238 HAUPT— GOLGOTHA. 



Hadrian (117-138) by a temple of Adonis; but the inn at Bethle- 

 hem, where Jesus is said to have been born, must have been near 

 the road from Jerusalem to Hebron, northwest of Bethlehem, not 

 in the southeastern corner of the village (Monist, 30, 158, n. 35). 



A rock-cut tomb under the Hadrianic temple of Venus was 

 assumed to be the tomb of Christ. In another cavity of the rock, 

 280 feet to the east, three crosses were found, which were supposed 

 to be the crosses on which Christ and the two thieves were crucified. 

 One of the crosses had miraculous power: a crippled old woman 

 stretched on it was cured. Constantine built a magnificent church 

 over the place where the crosses had been discovered, and a smaller 

 church over the reputed Holy Sepulcher. A hill between the two 

 churches was supposed to be Mount Golgotha. The Basilica of the 

 Holy Cross is no longer extant. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher 

 was destroyed repeatedly; the present building was erected in 1810. 



The discovery of the Holy Sepulcher and the two churches built 

 by Constantine are described by the Father of Church History, 

 Eusebius of Csesarea (c. 260 -c. 340) in his Life of Constantine; 

 but this biography is untrustworthy. Later writers attribute the 

 discovery of the Holy Cross to Constantine's mother, St. Helena, 

 who was, according to St. Ambrose, an inn-keeper ( stabularia ; RE^ 

 7, 616, 26). Constantine the Great was the illegitimate son (EB^^ 

 16, 988^"; RE^ 10, 759, 21) of St. Helena and Constantius Chlorus, 

 the co-regent of Diocletian. In 289 Constantius married Maxi- 

 mian's step-daughter. In his Life of Constantine, Eusebius also 

 relates that the emperor saw in the sky at noonday a flaming cross 

 with the legend 'Ev tovtw vtKa (In hoc signo vinces) whereas other 

 contemporaries state that this sign was seen in a dream. Under 

 Constantine the cross, which is an ancient pre-Christian symbol, be- 

 came the emblem of Christianity. 



St. Helena's discovery of the Holy Cross, which is first men- 

 tioned by Rufinus who died in 410, is commemorated on May 3. 

 Since 1895 the name of this festival in the Diario Romano is no 

 longer Invention {Invenzione) of the Holy Cross, but Rediscovery 

 (Ritrovamenfo) of the Holy Cross, because according to an older 

 legend the true cross was found under Tiberius who died in 37 a.d. 



