Catacombs_, p. 315, for a woodcut of the Good Shepherd with a lamb
over His shoulders, two sheep at His feet, a palm tree (or poplar)
on either side, and a Pan's pipe in His right hand; and also the
frontispiece for a reproduction from the Cemetery of St. Peter and
St. Marcellinus.

IX

1 This hymn, which first introduced into sacred song the trochaic
metre familiar in Greek Tragedy and the Latin adaptations of it,
supplies the Moz. Brev. with some stanzas for use during Holy Week.
The lines selected are 22-24, 1-21.

11 The use of the symbol _O_, (pronounced here as a single
syllable), appears to indicate that the names Omega and Omikron
came into use at a later date than Prudentius' time. In Rev. i. 8,
the best MSS. read _ego eimi to alpha kai to o_.

33 The words _vulnerum piamina_ are generally supposed to refer to
the "gifts which Moses commanded" to be offered by those healed of
leprosy (Lev. xiv. 2). If so, Prudentius' language may imply that
the cure was not actually complete until the offering of these gifts,
and is at variance with St. Matthew, viii. 43, "and forthwith his
leprosy was cleansed." Probably, however, his idea is rather that
the gifts to the priest formally marked the leper as a clean man.

71 Cf. note on iii. 199.

X

1 Parts of this hymn are used in the Moz. Brev. in the Office of the
Dead, being ll. 1-16, 45-48, 57-68, 157-168.

The burial rites of the primitive Church were simple, and marked by
an absence of the ostentatious expression of grief which the pagan
peoples displayed. The general practice of cremation was rejected,
partly owing to the new belief in the resurrection of the body, and
partly from a desire to imitate the burial of the Lord. At Rome,
during the first three centuries, the dead were laid in the
Catacombs, in which Prudentius took conspicuous interest (see
Translator's Note), but after 338 A.D. this practice became less
frequent, and was completely abandoned after 410 A.D. Elsewhere,
from the earliest times, the Christians purchased special enclosures
(_areae_), which were often attacked and rifled by angry mobs in the
days of persecution. The body was frequently embalmed (_cf._ ll. 51,
52), swathed in white linen (l. 49), an