THE OLIVE 113 



upon its healing qualities and its oil's well- 

 known property of calming roughened water, 

 was not only Grecian: it was wide-spread, and 

 the Romans used it politically as well as religi- 

 ously. Their heralds carried olive on an em- 

 bassy of peace, and the custom lingered in Italy 

 through the Middle Ages ; Dante describing how 

 the multitude ' Flock round the herald sent 

 with olive branch.' 



In Christian art the olive also invariably 

 represents peace or reconciliation, and it is first 

 found in the Catacombs, where there is a curious 

 painting of the mystic fish which swims towards 

 the Cross with a sprig of olive in its mouth. The 

 fish,by the well-known anagram, represents Christ, 

 who, through the Cross, brings peace on earth. 



A dove with an olive twig in its beak is also 

 found upon early Christian tombs. And then, 

 as Tertullian says, ' it is a symbol of peace even 

 older than Christianity itself ' ' — the herald of 

 the peace of God from the very beginning. 

 Sometimes the word itself, ' Pax,' ^ is added, 

 thereby marking the sense beyond all possibility 

 of dispute; viz., that it is meant to assert of the 



1 De Baptismo, c. viii. ^ See title-page. 



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