Splinter of True Cross (Civ3)/Civilopedia

The True Cross holy relic was a wooden cross encased in gold and studded with gems. It was considered to be the cross used to crucify Jesus Christ at Golgotha. This cross changed hands repeatedly throughout the Middle Ages. It was captured by the Sassanid Persians in 614 AD. Thirteen years later, the Roman Emperor Heraclius captured it and returned it to Constantinople. It was hidden until the First Crusade when it was unveiled again in Jerusalem. The Christian crusaders took it into battle with them, only to have it captured by a Moslem army under Salah ad Din at the battle of Karnei-Hattin in 1187. It then disappeared from history, but hundreds of fragments (or splinters) of the cross then reappeared in Europe throughout the remainder of the Middle Ages, most of them probably fakes.