A Bad Time to Rebrand

The Chi Rho is a combination of the first two letters of the name of Christ in Greek (Χρῑστός), the Chi (Χ, pronounced ‘ch’) and the Rho (Ρ, pronounced ‘r’).

A Chi Rho

A Chi Rho from the Catacombs of St. Callistus

Constantine was the son of Emperor Constantius I, who was Augustus in the West during a period of tetrarchy. This system, created by Diocletian, established two emperors, or augustuses, for the Roman Empire: one in the West and the other in the East. Each of these augustuses had a junior emperor, called a caesar, who ruled under him. When Constantius was Augustus of the West, assisted by Severus, Galerius was Augustus of the East, assisted by Maximinus (Galerius’ nephew). Constantine and Maxentius (the son of Diocletian’s co-emperor Maximian) were excluded.

When Constantius died in Eboracum (York), England, Constantine’s army declared him emperor. Galerius was furious, but for political expediency agreed to make him caesar under Severus, who became Augustus of the West.

The tetrarchy quickly collapsed into civil war. Maxentius seized control of the city of Rome. Constantine marched down from Britain into Italy. He arrived at the gates of Rome and camped to the north of the city.

Sources differ on when exactly Constantine received the divine message, whether it was in a dream in the early afternoon or the night before the battle, or whether it was a vision in the sky that his soldiers also saw. Regardless, he was instructed “Ἐν Τούτῳ Νίκα,” in Latin “In hoc signo vinces,” in English “In this sign, conquer.” He had the symbol painted on the shields of his soldiers hours before the battle.

Maxentius for his part also received a prophesy. He consulted the ancient Sibylline books at the Temple of Jupiter, which read, “on October 28 an enemy of the Romans would perish.”

The Battle of the Milvian Bridge was fought to the north of the broken Milvian bridge, which crossed the Tiber just to the north of Rome. Maxentius had broken the center arch of the bridge to prevent Constantine from using it, but then built a pontoon bridge to get his army to the battlefield. Constantine routed Maxentius’ army and drove them back onto the pontoon bridge, which collapsed under the weight. Maxentius and many of his men drowned. So perished an enemy of the Romans.

Constantine would spend the next few years consolidating his power and defeating his remaining rivals. In February AD 313, he signed the Edict of Milan, legalizing Christianity in the Roman Empire and restoring much of what had been taken in the previous great persecution under Diocletian.

A statue of Constantine in York, near where he was first acclaimed emperor after his father’s death