66. Moreover he shows his audacity against the great symbol,⁴⁴ which marches in procession along with the Cross, and leads the army, elevated on high, being both a solace to toil, and so named in the Roman language,⁴⁵ and king (as one may express it) over all the other standards, whatever are adorned with imperial portraits, and expanded webs in divers dyes and pictures, and whatever, breathing through the fearful gaping mouths of dragons, raised on high on the tops of spears, and filled with wind throughout their hollow bodies, spotted over with woven scales, present to the eye a most agreeable and at the same time terrible show. And when things about him were settled according to his mind, and he was, as he fancied, out of the reach of danger in his own vicinity, he then proceeds to what came next.

Ξ#2ʹ. Τολμᾷ δὲ ἤδη καὶ κατὰ τοῦ μεγάλου συνθήματος, ὃ μετὰ τοῦ σταυροῦ πομπεύει, καὶ ἄγει τὸν στρατὸν εἰς ὕψος αἰρόμενον, καμάτων λυτήριον ὄν τε καὶ κατὰ Ῥωμαίους ὀνομαζόμενον καὶ βασιλεῦον, ὡς ἂν εἴποι τις, τῶν λοιπῶν συνθημάτων: ὅσα τε βασιλέων προσώποις ἀγάλλεται, καὶ πεπετασμένοις ὑφάσμασιν ἐν διαφόροις βαφαῖς καὶ γράμμασιν, ὅσα τε δρακόντων φοβεροῖς χάσμασιν ἐμπνεόμενα ἐπ' ἄκρων δοράτων αἰωρουμένοις, καὶ διὰ τῶν ὁλκῶν ῥιπιζόμενα φολίσιν ὑφανταῖς καταστίκτων, ἥδιστόν τε ὁμοῦ καὶ φρικτὸν θέαμα προσπίπτει ταῖς ὄψεσιν. Ὡς δὲ εἶχεν αὐτῷ κατὰ νοῦν τὰ πλησίον, καὶ τοῦ ἐν χερσὶν, ὡς ᾤετο, κινδύνου κρείττων ἐγένετο, οὕτως ἤδη πειρᾶται καὶ τῶν ἑξῆς.