Volume 1

A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood.

Date:
[between 1890 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    21/1096 (page 1)
    A DICTIONAEY OP CHEISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. A A AND n AAEON P /! T A and W. (See Rev. xxii. 13.) Of these symbolic letters the w is always given in the minuscular form. The symbol is generally com- bined with the monogram of Christ. [Mono- j GRAM.] In Boldetti’s Osservazim,i sopra i ciiniteri, I &c. Rom. 1720, fbl. tav. iii. p. 194-, no. 4, it is j found, with the more ancient decussated mono- j gram, on a sepulchral cup or vessel. See also i De Rossi {Inscriptions, No. 776), where the letters ai'e suspended from the arms of 1 the St. Andrew’s Cross. They j are combined more frequently with the upright or Egyptian monogram. Aringhi, Eom. Subt. vol. i. p. 381, gives an engraving of a jewelled cross, with the letters suspended by chains to its horizontal arm, as below. And the same form occurs in sepulchral inscriptions in De Rossi, Inscr. Chr. Eom. t. i. nos. 661, 666. See also Boldetti, p. 345, and Bottari, tav. xliv. vol. i. The letters are found, with or without the monogram, in almost all works of Christian antiquity; for instance, idght and left of a great cross, on which is no form or even symbolic Lamb, on the ceiling of the apse of St. Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna, circ. a.d. 675. They were worn in rings and sigils, either alone, as in Martigny, s. v. Anneaux, or with the monogram, as in Boldetti, ms. 21-31, 30-33. On coins they appear to be first used imme- diately after the death of Constantine. The earliest instances are an aureus nummus of Con- stantins (Banduri, v. ii. p. 227, Numismata Imp. Eormtnorum, &c.); and another golden coin bear- ing the effigy of Constantine the Great, with the words “ Victoria Maxima.” Constantine seems not to have made great use of Christian em- blems on his coin till after the defeat of Lici- nius in 323, and especially after the building of Constantinople. (See Martigny, s. v. Eumis- matique.') The use of these symbolic letters amounts to a quotation of Rev. xxii. 13, and a confession of faith in our Lord’s own assertion of His infinity CHRIST. ANT. U) and divinity. There is one instance in Martial {Epig. V. 26) where A, Alpha, is used jocularly (as A 1, vulgarly, with ourselves) for “chief” or “ first.” But the whole expression in its .solemn meaning is derived entirely from the words of Rev. xxii. 13. The import to a Christian is shewn by the well-known passage of PruJentius {Hymnus Omni Bora, 10, Cat/iemerinon, ix. p. 35, ed. Tubingen, 45):— “Corde natus ex parentis ante mundi exordium, Alpha et D cognominatus, ipse fons et clausula, Omnium quae sunt, tuerunt, quaeque post fulura sunt.” The symbol was no doubt much more frequently used after the outbreak of Arianism. But it a'‘- pears to have been used before that date, from i^s occurrence in the inscription on the tomb raised by Victorina to her martyred husband Heraclius in the cemetery of Priscilla (Aringhi, i. 605). It is here enclosed in a triangle, and united with the upright monogram. See also another in- scription in Fabretti (Inscr. antiq. explicatio, Rom. 1699, foL), and the cup given in Boldetti from the Callixtine catacomb, tav. iii. no. 4, at p. 194. From these it is argued with apparent truth that the symbol must have been in use before the Nicene Council.’* No doubt, as a con- venient symbolic form of asserting the Lord’s divinity, it became far more prominent after- wards. The Arians certainly avoided its use (Giorgi, De Monogram. Christi, p. 10). It is found on the crucifix attributed to Nicodemus (Angelo Rocca, Thesaurus Pontificiarum, vol. i. 153, woodcut), and on a wooden crucifix of great antiquity at Lucca (Borgia, De Cruce Veliterna, p. 33). For its general use as a part of the monogram of Christ, see Monogram. It will be found (see Westwood’s Palaeographia Sacra) in the Psalter of Athelstan, and in the Bible of Alcuin ; both in the British Museum. [R. St. J. T.] AAEON, the High Priest, commemorated “ Boldetti: “Quantoallelettere.\andoj,nonv’hadubbio che quei primi Cristiani le presero dall’ Apocalisse.” He goes on to say that it is the sign of Christian, not Arian, burial; and that Arians were driven from Rome, and excluded from the Catacombs. Aringhi also protests that those cemeteries were “ baud unquam heretico schis- maticoque commercio pollutae.”