/\ I iVrx A ^^'i'"'^*-'* "ame is copied from jMait- / ^■^y^/ A l''i"<'i P- 1*^*'> ''""I was originally / n/j\ taken from the Lapidarian (iallerv.
/I \/\ \ '^ '^^ " ^"^^ '" '"*^^"'^''"^*^'* '" t'l'* PP'-
' \^\y ' taph refer to the well-known pas-
Read : " Tasnris [a sages in the Apocalypse : their man's name! — in continued use jiroves the general reception ol' that book as a part of the insjiired canon. The a and It) [see article on Ai.i'Ha] are men- tioned by I'rudcntius as well as by Tertullian, who regarded them as mysteriously containing the signi- ficntion that in Christ rest the lie- giuning and end of iill spiritual life (IM monof/ram. c. s.). From the ig- norance of the sculptor, the entire .symbol was sometimes inverted, as in tlie opposite figure (also from
Maitland, p. 167). A change was afterwards
made by the decussation (as it is technically 11 j J
termed) of the X, by which the figure of a | ^:i,
cross was produced. Having once arrived at ^L~\ [?Ty
this happy coincidence, the monogram re- 1^^
mained stationar3^ Its simple outlme, thus Jl chiselled on a grave-stone (from the Lapi-
darian Gallery), or
accompanieil by the
misplaced letters. \\ Qj
or even converted into " Psr," as if for Psristoo D-M-N
ELI V. IV ASA
.vp.
Christ, the first and the last.'
SORICIO. Read: "To onr great God— Eliasa to Soricuis, in Christ."
was in course of time ornamented with jewels ; and the monofjramma gemmatum took its place as a work of art among Christian bas-reliefs of the 4th century. The best specimen in the Lapidarian Gallery Jlait- land asserts that he accurately copied, and it is here reproduced: the jewels are only in marble, but they represent the real gems often lavished u))on the ancient cross. It is asserted by some antiqua- rians that the monogram was not used until the time of the emperor Constantine, and that, as is gen- erally believed, it was first seen by him in the so greatly celebrated miraculous vision, which resulted in liis conversion to the Christian relig- ion. An epitaph, such as the subjoined, discovered by Bosio, may be well assigned to that time, when the mot- to " In hoc vinces" might have become common : IN HOC VINCES
SINFONIA ET FILIIS V • AN • XLVIII M • V • D IIII
"In this thou shalt conquer— In Christ. Sinfonia, r.lso for her sons. She lived forty-eight years, five months, and four days."
The next is contained in Odcriei :
IN ^ VICTRIX
which probably signified,
" Victrix [a woman's name], victorious in Christ."
I But the epitaphs of Alexander and Marius, martyrs under Adrian and Antonine, also exhibit the monogram ; " and though," saj's Maitland, " they do not appear to have been executed at the time, they contain strong marks of belonging to a period of violent persecution." Gaetano jMarini, however, asserts that the earliest mon- ogram belongs to the year 331, i. e. six years after the Council of Nice.
A cut from a stamp of Bokletti. The P (r) of the monngrara also serves as a p in the words sjiesDcf. It is to 1)6 read, "My hope is iu God Christ."
The only resemblance to the monogram used bv the
INSCRIPTIONS
609
INSCRIPTIONS
heathen was the cerauniiim ^i^,or symbol of lightning. The Egyptian cross appears to be an abbreviation of the Nilometer,
t
CELIX • ET CEREALIS • PATKI • BENE^M • QVI • VIXIT • ANNLS • LXXXV • M • VIII • D • V DORMIT IN PACEM.
Transhite— " The mark of Christ. Celix and CereaHs to their deserving father," etc.
For the assertion that the monogram was a symbol of martyrdom, and signified "for Christ," there seems to be not the least authority. In many inscriptions we read, however, in ^ ; ^^ i"
IN ^ ASELVS D. '•'Aselus sleeps [or is buried] in Christ."
Prudentius informs us that the name of Christ, "writ- ten in jewelled gold, marked the purple labarum, and sparkled from the helmets" of the army of Constantine ; but this is, in all probability, only a poetical fiction (Li- ber i, contra Symmachum). Only in the later inscrip- tions, as far down as the Jliddle Ages, as in a Cologne inscription (Centralm. 100), are found the words inHium et Jini!i. The monogram with the two letters is there sometimes surrounded by a circle or a wreath. The symbols, however, were used more frequently than any other, and of these the fish {jx^ixS). which is often found in different forms upon the same stone, was no doubt suggested by the initials which it contains of the for- mula 'h/crovf Xpiffnic, Qiov Tioc, ^lorlip (Jesus Christ, Son of God, the Saviour), a sentence which had been adopted from the Sibylline verses. " Moreover, the pho- netic sign of this word, the actual fish, was an emblem whose meaning was entirely concealed from the uniniti- ated— an important point with those who were sur- rounded by foes ready to ridicule and blaspheme what- ever of Christianity they could detect. Nor did the ap- propriateness of the symbol stop here. 'The first,' ob- served Tertullian, ' seems a fit emblem of him whose spiritual children are, like the offspring of fishes, born in the water of baptism.' " Sometimes the word ix^vQ was expressed at length, as in the two following (Lap- idarian Gallery) :