The Garden of Cyrus

...to which Xenophon describes his splendid plantation at Sardis, translated by Strebæus as: "Trees placed at equal intervals, in straight rows, and everything very beautifully arranged in the form of a Quincunx original Latin: Arbores pari intervallo sitas, rectos ordines, & omnia perpulchre in Quincuncem directa.." We shall take this for granted, as it was similarly translated by the most refined Latin authors; it was not a newly invented term, but was already in use by the ancient writer Varro. This means the rows and arrangements were so neatly disposed—or five trees so set together—that a regular pattern of angles and a clear view through the trees was left on every side. It owes this name [Quincunx] not only to the group of five trees The "five-point" pattern seen on the face of a die, but to the figure representing that number; when this shape is doubled at the angle, it forms the letter X, which is the significant decussation term: decussation — An intersection or crossing in the form of an X, or fundamental figure. ❦ NOW, although in some ancient and modern practices the area or crossed plot might be a perfect square—similar to a Tuscan pedestal or the "five-point" original: "Quinquernio or Cinque-point" on a die, where the intersection of diagonal lines is regular and suitable for planting large trees (an arrangement we should certainly utilize)—we will mainly focus on the description by Curtius and Porta. In their brief account, the crossing original: "decussis" is made within a rectangle original: "longilateral square", with opposite angles (sharp and blunt) at the intersection. As this pattern repeats, it forms a rhombus or lozenge shape, which seems very consistent with the original figure. In line with this, we see these crossed characters on many Roman consular coins, and even on those of Constantine and his sons, which were supposedly modeled after a pattern seen in the sky A reference to the Emperor Constantine’s famous vision of a cross in the heavens before battle. The cross-bearing banner displayed this shape—not as a simple cross or right-angled intersection, but as a decussation, after the form of a St. Andrew’s or Burgundian cross, which fits this description. ❦ ON this point, we will skip the well-worn ancient topic of crosses and crucifixion; some of those crosses were upright and made of a single piece without a crossbar original: "transversion or transome", which doesn't really help our study of the Quincunx. Nor will we include the mystical Tau A T-shaped cross or the Cross of our Blessed Savior, which, according to some descriptions, had a footrest original: Empedon and therefore was not a single simple crossing. And, since the learned scholar Lipsius has even doubted the shape of St. Andrew's cross—given that some histories of the martyrs record his death using the general term "cross," while Hippolytus claims he died by the sword—we have enough evidence to support the commonly accepted...