The Crescent

In the year 340 B.C., when Philip of Macedon was besieging the city of Byzantium,--now Constantinople,--a light suddenly appeared, in the shape of a crescent, enabling the Athenian garrison to see and thwart the intended assault of the besiegers. In commemoration of this event, the Athenians erected a statue to Diana, goddess of the moon; and the crescent became the symbol of the state. The Turkish Empire adopted it immediately after the conquest of Constantinople in A.D. 1453.

The crescent is often used as an emblem of progress and success. It is seen at the present day on churches at Moscow, and elsewhere in Russia, surmounted with a cross to mark the Byzantine origin of the Russian Church, or, as some say, to symbolize the triumph of Russia over Turkey, the cross over the crescent.