On the plate representing Hannibal in Combat at Capua, probably by the Milan Marsyas Painter, all the individual figures and the horses are adapted from a drawing in the Louvre for the Battle of
Milvian Bridge in the Sala di Costantino in the Vatican.
His mother Helen had been an avowed Christian, though Constantine was a Roman polytheist; prior to the Battle of
Milvian Bridge, the new emperor experienced a mystical vision that led him to promise to convert to the monotheistic faith of Christianity if he was successful on the battlefield.
The idea experienced a new surge of interest after a couple put a padlock on Rome's
Milvian Bridge in the 2006 best-selling novel Ho Voglia De Te (I Want You), which was turned into a movie a year later.
In truth, the painting indicates the entire history of Catholic Empire: the principal kneeling figures, Philip II, the Pope, the Doge of Venice, and Don Juan of Austria, form a kind of Eucharistic communion beneath the initials IHS, representing the words In hoc signo vinces, a Latin translation of the phrase "by this sign you will conquer," which for its part alludes to the cross that the first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, claimed to have seen in the sky prior to his victory at the Battle of the
Milvian Bridge in 312 AD.
The four narrative scenes, which recount important moments in the story of the holy wood, are traditionally known as The Dream and Baptism of Constantine, The Battle between Constantine and Maxentius at the
Milvian Bridge, The Invention of the True Cross, and The Miracle of the True Cross; the tabernacle is dedicated to the Exaltation of the Cross (Figs.
Nonetheless, says Hill, the battle at the River Frigidus was as genuinely a pivotal moment as Constantine's victory at the
Milvian Bridge. With this observation he wisely closes his book.
The soldiers of his enemy, Maxentius, faced him at the
Milvian Bridge outside Rome.
Ken Condon, trainer of Fuerte Miramar,
Milvian Bridge and Foxillian "Fuerte Miramar should be competitive off 64.
Constantine's conversion had been inspired by a vision of Christ that included the "Chi Rho" symbol (the first two letters of the word "Christ" written in Greek that appear to be the letter X superimposed over a P), which was revealed to him with the promise "In Hoc Signo Vinces" ("In this sign, [you shall] conquer.") After Constantine's subsequent victory in the battle of
Milvian Bridge, he became a strong supporter of the Christian church.
All that changed with the battle to control the Roman Empire at the
Milvian Bridge in Rome.
Then, this paper will show that Constantine, entrusting himself to a divine vision, constructed a sign known as the Chi-Rho, and later won a decisive victory against Maxentius at the
Milvian Bridge on 28 October A.D.
Historically, setting aside any transcendental authority, Christianity spent its first three centuries--until the Battle of the
Milvian Bridge in 311--as a persecuted and private religion, and learnt that Church and State were two very different things.
