Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gavin Richardson, post: 7960950, member: 83956&quot;]I suppose part of the discussion of the wreaths on the OP coin and subsequent Constantinian examples ought to be Constantine’s vision of a wreath-offering deity ca. August 310. Peter Weiss argues that it is this vision that is given a Christian re-interpretation on the eve of the Milvian Bridge battle and that Constantine did not have a separate vision immediately prior to Battle, as Eusebius seems to imply. The 310 panegyrist states:</p><p><br /></p><p>“For on the day after that news had been received and you had undertaken the labor of double stages on your journey, you learnt that all the waves had subsided, and that the all-pervading calm which you had left behind had been restored. Fortune herself so ordered this matter that the happy outcome of your affairs prompted you to convey to the immortal gods what you had vowed at the very spot where you had turned aside toward the most beautiful temple in the whole world, or rather, to the deity made manifest, as you saw. <b>For you saw, I believe, O Constantine, your Apollo, accompanied by Victory, offering you laurel wreaths, each one of which carries a portent of thirty years.</b> For this is the number of human ages which are owed to you without fail—beyond the old age of a Nestor. And—now why do I say “I believe”?—you saw, and recognized yourself in the likeness of him to whom the divine songs of the bards had prophesied that rule over the whole world was due. And this I think has now happened, since you are, O Emperor, like he, youthful, joyful, a bringer of health and very handsome. Rightly, therefore, have you honored those most venerable shrines with such great treasures that they do not miss their old ones, any longer. Now may all the temples be seen to beckon you to them, and particularly our Apollo, whose boiling waters punish perjuries which ought to be especially hateful to you.” (6.21.3-7)</p><p><br /></p><p>I’d like to think there are three wreaths in the vision for a nice Trinitarian parallel, but the panegyrist doesn’t say.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in