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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bart9349, post: 1653728, member: 5682&quot;]That&#039;s an interesting point. The Alpha / Omega symbolism would be incompatible with Arianism (where Christ, although the son of God, did not always exist and was created by and distinct from God the Father). I am not sure whether the Chi-Rho symbol (without the Alpha / Omega) was recognized by the Arian church, however.</p><p><br /></p><p>The article in Numiswiki seems to agree with you:</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=chi%20rho" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=chi%20rho" rel="nofollow">http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=chi rho</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>That said, there is this other view found in the description of the Constantius Chi-Rho coin:</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>If Bastien is correct that these coins were minted only after Constantius had total control of the city and the surrounding region, I find it highly unlikely a &quot;mistake&quot; would have been made. Constantius knew that he also had to appeal to a population sympathetic to the Catholic church of Rome. Why not create varieties of a coin that would appeal to different populations?</p><p><br /></p><p>I think that we sometimes underestimate the impact of the symbolism on coins and its significance to a mostly illiterate population in the Ancient Roman Empire. Subtle changes on the coins would have been quickly recognized by the local population, conveying Imperial propaganda and changes in Imperial policy.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>As an aside:</p><p><br /></p><p>I find it interesting that most (with rare exception) of the Magnentius coins were bare-headed without the diadem (as opposed to the Constantius coins). This could reflect Magnentius&#039;s desire to further differentiate himself from Constantius on another level: Magnentius would be seen as a humble servant of the people while Constantius depicted himself as an autocratic figure with divine pretentions.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>guy[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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