[403] A. D. 234. De Rossi, Inscript. Christ., No. 6. (See [Fig. 52].) Of course, there may have been many earlier whose precise date we cannot determine.
[404] In later art, indeed, the figure sometimes occurs on baptismal fonts, in mosaics, and in architecture, but probably as a mere ornament, without any religious meaning. In Byzantine art it is unknown except as a natural representation, for example, of fish swimming in the water, or, in frescoes of the last judgment, as restoring human limbs which they had devoured, illustrative of the passage, “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it.”—Rev. xx, 13.
[405] Piscis nomen, secundum appellationem Græcam, in uno nomine per singulas literas turbam sanctorum nominum continet ‘ΙΧΘΥΣ,’ quod est Latinè, Jesus Christus, Dei Filius, Salvator.—Optat., Cont. Parmen., lib. iii.
[406] Orat. Const. ad Cœt. Sanct., § 18.
[407] De Civ. Dei, xviii, 23.
[408] Pædag., lib. iii, cap. ii. The symbol also occurs in a Christian Catacomb at Alexandria, and at Cyrene, in Upper Egypt.
[409] The Jewish Christians of that city would be already familiar with this mode of coining significant titles, which is illustrated in the name of their national heroes, the Maccabees, said to be made up of the initial letters, מָכָבִּ ;י, of their battle cry, מִי־כָמֹכָה בָאֵלֹהים יְהֹוָה—“Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?”
[410] Nos, pisciculi secundum ΙΧΘΥΝ nostrum Jesum Christum, in aqua nascimur, nec aliter quam in aqua permanendo salvi sumus.—De Baptismo, cap. i.
[411] Hic (sc. Christus) est piscis qui in baptismate per invocationem fontalibus undis inseritur ut quæ aqua fuerat a pisce etiam piscina vocitetur.—Epis. Milevitanus. The piscina is now the basin in which the sacred vessels are washed.
[412] See chaps. vi and xi.