DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0682
The double axe and the labarum 607
discussed. Gibbon1 long since noted 'the efforts of the critics, who
have ineffectually tortured the Latin, Greek, Spanish, Celtic, Teu-
tonic, Illyric, Armenian, &c. in search of an etymology.' And E.
Venables2 as late as 1908 declared it to be 'most probably of Basque
origin'! Meantime in 1903 E. Conybeare3 had solved the problem:
a modest foot-note in his Roman Britain puts the matter in a nut-
shell—'The Sacred Monogram known as Labarum. Both name and
emblem were very possibly adapted from the primitive cult of the
Labrys, or Double Axe, filtered through Mithraism.' The value of
this acute suggestion obviously depends on the possibility of citing,
not merely isolated examples of the Constantinian monogram from
dates prior to that of Constantine4, but rather a connected series of
formal links between the labrys and labarum. Accordingly in 1908
I published the following diagram (fig. 510) ', which inserts a series of
intermediate symbols taken in chronological order from the coinage
of the Graeco-Scythian kings (s. iii—i B.C.). E. Rapp'; had already
in 1866 brought these symbols into connexion with the labarum,
though not with the labrys, and had assumed that they were solar
10 In Euseb. v. Const, ind. p. 5, 4 f. Heikel Xa'. "Ehccppacris ffTavpoeibous crrifje'iov, bnep
vvv oi Pto/naloL XdfSapov KaXovcnv codd. T.V. read Xdfiopov, but V2 has a over the first 0.
A Latin form with 0 is attested by Greg. Naz. or. 4 {contra Iulianum 1). 66 (xxxv.
588 a—b Migne) ToXfiq. 5e fjbrf /cat Kara tov fj.eyd.Xov avvdrjfiaToi, 0 fierd rod aravpov
v0fJ.trevel, /cat ayei tov arparbv els vipos alpbfjevov, Kafxdrwv Xvrrjpiov bv re /cat Kara.' Potatoes
bvofja^bfievov /cat (BatnXevov, d>s av etVot rts, tCjv Xonr&v avvdrffidrwi/ ' k.t.X. And Ducange
loc. cit. quotes laborum for labarum from sundry late sources. In cod. Theod. 6. 25 de
praepositis laborum (=cod. Iustin. 12. 18) qui...praepositi laborum nostro iudicio et
Stipendiorum sudoribus promoventur the manuscripts' reading laborum has been defended
by the fifth-century carmen, de Iona (formerly ascribed to Tertullian) 40 f. palpitat antemna
stridens, labor horret ab alto, | ipsa etiam infringi dubitans inflectitur arbor. But in cod.
Theod. we should probably read the gen. plur. labororum and in carmen de Iona the
nom. sing, laborum.
11 Const. Porphyrogen. de cerim. aulae Byzant. 1. 1 (i. 11 Reiske) /cat ra ffKevrj tlov
bpaKovapiwv, Xd(3ovpd re Kal Kafxtr^brfKropia, 1 append, (i. 502 Reiske) io~Tafj,evwv /cat irpo-
Tropevofj,evujv 'efi-wpoudev avTwv twv (XKevQiv, Xafiovpuiv, aiyvuiv k.t.X.
12 Sozom. hist. eccl. 1. 4 (lxvii. 868 a Migne) 6 j3a.(riXevs eaeXevcrev dvdpas eiricrTrifiovas
XpverS /cat Xidois ti/jliois ets aravpov crvp.j3oXov fieraffKevdaai to irapd 'Pufxaiots KaXovfievov
Xdficopov, 9. 4 (lxvii. 1605 a Migne) ddrepov be tQiv (jK-rfirTpuv, 6 Xdfiwpov 'Pwficuoi /caXoDcrt,
/cat ypafifjaTa (3ao~iXeu>s Xafiuiv k.t.X.
1 E. Gibbon The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire London 1781
ii. 194 n. 33.
2 E. Venables in Smith—Cheetham Diet. Chr. Ant. ii. 909.
3 E. Conybeare Roman Britain London 1903 p. 228 n. 2.
4 See e.g. O. Zoeckler The Cross of Christ trans. M. J. Evans London 1877 P- I27 ff->
J. D. Parsons The Non-Christian Cross London 1896 pp. 147—162 ('The Monogram of
Christ'), J. B. Bury Appendix 19 on chap. 20 of Gibbon op. cit. London 1896 ii. 565 ff.
5 In the Transactions of the Third International Congress for the History of Religions
Oxford 1908 ii. 192 fig. 17.
6 E. Rapp 1 Das Labarum und der Sonnencultus' in the Jahrb. d. Vereins v. Alter-
thumsfreund. im Rheinl. 1866 xxxix—xl. 116—145 pi. 2.
discussed. Gibbon1 long since noted 'the efforts of the critics, who
have ineffectually tortured the Latin, Greek, Spanish, Celtic, Teu-
tonic, Illyric, Armenian, &c. in search of an etymology.' And E.
Venables2 as late as 1908 declared it to be 'most probably of Basque
origin'! Meantime in 1903 E. Conybeare3 had solved the problem:
a modest foot-note in his Roman Britain puts the matter in a nut-
shell—'The Sacred Monogram known as Labarum. Both name and
emblem were very possibly adapted from the primitive cult of the
Labrys, or Double Axe, filtered through Mithraism.' The value of
this acute suggestion obviously depends on the possibility of citing,
not merely isolated examples of the Constantinian monogram from
dates prior to that of Constantine4, but rather a connected series of
formal links between the labrys and labarum. Accordingly in 1908
I published the following diagram (fig. 510) ', which inserts a series of
intermediate symbols taken in chronological order from the coinage
of the Graeco-Scythian kings (s. iii—i B.C.). E. Rapp'; had already
in 1866 brought these symbols into connexion with the labarum,
though not with the labrys, and had assumed that they were solar
10 In Euseb. v. Const, ind. p. 5, 4 f. Heikel Xa'. "Ehccppacris ffTavpoeibous crrifje'iov, bnep
vvv oi Pto/naloL XdfSapov KaXovcnv codd. T.V. read Xdfiopov, but V2 has a over the first 0.
A Latin form with 0 is attested by Greg. Naz. or. 4 {contra Iulianum 1). 66 (xxxv.
588 a—b Migne) ToXfiq. 5e fjbrf /cat Kara tov fj.eyd.Xov avvdrjfiaToi, 0 fierd rod aravpov
v0fJ.trevel, /cat ayei tov arparbv els vipos alpbfjevov, Kafxdrwv Xvrrjpiov bv re /cat Kara.' Potatoes
bvofja^bfievov /cat (BatnXevov, d>s av etVot rts, tCjv Xonr&v avvdrffidrwi/ ' k.t.X. And Ducange
loc. cit. quotes laborum for labarum from sundry late sources. In cod. Theod. 6. 25 de
praepositis laborum (=cod. Iustin. 12. 18) qui...praepositi laborum nostro iudicio et
Stipendiorum sudoribus promoventur the manuscripts' reading laborum has been defended
by the fifth-century carmen, de Iona (formerly ascribed to Tertullian) 40 f. palpitat antemna
stridens, labor horret ab alto, | ipsa etiam infringi dubitans inflectitur arbor. But in cod.
Theod. we should probably read the gen. plur. labororum and in carmen de Iona the
nom. sing, laborum.
11 Const. Porphyrogen. de cerim. aulae Byzant. 1. 1 (i. 11 Reiske) /cat ra ffKevrj tlov
bpaKovapiwv, Xd(3ovpd re Kal Kafxtr^brfKropia, 1 append, (i. 502 Reiske) io~Tafj,evwv /cat irpo-
Tropevofj,evujv 'efi-wpoudev avTwv twv (XKevQiv, Xafiovpuiv, aiyvuiv k.t.X.
12 Sozom. hist. eccl. 1. 4 (lxvii. 868 a Migne) 6 j3a.(riXevs eaeXevcrev dvdpas eiricrTrifiovas
XpverS /cat Xidois ti/jliois ets aravpov crvp.j3oXov fieraffKevdaai to irapd 'Pufxaiots KaXovfievov
Xdficopov, 9. 4 (lxvii. 1605 a Migne) ddrepov be tQiv (jK-rfirTpuv, 6 Xdfiwpov 'Pwficuoi /caXoDcrt,
/cat ypafifjaTa (3ao~iXeu>s Xafiuiv k.t.X.
1 E. Gibbon The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire London 1781
ii. 194 n. 33.
2 E. Venables in Smith—Cheetham Diet. Chr. Ant. ii. 909.
3 E. Conybeare Roman Britain London 1903 p. 228 n. 2.
4 See e.g. O. Zoeckler The Cross of Christ trans. M. J. Evans London 1877 P- I27 ff->
J. D. Parsons The Non-Christian Cross London 1896 pp. 147—162 ('The Monogram of
Christ'), J. B. Bury Appendix 19 on chap. 20 of Gibbon op. cit. London 1896 ii. 565 ff.
5 In the Transactions of the Third International Congress for the History of Religions
Oxford 1908 ii. 192 fig. 17.
6 E. Rapp 1 Das Labarum und der Sonnencultus' in the Jahrb. d. Vereins v. Alter-
thumsfreund. im Rheinl. 1866 xxxix—xl. 116—145 pi. 2.