d placed in a coffin; vigils
and hymns continued for three or four days, but hired mourners were
forbidden (l. 113), and instead of the dirges of the heathens,
chants expressive of triumphant faith were sung as the body was
carried to the grave, where a simple service was held, and evergreens
and flowers were strewn about the tomb (ll. 169, 170). The earliest
inscriptions are often roughly scratched on plaster, and consist
merely of a name and age, or simple words like--

GEMELLA DORMIT IN PACE

but later (cf. l. 171), they were engraved on small marble slabs.

25 In both thought and language this stanza, as vii. 16 _et seq._, is
evidently reminiscent of Horace (_Sat._ 2, ii. 77): _Quin corpus
onustum_, etc.

"The Body, too, with Yesterday's excess
Burthened and tired, shall the pure Soul depress,
Weigh down this Portion of celestial Birth,
This Breath of God, and fix it to the Earth."
(Francis).

51 Boldetti, in his work on the Catacombs (lib. i. cap. 59), says
that on many occasions, when he was present at the opening of a
grave, the assembled company were conscious of a spicy odour
diffusing itself from the tomb. Cf. Tertullian (_Apol._ 42): "The
Arabs and Sabaeans knew well that we consume more of their precious
merchandise for our dead than do the heathen for their gods."

57 Prudentius' firm faith in the resurrection of the body is also
nobly expressed in the _Apotheosis_ (ll. 1063 _et seq._):--

"_Nosco meum in Christo corpus resurgere; quid me
Desperare iubes? veniam, quibus ille revenit
Calcata de morte viis: quod credimus hoc est._

* * * * *

_Pellite corde metum, mea membra, et credite vosmet
Cum Christo reditura Deo; nam vos gerit ille
Et secum revocat: morbos ridete minaces:
Inflictos casus contemnite; tetra sepulcra
Despuite; exsurgens quo Christus provocat, ite._"

_Translation._

"I know in Christ my body shall arise;
Why bid me, then, despair? for I shall go
By that same path whereby my Lord returned,
Death trodden 'neath His feet: this is my creed.
Banish, my limbs, all terror; and believe
That ye with Christ our God shall yet