| CHRISTVS EST DEVS. Christ is God. | SPES IN EO. Hope in Him, i. e., in Christ. |
| Fig. 119.—Impressions of Early Christian Seals. | |
Other seals bear such pious mottoes as DEVS DEDIT—“God gave;” VIVAS IN DEO—“May you live in God;” SPES IN DEO—“Hope in God;” PEDE SECVNDO—“May you succeed happily.” Vast numbers of tiles bearing impressions of the die upon them are found, but these are merely the stamps of the imperial brick kilns, with the names of the reigning sovereigns.
Affecting memorials of domestic affection are found in the toys and trinkets of little children enclosed in their graves or affixed to the plaster without. The dolls in the following engraving strikingly resemble those with which children amuse themselves to-day. They are made of ivory, and some are furnished with wires, by
which the joints can be worked after the manner of the modern marionettes. The object in the upper left hand corner is a terra cotta vase with a narrow slit for receiving money, like the common children’s savings banks. Beneath it is an ivory ring. The other objects are small bronze bells, forming part of a child’s rattle. In the Catacomb of St. Sebastian was also found a small terra cotta horse of rude design, dappled with coloured spots.
Fig. 120.—Children’s Toys found in the Catacombs.
The human affections are the same in every age. These simple objects speak more directly to the heart than “storied urn or animated bust.” As we gaze upon these childish toys in the Vatican Museum the centuries vanish, and busy fancy pictures the weeping Roman mother placing these cherished relics of her dead babe in its waxen hands or by its side, as it is laid from her loving arms in the cold embrace of the rocky grave, and then, with tear-dimmed eyes, taking a last, long, lingering farewell of the loved form about to be closed from her sight forever.
Numerous toilet articles have also been found in the Catacombs, generally in the graves of the dead or cemented by the plaster to the tombs. Many of these have been plundered and lost; but still a very interesting collection
exists in the Vatican Library. Among its contents are long silver or ivory bodkins for the hair, combs of box or ivory, scent-bottles and boxes of perfume, broaches, earrings, bracelets, sometimes with keys to unlock the clasps, and other ornaments in bronze, silver, or gold.[654] The simpler manners of the Christian women, as compared with those of pagan faith around them, is indicated by the conspicuous absence of the rouge pots and jars of cosmetics, and many other articles of luxury, which formed so important a part of the toilet requisites of Rome’s proud dames, and which are so frequently found in the ruins of Pompeii. The Christian ornaments, moreover, even after the departure from the primitive simplicity of manners, were of a very different character from those of the corrupt civilization of paganism. Instead of the abominable representations of heathen art, suggesting every evil thought and stimulating every vile passion, of which so many examples occur in the Museum of Naples, only chaste and modest figures are found; and even the articles of the toilet are frequently adorned with pious mottoes. Thus, on a bodkin for a lady’s hair, probably a love-gift to a wife or betrothed bride, is engraved the beautiful sentiment, ROMVLA SEMPER VIVAS IN DEO—“Romula, may you ever live in God.” Such a religious art seems an anticipation of the day when “Holiness to the Lord” shall be written upon the bells of the horses.