Passing on to the Christian successors of Constantine the Great, we are at once met with the significant fact that Constantine the Second issued many different coins bearing a representation of the Sun-God holding a small round object; and, as the surrounding legend, Claritas Reipublicae.

Another coin of this son of Constantine the Great, and one which deserves special attention, has upon its reverse a Cross and a Crescent in juxtaposition, as if the cross signified the sun.

A very similar coin has the symbol Monogram of Christ 3 between the military standards.

Upon another coin we see on the reverse both this Christian Emperor and the Sun-God; the former holding a small round object, and the latter crowning him. The surrounding legend is Soli Invicto Comiti.

The reverse of another coin bears the same Sun-God legend, and represents the Sun-God as holding a small round object.

Upon another coin we see Constantine holding a small round object surmounted by a Victory. On the reverse is the symbol Monogram of Christ 3.

Constans I., another son of Constantine the Great, issued a coin on which he is represented as holding in one hand a simply formed labarum or military standard consisting of a straight pole terminating at the top in a crossbar, from which hangs a banner bearing the symbol Monogram of Christ 3; while in the other hand he holds a small round object surmounted by a Phoenix.

Constantius II., yet another son of Constantine the Great, issued a coin on which is the symbol Monogram of Christ 3 between the letters Α and Ω (? ΑΡΧΩ); the legend being Salus Aug Nostri.

On another coin is Constantius II. as the Sun, upon one side; and upon the other the symbol Monogram of Christ 3 between the letters alpha and omega once again.

Nepotianus, a nephew of Constantine the Great who took Rome in A.C. 350 but was killed as an usurper the same year, issued a coin on the reverse of which, surrounded by the legend Urbs Roma, is a female figure representing Rome and holding in her hand a round object surmounted by the symbol Monogram of Christ 3.

The symbol Monogram of Christ 4 frequently occurs upon the coins of Valeus (A.C. 364—378). And upon one coin of this Emperor we see the letter Ρ surmounting a cross; surrounded by the legend Gloria Romanorum.

Upon a coin of Valentinianus II. we see Victory holding a round object surmounted by a cross, the legend being Victoria Augustorum.

On the coins of Theodosius I. (A.C. 378—395) we find representations of the Emperor holding a round object surmounted by a Phoenix, and of the Emperor holding a round object surmounted by a Victory; as also of Victory holding a round object surmounted by a cross.

This Emperor Theodosius I., better known as Theodosius the Great, after securing sole control of the Roman Empire brought about the final disruption of the world-wide dominions of Rome by bequeathing them in two portions to his sons Arcadius and Honorius; the elder, Arcadius, becoming Emperor of Constantinople and the East, while the younger, Honorius, became Emperor of Rome and the West: A.C. 395.

Less than a century later, viz., between the years A.C. 475 and 480, the Western Empire was finally extinguished by Odoacer; the Eastern Empire surviving it nearly a thousand years, lasting as the latter did from the partition in A.C. 395 to the capture of Constantinople by Mahomet II. in A.C. 1453.

It was, as stated in a previous chapter, upon the coins of an Emperor of the East, viz., Theodosius II., that the first example occurs of a representation of an Emperor holding a round object surmounted by a cross; though, as has been noted, instances of Victory carrying an object so surmounted had previously occurred. And it need only be added that the symbols Monogram of Christ 3 and Monogram of Christ 4, often the centre of a circle or surrounded by a circular wreath of bay or laurel, continually occur upon the coins of the Eastern Empire, the symbol asterisk frequently, and the undisguised solar wheel, Solar Wheel 1 upon the coins of Eudoxia, Theodosius II., Leo I., and others.

The evidence of the coins of the Roman Empire given in this and the two preceding chapters, coupled with the too-often forgotten fact that the only form of cross which could possibly be a representation of the instrument of execution to which Jesus was affixed was the very last form of cross to be adopted as a Christian symbol, cannot, it will be seen, lead the unprejudiced enquirer to any other conclusion than that the cross became the symbol of Christendom because the advent of Constantine and his Gauls made it a prominent symbol of the Roman Empire. And that the symbol in question was not altogether unconnected with Sun-God worship, should be equally clear to the reader.