7. Alcuin. "Crux, decus es mundi, lessu de sanguine sancta [Carmen VI]," c. 790-800.
Published here in: Ernestus Dümmler, editor. Monumenta Germaniae historica inde ab anno Christi quigentesimo usque ad annum millesimum et quingentesimum. Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, tomus I. Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1881.
Davis Library Folio.

The Carolingian Frankish court of Charlemagne in the eighth and ninth centuries was quite consciously modeled on the fourth-century court of Constantine; it is no surprise then that Alcuin, the chief intellectual driving force of the court, would emulate Optatian's poetry. Here again one sees intexts in the form of the cross inside a diamond, and again the poem praises the Emperor and essentially declares him the second coming of Christ.