# Constantine's cross was an army standard

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH09.P009](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH09.P009/#char=645,690): "when Constantine nailed the cross to the mast"

The mast belongs to Chesterton's extended metaphor of Roman civilisation as a ship. A historical counterpart is the *labarum*, Constantine's Christian military standard. Eusebius describes a gold-covered spear with a crossbar, a suspended banner, and the intertwined initial letters of Christ's name; he says he personally saw the object. His preceding narrative connects its manufacture with Constantine's vision and dream before the campaign against Maxentius. This is a land-army emblem, rather than evidence of an emperor literally attaching a cross to a ship. See [*Life of Constantine* I.28–31](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/25021.htm).

The distinction matters to the argument. Chesterton makes the Christian emblem remain attached to Roman civilisation through its apparent wreck, giving institutional continuity a visible image. Eusebius supplies evidence for the imperial appropriation of a Christian symbol; he does not establish the paragraph's much larger thesis about the survival of civilisation. Nor is his devotional account a neutral military report: he explicitly announces his purpose of commemorating the emperor's piety (I.10–11). The witness inspected is the New Advent transcription of the 1890 *Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers*, second series, volume 1, translation of the fourth-century work.

## Sources

- [Eusebius, Life of Constantine, Book I](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/25021.htm), I.10–11, 28–31; NPNF second series, volume 1 (1890), New Advent transcription

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