Labarum
The Labarum was the main army flag of the late ancient Roman army since the time of Emperor Constantine .
According to the description of the Christian historian Lactantius , Constantine had his soldiers paint a staurogram on their shields before the battle at Milvian Bridge 312 . Eusebius of Caesarea claims in his Vita Constantini , which was written about 25 years after the battle, that the emperor had this symbol also placed on the main army flag, but this is likely to be a mistake. It is generally assumed that the Labarum was only developed and used in the 320s before the dispute with Licinius . The name of the standard is neither of Latin nor Greek origin, but goes back to pre-Roman standards from the Mesopotamian-Babylonian environment. The design differs from epoch to epoch.
The labarum consisted of a long golden lance with a crossbar from which a purple veil hung down. Three portraits were attached to the lance above, that of the emperor and his two eldest sons (the fact that two of these were born after 312 is evidence of the thesis of the later origin of the standard). At the upper end was the Christ monogram framed by a wreath : Greek Χ (Chi) and Ρ (Rho) for CHRistos (ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ or Χριστός). The labarum also symbolized the sacred background of imperial rule in late antiquity .
Standard marks had already been of great importance for the Roman soldiers in pre-Christian times and had often enjoyed cultic veneration; the guard of the labarum was entrusted to fifty of the bravest warriors ( labarii ).
See also
literature
- Rudolf Egger : The Labarum. The imperial standard of late antiquity (= Austrian Academy of Sciences. Philosophical-Historical Class. Meeting reports. 234, 1, ISSN 0029-8832 ). Rohrer on commission, Vienna 1960.
- Gerhard Wirth : Labarum. In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . Volume 5: Hiera means to Lucania. Artemis-Verlag, Munich et al. 1991, ISBN 3-8508-8905-0 , Sp. 1601.
