ey the idea that he was put to death on a cross of the _form_
adopted by Christians. This cross was the symbol of _life_ and
_immortality_ among our heathen ancestors (see Chapter XXXIII.), and in
adopting _Pagan religious symbols_, and baptizing them anew, the
Christians took this along with others. The crucifixion was not a symbol
of the _earliest_ church; no trace of it can be found in the Catacombs.
Some of the earliest that did appear, however, are similar to figures
No. 42 and No. 43, above, which represent two of the modes in which the
Romans crucified their slaves and criminals. (See Chapter XX., on the
Crucifixion of Jesus.)

[520:2] According to the Matthew and Mark narrators, Jesus' head was
_anointed_ while sitting at table in the house of Simon the leper. Now,
this practice was common among the kings of Israel. It was the sign and
symbol of royalty. The word "_Messiah_" signifies the "Anointed One,"
and none of the kings of Israel were styled the Messiah unless anointed.
(See The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth, p. 42.)

[521:1] Josephus: Antiquities, book xviii. ch. iv. 1.

[522:1] Josephus: Antiquities, book xviii. chap. iii. 2.

[522:2] "From the death of Herod, 4 B. C., to the death of Bar-Cochba,
132 A. D., no less than _fifty_ different enthusiasts set up as the
Messiah, and obtained more or less following." (John W. Chadwick.)

[522:3] "There was, at _this time_, a prevalent expectation that some
remarkable personage was about to appear in Judea. The Jews were
anxiously looking for the coming of the MESSIAH. This personage, they
supposed, would be a _temporal prince_, and they were expecting that he
would deliver them from Roman bondage." (Albert Barnes: Notes, vol. i.
p. 7.)

"The central and dominant characteristic of the teaching of the Rabbis,
was the certain advent of a great national Deliverer--the MESSIAH. . . .
The national mind had become so inflammable, by constant brooding on
this one theme, _that any bold spirit rising in revolt against the Roman
power, could find an army of fierce disciples who trusted that it should
be he who would redeem Israel_." (Geikie: The Life of Christ, vol. i. p.
79.)

[522:4] "The penalty of _crucifixion_, according to Roman law and
custom, was inflicted on slaves, and in the provinces _on rebels only_."
(The Martyrdom of Jesus, p. 96.)

[522:5] Judas, the _Gaulonite_ or _Galilean_, as Josephus calls him,
declared, when Cyrenius came to tax the Jewish p