true cross start appearing throughout the roman empire. >> our first evidence that fragments of the cross are being spread around the mediterranean is from the late 340s and 350s when we learn that people have taken pieces of the true cross over to the north african seaboard. >> if the tradition is correct, then that would only have been 20 years or so since its first finding that shows that physical particles of the true cross actually did spread out from jerusalem very, very early on. >> there must have been the discovery of wood by helena or someone for this trade in relics to have really boomed. >> this really becomes a new moment for christianity in which the cross becomes something that they are no longer afraid to talk about or to signify. >> before the cross is basically a symbol of defeat, a symbol of