The symbols found in connection with the funereal inscriptions are of three kinds; the larger proportion of these refer to the profession of Christianity, its doctrines and its graces. A second class, of a partly secular description, only indicate the trades of the deceased, and the remainder represent proper names: thus a lion must be read as a proper name, Leo; an ass, Onager; a dragon, Dracontius. Of the first kind the most usually met with is the monogram of Christ. The other symbols generally in use are the ship, the emblem of the church; the fish, the emblem of Christ, the palm, the symbol of martyrdom. The anchor represented hope in immortality; the dove, peace; the stag reminded the faithful of the pious aspiration of the Psalmist; the horse was the emblem of strength in the faith; the hunted hare, of persecution; the peacock and the phœnix stood for signs of the resurrection. Christ, as the good pastor, was also introduced in the epitaph. Even personages of the Pagan mythology were introduced, which the Christians employed in a concealed sense, as Orpheus, enchanting the wild beasts with the music (see page 701) of his lyre, was the secret symbol of Christ as the civilizer of men leading all nations to the faith. Ulysses, fastened to the mast of his ship, was supposed to present some faint resemblance to the crucifixion.
In classifying the Roman inscriptions, M. de Rossi has adopted the following divisions. The first comprises those inscriptions only which contain some express note of time, and are therefore susceptible of exact chronological arrangement. The second comprises the select inscriptions, viz.: first, sacred and historical ones, and next those which, either by testimony, by forms, or by symbols, illustrate the doctrines, the worship, or the morals of the Christians. The third, the purely topographical, assigns each inscription its proper place among the ancient localities of Rome. This comprises also inscriptions of unknown or uncertain locality, as well as inscriptions of spurious origin or doubtful authenticity.
In considering the chronological arrangements of Christian inscriptions, it is important to keep in view that in the earlier centuries the Christians kept note of time either by the years of the bishop, or by some of the civil forms which prevailed in the various countries in which they resided. In Rome the common date was that of the consular year. The common use of the Christian era as a note of time began, as is well known, later than the sixth century, at which M. de Rossi's series terminates. In M. de Rossi's collection one inscription bears date from the year A.D. 107, and another from 111. Of the period from the year 204, in which the next inscription with a date occurs, till the peace of the church in 312, twenty-eight dated inscriptions have been found; after the peace of the church the number of dated inscriptions increases rapidly. Between the accession of Constantine and the close of the fourth century, his collection contains 450 dated inscriptions, and the fifth century presents about the same number; but in the sixth, the number again declines, that century producing little more than 200.
In those cases where no note of time is marked, M. de Rossi has availed himself of other chronological indications and tests, founded on the language, on the style, on the names, and on the material execution of the inscription, in determining the date. Out of the 11,000 extant Roman inscriptions anterior to the seventh century, M. de Rossi finds chronological evidence of the date of no fewer than 1374.
There are also varieties in inflection, such as "spiritu sancta" for "spiritu sancto," "pauperorum," for "pauperum," "vocitus" for "vocatus," "requiescent" for "requiescunt," etc.
There are also new or unusual terms, or new familiar words in new or unusual meanings, such as "pausavit, rested, bisomus, trisomus, quadrisomus," holding two, three, four bodies; compar and conpar (husband and wife); fecit for egit, passed; "percepit," received, scil. baptism, as also "consecutus est," in the same sense, etc.
Sometimes Latin is written in Greek characters and sometimes Greek in Latin.
The age is expressed by "vixit," or "vixit in sæculo," "annos" (or "annis") "menses," "dies" (or "diebus") ——, with the number of hours sometimes stated. Sometimes "qui fuit" stands for "vixit;" sometimes neither is expressed, and we have the form in the genitive, "sal. annorum," etc.
Frequently the time passed in married life is mentioned, and we find such phrases as "vixit mecum, duravit mecum, vixit in conjugio, fecit mecum, fecit in conjugio, fecit cum compare," with a precise statement of the number of years, etc., and often with some expression marking the happiness of the couple's married life.
The epithets applied to the deceased indicate strong affection, and the eulogies are sometimes extravagant.