Labarum

Common card · No. 223190

The labarum (Byzantine Greek: λάβαρον or λάβουρον) was a vexillum (military standard) that displayed the "Chi-Rho" symbol ☧, a christogram formed from the first two Greek letters of the word "Christ" (Byzantine Greek: ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ, or Χριστός) – Chi (χ) and Rho (ρ). It was first used by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Ancient sources draw an unambiguous distinction between the two terms labarum and Chi-Rho, even though later usage sometimes regards the two as synonyms. The name labarum was applied both to the original standard used by Constantine the Great and to the many standards produced in imitation of it in the Late Antique world, and subsequently.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Labarum_of_Constantine_I.svg: TRAJAN 117 Vexilloid_of_the_Roman_Empire.svg: Ssolbergj derivative work: Philly boy92 (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0