Hello to all my friends and admirers on the sundial mailing list. You will have to excuse me but 27 October is a BAD day. Sol Invictus victus est! On 27 Oct, 312, Sol Invictus, the unconquered sun, supreme diety of the Roman Empire and the civilized world, was vanquished by astrologers, sun dogs and Christians.
History records that on this day the Roman Emperor, Constantine, saw a sign in the sky which he interpreted, in a vision, as an instruction. "In hoc signo vinces" or "In this sign, conquer." The sign was the sign of Christ, the Chi-Rho cross, the first two letters of Christ's name in Greek. Encouraged by this vision, he led his troops into battle with the faith of true believers that "God is on our side." Constantine smote his rival, Maxentius, at the Battle of Milvian Bridge, became the sole ruler of Rome, stopped feeding the lions, issued the Edict of Milan on religious tolerance, was baptised and became the first Christian Roman Emperor. Sol Invictus, the true source of light, energy and order in the universe was disposed and to this day Christianity rules. Even my feast day, a true solstice celebration, 25 December, has been usurped and declared the birthday of Christ.
Historians differ on the cause of this supposed sign of Christ. Mike DiMaio at <http://www.salve.edu/~diamaiom/conniei.html> says that two accounts of Constantine's vison are preserved. Eusebius records that Constantine and his army saw a cross of light in the sky with the inscription "in hoc signo vinces', whereas Lactantius argues that the emperor had a dream in which he saw the Chi-Rho symbol and was directed to have the "signum dei" inscribed on his soldiers' shields. DiMaio and others argue that the latter account represents the true course of events because the emperor saw a conjunction of the planets Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus in the constellations Capricorn and Sagittarius which provided the horizontal cross bar in the Chi-Rho sign. See star chart at <http://www.salve.edu/~dimaiom/chart.html>.
Following the former account of solar phenomenon, Duncan Steel describes in a letter to "Sky and Telescope" (Oct 99), a sign of the cross formed by reflections from ice crystals forming a sun pillar and horizontal parhelic sun dogs. Frank Slaughter in his 1965 historical fiction on Constantine "The Miracle of the Flaming Cross" combines both, describing the Chi-Rho symbol superimposed on the setting sun.
Was it sundogs and pillars or astrologers interpreting planetary alignments? Who knows? In both cases, natural phenomenon were seen as supernatural signs. This misplaced belief in symbols resulted in disaster for Sol Invictus as the center of the universe.
As true believers in the pre-eminence of the sun, please think of me and my place in history on this day of infamy.
Your guiding light, Sol Invictus Roma 41:54 N, 12:29E ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
