Detail from a 9th-century Byzantine manuscript. Constantine defeats Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge; the vision of Constantine is a Greek cross withἐν τούτῳ νίκα written on it.
"In hoc signo vinces"[a] is aLatin phrase conventionally translated into English as "In this sign thou shalt conquer", often also being translated as "By and/or in this sign, conquer".
The Latin phrase itself renders, rather loosely, theGreek phrase "ἐν τούτῳ νίκα", transliterated as "en toútōi níka",[b] literally meaning "in this, conquer".
Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius was an early Christian author (c. 240 – c. 320) who became an advisor to the first Christian Roman emperor,Constantine I (and tutor to his son), guiding the Emperor's religious policy as it developed during his reign.[1] His workDe Mortibus Persecutorum has anapologetic character, but has been treated as a work of history by Christian writers. Here Lactantius preserves the story of Constantine's vision of theChi Rho before his conversion to Christianity.[2] The full text is found in only one manuscript, which bears the title,Lucii Caecilii liber ad Donatum Confessorem de Mortibus Persecutorum.
The bishopEusebius of Caesaria, a historian, states that Constantine was marching with his army (Eusebius does not specify the actual location of the event, but it is clearly not in the camp at Rome), when he looked up to the sun and saw a cross of light above it, and with it the Greek words "(ἐν)τούτῳνίκα" ("In this, conquer"),[3] a phrase often rendered into Latin asin hoc signovinces ("in this sign, youwill conquer").[4]
At first, Constantine did not know the meaning of the apparition, but on the following night, he had a dream in which Christ explained to him that he should use the sign of the cross against his enemies. Eusebius then continues to describe theLabarum,[5] the military standard used by Constantine in his later wars against Licinius, showing the Chi-Rho sign. The accounts by Lactantius and Eusebius, though not entirely consistent, have been connected to theBattle of the Milvian Bridge (312 AD), merging into a popular notion of Constantine seeing the Chi-Rho sign on the evening before the battle.
The phrase appears prominently placed as a motto on a ribbon unfurled with a passion cross to its left, beneath a window over theScala Regia, adjacent to the equestrian statue of Emperor Constantine, in theVatican.[6] Emperors and other monarchs, having paid respects to the Pope, descended the Scala Regia, and would observe the light shining down through the window, with the motto, reminiscent of Constantine's vision, and be reminded to follow the Cross.
^Roberts, Alexander; Donaldson, James, eds. (1871)."The Manner in Which Persecutors Died. Chapter 44".Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the writings of the Fathers. Down to A.D. 325. Vol. II:The Works of Lactantius. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. p. 203.
^Eusebius. "1.28".Vita Constantini(PDF). p. 944 – via documentacatholicaomnia.eu.
^Elliott, Andrew B. R. (2017).Medievalism, Politics and Mass Media: Appropriating the Middle Ages in the Twenty-First Century. Medievalism Volume 10. Woodbridge: Boydell. p. 166.ISBN978-1-84384-463-1.
.png)
Media related toIn hoc signo vinces at Wikimedia Commons