soldiers, Constantine continued his march against Maxentius; and, with
his forces thus "divinely aided," overthrew the Emperor just outside
the Imperial City, entered Rome in triumph, and thanked God that He had
enabled him to defeat and slay its ruler and assume the purple in that
ruler's stead.[38]

Eusebius then tells us that Constantine, who did not dispose of all his
rivals and become sole emperor till some twelve years later, as victor
in the fight with Maxentius and master of Rome though not as yet of the
whole empire, at once

"By loud proclamation and monumental inscriptions made
known to all men the salutary symbol, setting up this
great trophy of victory over his enemies, and expressly
causing it to be engraven in indelible characters that
the salutary symbol was the safeguard of the Roman
Government and entire people. Accordingly he immediately
ordered a lofty spear in the figure of a cross to be
placed beneath the hand of a statue representing himself
in the most frequented part of Rome, and the following
inscription engraven on it in the Latin tongue:--'By
virtue of this salutary sign which is the true test of
valour, I have preserved and liberated your city from
the yoke of tyranny, and I have also set at liberty the
Roman Senate and People, and have restored to them their
ancient distinction and splendour.'"[39]

Now, as we have already seen, what Eusebius referred to as the "cross"
observed above the mid-day sun (and accompanied by a miraculous
inscription in, presumably, to agree with the monogram, the Greek