nce adorned our own country,
bore public testimony to the faith of its inhabitants, and recalled
to the minds of passers-by the sufferings of their Saviour, had not
been too rudely treated in the first heat of religious and political
frenzy! For some ancient representations of the cross see the learned
work of Dr. Rock on the mass. I shall content myself with noticing an
interesting instance, which he has not mentioned. At Pompeii the house
of Pansa, as it is called, is one of the most remarkable yet excavated
on account of its extent and regularity. Some parts of it were used
as shops, and appear to have been let out, (as is still the custom in
some palaces of Rome): for they have no communication with the body
of the building. Between two parts thus separated is an entrance from
a side street to the peristyle or open court surrounded by columns;
and on the pier between the two doors is, or rather was a painting
representing one of the guardian-serpents or tutelary deities, who
were sometimes represented under that form, as we occasionally see
at Pompeii, and as we learn from Virgil (lib.) V. Hence as we see
in Titus' baths and are informed by Persius, a place was considered
sacred, in which serpents were painted. Indeed these reptiles became
such favourites, that, according to Seneca, they used to creep upon
the tables amid the cups: and some ladies so far overcame natural
prejudices, as to place real serpents, if not boas, round their necks,
to cool them, instead of using artificial boas to warm themselves.
"Si gelidum nectit collo Glacilla draconem" says Martial. Before the
serpent painted in Pansa's house is or was a projecting brick intended
to support a lamp: the painting in consequence of its situation could
be seen only by persons within the house: but upon the opposite wall
there is or was a cross worked in bas relief upon a panel of white
stucco, so situated as to be visible to all persons passing. It had
the form of a Latin cross, which, we may observe, as well as the Greek
cross: is found upon ancient Christian monuments; though of course
we cannot bring forward other instances so ancient as the monument
in question. (See Rock p. 516). "It is hard to conceive", says the
learned Mazois, "that the same man should bow at once before the cross
of Christ, and pay homage to Janus, Ferculus, Limetinus, Cardia, the
deities of the threshold, and the hinges of doors. Perhaps at this
time the cross was of a meaning unk