ON THE CROSS (On Easter; On the Tree of Life). - A poem of 69 hexameters, found among the works of Tertullian (PL, 2, 1113 ff.) or Cyprian (ed. Hartel in CSEL, III, pp. 305-308). It sings of the wood planted on Golgotha (virga de radice Jesse, Is. 11:1), which has become the great tree of life. At its foot lies the fountain (a symbol of Baptism).
BIBL.: M. Manitius, Gesch. der christl.-latein. Poësie bis zur Mitte des 8. Jahrh., Stuttgart 1891, pp. 116 ff.; C. Weyman, in Historisches Jahrbuch der Görresgesellschaft, 28 (1907), p. 174; ibid., 31 (1910), p. 389. Erik Peterson