DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0683
608 The double axe and the labarum
emblems adopted as an equivocal device by an emperor who wished
to conciliate pagans and Christians alike. Finally in 1911 B. Schrem-
mer1, not realising that he had been anticipated by E. Conybeare,
announced the derivation of labarum from Idbrys as a discovery of
his own2. He is, however, right in insisting3, as against Rapp, that
the Graeco-Scythian symbols are not solar signs at all, but mere
L/ABRY5
p
>
Eutkyd
imos 1.
B.C.
D
P
Eukrotides. Apollodotos ii.
l^O B.C
P
>
C. lOO B.C.
'--1
Apollodotos ii. ZoVlos. Mippoatratos.
c.too b.c. c.8o?b.c. c.j70b.c. LABARYA\.
Fig. 510.
combinations of letters, which represent the name of the moneyer
or a mint-mark of some sort4. This—as I now admit—makes it
highly improbable that we should see in them the connecting links
between Idbrys and labarum. Again, Schremmer justly demurs5 to
a view put forward in 1884 by L. Jeep6, viz. that Constantine's sign
f was not, originally at least, a Christian monogram, but a semi-
cursive form of the astrological symbol $, which stands for the
1 B. Schremmer Labarum una1 Steinaxt Tubingen 1911 pp. 1—51—a convenient little
volume, to which I am indebted for several references both ancient and modern.
2 Id. ib. p. I5f. 3 Id. ib. p. 13.
4 See Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Greek and Scythic Kings p. lvf., E. J. Rapson Indian
Coins (in J. G. Biihler Grundriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie und Altertumskun.de ii. 3 b)
Strassburg 1897 p. 6 f., V. A. Smith Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum Calcutta
Oxford 1906 p. 7 pis. vii, x, xviii.
5 B. Schremmer op. cit. p. 14.
6 L. Jeep ' Zur Geschichte Constantin des Grossen' in Historische imd philologische
Aufsdtze Ernst Curtius zu seinem siebenzigsten Geburtstage ...gewidmet Berlin 1884
pp. 81—89.
emblems adopted as an equivocal device by an emperor who wished
to conciliate pagans and Christians alike. Finally in 1911 B. Schrem-
mer1, not realising that he had been anticipated by E. Conybeare,
announced the derivation of labarum from Idbrys as a discovery of
his own2. He is, however, right in insisting3, as against Rapp, that
the Graeco-Scythian symbols are not solar signs at all, but mere
L/ABRY5
p
>
Eutkyd
imos 1.
B.C.
D
P
Eukrotides. Apollodotos ii.
l^O B.C
P
>
C. lOO B.C.
'--1
Apollodotos ii. ZoVlos. Mippoatratos.
c.too b.c. c.8o?b.c. c.j70b.c. LABARYA\.
Fig. 510.
combinations of letters, which represent the name of the moneyer
or a mint-mark of some sort4. This—as I now admit—makes it
highly improbable that we should see in them the connecting links
between Idbrys and labarum. Again, Schremmer justly demurs5 to
a view put forward in 1884 by L. Jeep6, viz. that Constantine's sign
f was not, originally at least, a Christian monogram, but a semi-
cursive form of the astrological symbol $, which stands for the
1 B. Schremmer Labarum una1 Steinaxt Tubingen 1911 pp. 1—51—a convenient little
volume, to which I am indebted for several references both ancient and modern.
2 Id. ib. p. I5f. 3 Id. ib. p. 13.
4 See Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Greek and Scythic Kings p. lvf., E. J. Rapson Indian
Coins (in J. G. Biihler Grundriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie und Altertumskun.de ii. 3 b)
Strassburg 1897 p. 6 f., V. A. Smith Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum Calcutta
Oxford 1906 p. 7 pis. vii, x, xviii.
5 B. Schremmer op. cit. p. 14.
6 L. Jeep ' Zur Geschichte Constantin des Grossen' in Historische imd philologische
Aufsdtze Ernst Curtius zu seinem siebenzigsten Geburtstage ...gewidmet Berlin 1884
pp. 81—89.