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 S28 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chaf. erations. Then these pictures extend beyond the Bible, and draw subjects from the Apocryphal Gos- pels and Acts ; they tell the whole story of the Vir- gin's life and parentage, and complete the circle from the stories of the great company of angels, saints, and martyrs. The fourth and fifth centuries made the beginning. Thereafter the series continued to expand, while custom and authority tended to order it and to keep the methods of representation in accord with tradition. The most impressive of these church mosaics are the symbolic scenes from the Apocalypse which regu- larly glorify the apse and the triumphal arch. The scenes of the nave were taken from the Old Testament or from the earthly life of Christ; they represent prophets or other Church heroes in the guise in which they lived on earth. Whenever these appear in the apse, they are shown in their state of future glory, and so harmonize with the apocalyptic character of apse decorations. The central figure of the apse and the triumphal arch is Christ represented in human form or under the symbol of the Lamb. But the lamb is not the symbol of the Saviour's earthly life, nor in any way related to the Good Shepherd of the cata- combs; it is the Lamb of the Apocalypse. And in general, while the symbolism of the catacombs sets forth the saving power of Christ as exerted through the believer's earthly life and in the hour of death, this symbolism sets forth the triumph of the Lamb that was slain and the final coming of the Kingdom of God. No less marked than the extension of the circle of