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Page 9.

Military Question

Some scholars suggest that the Sator Square had a military slant. They point to the fact that many of its exemplars have been found in a military context. My own feeling is that it originated in the farm lands of Latium, as a folksy aphorism, and was eventually cobbled into the five by five palindrome with which we are familiar.

But you know what? Roman soldiers of the Republic were originally farmers recruited to fight in their archaic tribal musters. The Republic ended 31 BCE with the accession of Octavian as Augustus, ruler of a monarchy in all but name just as the late Republic is often called by historians ‘an empire in all but name.’ Bottom line: finding some Sator Square exemplars in military settings is no surprise.

At least one exemplar was clearly found in a military context. Dura Europos (Fortress Europos) sat astride the Euphrates River, facing the growing threat of the Persian empire. Dating to 303 BCE, the fortress was destroyed in a major Roman defeat of 256–7 CE. Among the many inscriptions found in its ruins was a Rotas Square, now kept in a secure facility at Yale University where I had the privilege to see it on a table before me in 2009.

Most young men of ancient times were either farmers or fishermen. Given an agrarian or rural origin of the Sator Square, it is certain that most soldiers of the Classical age would have readily understood its meaning.

The Sator Square might have gained special meaning in a military context. For one thing, its message is one of discipline and personal responsibility. As a non-Christian slogan, it would have looked appropriate on the walls of a military installation.

There is at least one other feature that, probably coincidentally, gives it a military slant in the Roman mind. We have already mentioned that the Romans inaugurated (used augural methods) in laying out any public building, even a city. Roman colonial cities were laid out with a cardo (north-south axis) crossing a decumanus (east-west axis).

The same can be said of the standard Roman army camp. Early in their history, the Romans learned that, when on campaign, they must pitch a complete, fortified camp every night. That prevented them from being surprised by their enemies during the night, and enabled them to pick the time and place of their fights. Every Roman army camp was laid out in exactly the same formation as any other. The cardo and decumanus echo in the tenet-tenet cruciform at the center of the Sator Square.

Were there Christians in the army? It seems that the ordinary Roman soldier was well aware of them, though they probably did not see them as in any way distinct from other groups and sects of Jews in Judea. We learn from Matthew 8:8-13 that a Roman centurion (military officer) came to Jesus to ask that he heal the centurion's servant. This affirms that the Roman army was well aware of Jesus' ministry before Jesus was arrested, tried, and executed in Jerusalem. The Roman empire was policed by a regular army consisting of some 28 legions, numbering about 180,000 highly trained and disciplined soldiers. There were also allied and reserve units stationed permanently around the empire. That smallish force of professionally led and well equipped regulars could be moved at lightning speed between any two points in the far-flung empire, both by naval vessels, and by over 50,000 miles of all-weather military post roads. It is likely that, in time, some of the soldiers were Christians.

Was the Sator Square a kind of secret handshake spread by Christians? It's very unlikely, given what I have presented here. Also, Christianity spread like wildfire, and needed no secret handshakes.

Many non-Christians, including the government, held Christians in contempt and suspicion before the consolidated, sole rule of Constantine (by 324, when he convened the Council of Nicea). Constantine himself did not accept baptism until shortly before his death in 337 CE. He comes across as a mediator, not to mention a flawed personality in some ways, who worked hard to keep disparate factions in line across his sprawling empire.

Despite sporadic local persecutions and conflicts around the empire, Christians were building a powerful organization as early as the so-called Apostolic Age (c33-130, the lifetimes of the apostles who had personally known Jesus). The two greatest persecutions were under Nero (65) and Diocletian (303). In-between, the Christians built a formidable organization in the shadow of the Roman empire. Constantine eyeballed the church hierarchy of bishops, priests, deacons, and lay people as the best candidate for replacing the fading traditional state religion.

During the early empire, it is likely that Christians hesitated to enlist. Being a member of the military meant venerating the emperor as a god. Gradually, Christian bishops started to define more minutely what a Christian could or could not do under various circumstances. It is possible that Christians were allowed some dispensation by the government, under some circumstances. For example, there is the legend of the Theban Legion in the 3rd Century. This legend may contain some grains of truth. A legion of Coptic Christian soldiers were brought from Egypt to Agaunum, in Gaul, in support of Emperor Maximian against the Burgundians. For some reason, perhaps because the entire legion refused to worship at a shrine to the emperor, the entire legion was put to death. If this is true, then it would seem likely they had been released from the obligation at their home posting in Thebes, Egypt, and Maximian forced the issue when they arrived in Gaul. This is fairly credible on the face of it, since Maximian was singularly responsible, along with co-emperor Diocletian, for the great persecution of 303-305, just seventeen years in the future. The Roman empire had nearly come unglued during the turbulent years from the ascension of Commodus (180) to the recovery under Aurelian (270). Traditionalists like Maximian deeply abhorred Christianity, and longed for a return to the good old days of traditional Roman religion and peace in the Golden Age of Augustus.

During the Great Persecution of 303-305, the Augustus in the West (Constantius Chlorus, father of Constantine) was not implicated, according to Christian legend. Constantine became his Caesar, or assistant emperor, in 306, and declared himself Augustus in the West in 309 (with fervent army support). According to Christian legend, Constantius had sympathy for the Christians, and may secretly even have been one himself. Adding some feeble support to this unlikely notion is the fact that Constantius' true love, Helen, the mother of Constantine, is famous as one of the most devout and active Christians of the late empire.

A final reason why it is unlikely that the Sator Square had any special Christian significance in the army is that, when Christianity became the official and only tolerated state religion, there is no sign that this in any way elevated the Sator Square's significance. If anything, the palindrome seems to have vanished—sunk under the weight of history as the Western Roman empire finally and forever dissolved.

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