many of whom no doubtwerein hisown army, he constructed the laharu m ^' or rather he changed the heathen labarnm into a standard of the Chris- tian cross with the Greek monogram of Christ,^ which he had deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed, then he openeth the ears of men and sealeth their instruction." For actual facts see Gen. xsxi. 10, 24 ; xxxvii. 5 ; 1 Kings iii. 5 ; Dan. ii. 4, 36 ; vii. 1 ; Matt. i. 20 ; ii. 12, 13, 19, 22 ; Acts X. 17; xxii. 17, 18. ' Histor. ii. 16. " Ad^wpov, also \d0ovpov ; derived not from labor, nor from Ka<pvpov, i. e. praeda, nor from \affe7u, but probably from a barbarian root, otherwise unknown, and introduced into the Roman terminology, long before Constantine, by the Celtic or Germanic recruits. Comp. Du Cange, Glossar., and Suicer, Thesaur. s. h. v. The labarum, as described by Eusebius, who saw it himself (Vita Const, i. 30), con- sisted of a long spear overlaid with gold, and a crosspiece of wood, from which hung a square flag of purple cloth embroidered and covered with precious stones. On the top of the shaft was a crown composed of gold and precious stones, and containing the monogram of Christ (see next note), and just under this crown was a likeness of the emperor and his sons in gold. The emperor told Eusebius (1. ii. c. 7) some in- credible things about this labarum, e. g. that none of its bearers was ever hurt by the darts of the enemy. •^■ ' X and P, the first two letters of the name of Christ, so written upon one another as to make the form of the cross : $ or -? , or