Constantine adopts the chi-rho , not the cross, as the emblem of the Christian god. Intriguingly, the chi-rho was not yet a Christian symbol when Constantine first uses it to decorate his labarum —it was more commonly employed by pagan scribes as an abbreviation for the Greek word chreston (“good”) in the margins of manuscripts to mark passages that they regarded as noteworthy or memorable.
“Did the Emperor’s advisers suggest this clever abbreviation for ‘Christ’ (‘Chrestos’)?” muses historian Robin Lane Fox. “Like other symbols in the years after the conversion, it had a double meaning, one for pagans, one for Christians."
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