military discipline as well as morale
among the troops. Therefore, the new
Christian leadership of the state and
army found it necessary to keep the es-
sential forms of the older military reli-
gious practices, while changing the con-
tent to meet the demands of Christian
doctrine. Thus the imperial government
modified the traditional oath of military
service so that it would be understood
as a Christian oath. Vegetius’s military
manual, the Epitoma Rei Militaris
(Epitome of Military Matters), com-
posed in the late fourth century, re-
corded the basic elements of the oath of
service that had been in use during the
Roman Republic and had remained vir-
tually unchanged up through the fourth
century. Soldiers swore to be faithful to
the emperor, never to desert from mili-
tary service, and not to refuse to die for
the good of the Roman State. However,
Vegetius’s Christianized text included an
additional clause in which soldiers
swore to carry out their duties by God,
Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
In addition to adapting the pagan traditions of Roman army religion
to fit within the new Christian paradigm, Constantine and his successors
also maintained the tradition of mobilizing public religious celebrations on
behalf of the soldiers in the field. Whereas pagan emperors held games and
dedicated new temples in order to gain the favor of the gods for their mili-
tary undertakings, Christian emperors invoked divine aid through Christian
rituals. Churches all over the empire were required to say prayers on behalf
of the emperor and his army while they were in the field. On one occasion,
during the campaign of his general Priscus against the Avars in 593, Em-
peror Maurice went to Hagia Sophia and personally led the prayers to God.
Military planners and officers of the Christian Roman army also rec-
ognized that battle standards had an important role to play as a focus of
unit reverence and pride for soldiers. The old battle standards and le-
gionary eagles were tainted by their association with the pagan gods. How-
ever, Christians had a perfect substitute in the symbol seen by Constantine
at the Milvian Bridge—the Christian cross. Over the course of the fourth
Religion and Spiritual Development: Ancient Mediterranean and Medieval West 449A knight of the
crusades in chain
mail kneels in
homage, his helmet
being held above
his head by
another, ca. 1275.
(Hulton Archive)