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Roma sotterranea
Giovanni Battista de Rossi, James Spencer
Northcote , William - R . Brownlow
D & so 1.4-
OME
COMP.
I ROMA SOTTERRANEA
OR
3ME ACCOUNT OF THE ROMAN CATACOMBS
ESPECIAllY OK THE
CEMETERY OF SAN CALLISTO
COMPILED FROM THE WORKS OF COMMENDA TORE. DE ROSSI

WITH THE CONSENT OF THE A UTIIOR
I1Y
REV. J. SPENCER NORTHCOTE, D. D.
PRESIDENT OF ST MARY's COllEGE, OSCOTT
AND
REV. VV. R BROWN LOW, M.A.
TRINITY COllEGE, CAMBKIUCE
LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYER
1869
[All righis of Translation resen'cd\
1 46212
• /Is
EDINBURGH
--1NTKD P.V Mlla»TVH,A»Dco«M»y,
pall's wokk.
PREFACE
THE interest which the Roman Catacombs have

excited in the minds of our countrymen, espe
cially of those who have visited the Eternal City, has
long made us wish to present them with that most full
and accurate information upon the subject which is
contained in the Roma Sotterranea of De Rossi.
Two courses were open to us ; either to bring out
a translation from the Italian original, or to embody in
a work of our own the most interesting and important
facts which those volumes contain. The first would
have been incomparably the easier, and in some
respects the more satisfactory course. But the size
and cost of such a work would have put it entirely
beyond the reach of many whom we were most anxious
to benefit. We therefore decided on the plan adopted
in the volume which we now introduce to our readers,
and which, we believe, will be found to contain as fair
a summary as its dimensions would allow— not only of
De Rossi's two volumes of Roma Sotterranea, published
in 1864 and 1867,—but also of many articles in his
bi-monthly Bullettino di Archcologia Cristiana, of
papers read by him before learned societies in Rome
and elsewhere, and of his occasional contributions to
iv Preface.
works published by others, such as the Spicilegium

Solestnense of Cardinal Pitra, &c.
It was our intention at one time to have drawn up a
tabulated statement, showing the exact portion of De
Rossi's works from which each part of this had been
compiled ; but as those works are unhappily without
indices, and the intention referred to was not enter
tained when first this volume was taken in hand, some
three or four years ago, it was found that the benefit to
be derived from such a statement would not be likely to
repay the labour of drawing it out. Nevertheless, it has
been thought worth while to retain a number of refer
ences in the notes, wherever they happened to have been
preserved in our MSS., and either related to some mere
obiter dicta which might easily have been overlooked
even by persons who had studied the original, or
belonged to some of those minor works which we
have enumerated, and which are not so generally
known as the larger works of our author.
A more important omission, which will be regretted
by many of our readers, requires a word of explanation.
We allude to the Inscriptions on the grave-stones of the
Catacombs. But this was too large a subject to be
disposed of satisfactorily at the end of a volume already
longer than was desired. Moreover, it would hardly be
fair, either to the subject or to our author, to handle
this question until the second volume of Inscriptioncs
Christiana?, on which he is at present engaged, shall
have been published. That volume will contain all the
Christian inscriptions of Rome which bear upon Chris
tian doctrine and practice ; and should the present
attempt to put the fruit of De Rossi's wonderful dis
coveries in the Catacombs within the reach of English
readers meet with sufficient encouragement, a similar
Preface. v
epitome—already begun —of his labours in the fields of

Christian epigraphy will soon follow.
In the arrangement of this volume, we have followed,
in the main, the order of De Rossi himself; but to those
to whom the subject is altogether new, we should re
commend a certain departure from this order. They
would do well to postpone the perusal of the Introduc
tion, or Literary History of the Catacombs, until they
have first read Books I. and II., which contain an
account of their origin and real history. Then the
Introduction would form a suitable link between the
general treatment of the subject in Books I. and II.,
and the more minute examination of one particular
cemetery (San Callisto), which forms the subject of
Book III. Book IV., on Christian Art, is, of course,
complete in itself. The last two chapters of it are, in
great part, taken from the works of Bosio and of Padre
Garrucci. Even here, however, we are indebted for
many important additions and corrections to the works
of De Rossi. Book V. is compiled from that part of
the Commendatore's volumes which was contributed
by his brother. It is a development, partly of the last
chapter in Book I., and partly of the second chapter
in Book III., of this volume. We suspect that to many
of our readers this Book will seem dry and tedious,
in spite of the assistance of the numerous plans and
sections by which we have illustrated it ; yet, the study
of it is certainly indispensable to those who would go
thoroughly into the matter, and satisfy themselves
as to the solidity of the foundation on which De Rossi's
conclusions rest. Its special value lies in the fact of
its being an examination of the subterranean excava
tions themselves, which arc made to bear testimony to
the successive periods of their own construction, and
vi Preface.
thus its conclusions are drawn from a source quite

independent of those historical documents which have
been the main guide of Gio. Battista de Rossi in all
his labours in this field of Christian archaeology.
We have prefixed a chronological table and a list
of the Catacombs according to their ancient appella
tions and their position on the various roads out of
Rome, which we hope may assist our readers in forming
a clearer notion both of the history and geography of
the cemeteries referred to in the course of the work.
Finally, it may be well to add that, although both
Editors are jointly responsible for the whole volume,
the first portion, to the fifth chapter of Book IV., is
mainly the work of Dr Northcote ; the remainder of
the text, and Note C in the Appendix (on St Peter's
Chair), is the work of Mr Brownlow.
Easter Tuesday, 1869.

LIST OF PLATES
AT THE END OF THE VOLUME.
The foiges refer to the passages where they are daeribed or alluded to.
Plate. Page
I. Damasine Inscription found in Papal Crypt (See Plan L1
Atlas Be 4), . . . . . 147
II. Copy (probably by Pope Vigilius) of Damasine Inscription
to St Eusebius, found in his Crypt (Atlas, D^ 1), . 170
III. The same, as originally set up by St Damasus, . . 170
IV. Fresco of Moses, from a cubiculum near to Area VI., . 248
V. Fresco of Saints Cornelius and Cyprian in the Crypt of St
Lucina (Atlas D/< 3), . . . . . 181
VI. Ceiling of cubiculum near the above ; painting of Second
Century ; representing in the centre Daniel between the
lions, and in the corners the Good Shepherd alternately
with a female orante, which is probably the Blessed
Virgin (on the walls of this same chamber are painted
Plate XIV. 1, and Figs. 14 and 19), . . . 255
VII. Fresco of Jonas, ....... 244
VIII. Frescoes from Bosio : (1) Good Shepherd and the Blessed
Virgin with Birds (Bosio, p. 387) from cubiculum in
Cemetery of Saints Peter and Marccllinus, . . 255
(2) Noe, from Cemetery of St Agnes (Bosio, p. 449), 241
IX. Do. : (1) Lazarus from Cemetery of Saints Peter and Mar
ccllinus (Bosio, p. 359), .... 247
(2) Three Children from Cemetery of St Hermes
(Bosio, p. 565), . . . . .245
X. (1) The Blessed Virgin Mary and the Prophet Isaias, Fresco
of Second Century in a cubiculum of St Priscilla, . 258
(2) The Adoration of the Magi, from Cemetery of Saints Peter
and Marcellinus, a Fresco of the Third Century, . 257
viii List of Plates.
Pine. Page
XI. (1) Sacrifice of Isaac, from cubiculum A3, Fresco of Second
Century, . . . . . 270
(2) Our Lord under the symbol of Orpheus, from ceiling of
cubiculum Ls, same age, . . . 199
(3, 4) Fossors painted on either side of the doorway of cubi
culum A4, Third Century, .... 272
XII. (1) The Smitten Rock and the Fisher of Souls, from cubi
culum A=, Second Century, .... 265
(2) The same subjects, from cubiculum A„ . . . ib.
(3) Paralytic carrying his Bed on the same wall with 2, . ib.
XIII. The Eucharistic Feast, from cubiculum A3, where it is
painted between XI. I and XIV. 3, forming one com
position with them, ..... 269
XIV. (1) Symbol of Holy Eucharist, from the same cubiculum in
Cemetery of St Lucina as Plate VI., . . . 224
(2) Eucharistic Symbols, from cubiculum A3, . . 214
(3) Sacrifice of the Mass symbolically depicted in cubiculum
A, (see XIII.), . . . . .266
XV. Papal Crypt, as it must have appeared in the time of St
Damasus, restored by De Rossi from fragments found
in the Crypt itself, . . . . . 147
XVI. Christ and the Apostles under symbol of Good Shepherd,
painted in the lunette of an arcosolium, probably to
wards end of Third Century, in the same cubiculum
with Plate IV. (see Atlas, Area VII. 3), . . 237
XVII. (1) Bronze Medal of Saints Peter and Paul, of First or
Second Century, found in Cemetery of St Domitilla, . 284
(2) Gilded Glass of St Peter as Moses, in Vatican Library, 287
XVII I. Gilded Glasses from the Catacombs :—
(1) Blessed Virgin between Saints Peter and Paul, in Pro
paganda Museum, ..... 285
(2) St Agnes with two Doves, in Vatican Library, . . 286
XIX. Saroophagus found at St Paul's on Via Ostiensis, now in
•Lateran Museum, ..... 300
XX. Sarcophagi with Pagan Sculptures used by Christians in
ages of persecution :—
(1) Dolphins, Epitaph of Longlianus, buried on the 6th of
April, . 297
(2) Orpheus and Fisherman ; my sweet Furia, holy soul, . 300
Atlas—A description will be found at the end of the Volume.
LIST OF WOODCUTS.
Fig. PaKe
t. General view of the Gallery of a Catacomb with Grave!, . 26
2. Plan of arenaria immediately above the Catacomb of St Agnes, 28
3. Plan of part of that Catacomb from Padre Marchi, . . 29
4. General appearance of an arcosolium, . . . .30
5. Table-tomb, called also sepolcro or locuh a uiatsa, . . 30
6. Chamber in Catacomb of St Agnes, with Chairs and Bench cut
out of the solid tufa, . . . . -3i
7. A luminare giving light to two Chambers in Catacomb of Saints
Marcellinus and Peter, . . . . -34
8. Sepulchral Stone found in a Catacomb on Via Latina, having
engraved upon it the Monogram, the Fish, and Good Shep
herd, —explained in page 213, -55
9. View of entrance to Cemetery of St Domitilla, Via Ardeatina, . 71
10. Fresco of Vine on Ceiling of Cemetery of St Domitilla, First
Century, ....... 72
11. Remains of Fresco of Daniel in Cemetery of St Domitilla, First
Century, ....... 73
12. Painted Chamber in Cemetery of St Pretextatus, Second Century, 79
Epitaph of St Januarius by Pope Damasus, . . .80
13. Stone (having a Lamb, Dove, and Anchor engraved on it) which
still closes a loculus in a very ancient part of the Lower Gal
lery of Area of St Lucina, . . . . .82
14. Two Sheep with Milk-pail, in cubiculum of St Lucina, (described
in p. 225), ....... 103
15. Sarcophagus, with inscription, O Blastiamts, peace with thee! a
form of Epitaph similar to the very ancient ones in St Pris-
cilla, found in very ancient cubiculum of St Lucina, adjoin
ing that described in p. 225, .... 109
Epitaph of Pope Cornelius, . . . . .118
16. Fresco of the Baptism ofour Lord in the cubiculum described under
Fig. IS "9
Epitaphs 'if Popes Si Anthems, St Fabian, St Lucius, and St
Eutychianus, . •. i37
X List of Woodcuts.
fig. Paec
17. Statue of St Cecilia, by Maderna, who had seen her body incor
rupt in 1599, . . . . 157
iS. Inscription (with Monogram and Doves) oh an arcosolium in the
Cemetery of St Soteris, ..... 166
19. Fresco of Doves from the cubiculum in which is Fig. 14, First or
Second Century, . . . . . .185
20. Fresco of Good Shepherd in centre of Ceiling of the adjoining
Chamber, . . . . . . 201
21. Epitaph from very ancient part of Catacomb of St Priscilla, . 207
22. Another Epitaph from the same, . . . . 213
23. Frescoes of Gospel Stories illustrating the Holy Eucharist, from
Catacombs of Alexandria, ..... 221
24. Sepulchral Stone from ancient Christian Cemetery at Modena, . 223
25. Fresco of Lamb with Palm and Milk-pail, being one of those in
each of the four cornel's of a cubiculum in Saints Peter and
Marcellinus, ...... 225
26. Fresco of Lamb with Shepherd's Crook and Milk-pail, from very
ancient part of Catacomb of St Domitilla, . . . 225
27. Different forms of the Cross and Monogram of Christ, . . 230
28. Sarcophagus found in Crypt of St Lucina, with Monogram of
Tyranio, and Sculpture representing Ulysses and the
Syrens, . . . . . . . . 232
29. Inscription found in Crypt of St Lucina, with Doves plucking
at Grapes. There is an error towards the end, of N
. for II, as the original runs SAB15ATIAOVEVIXI
1ANNIIIAENSV, evidently the work of a stone-cutter
ignorant of letters, and intended for Sabbatia qu/c vixit ami.
Hi., mens. v. ; "Sabbatia, who lived three years and five
months," ....... 238
30. Sculpture of Elias being taken up into Heaven, in Lateran Mu
seum, ....... 250
31. Fresco of the Madonna and Child in Catacomb of St Agnes, early
part of Fourth Century, ..... 257
32. Sarcophagus with Pagan Good Shepherd, and Cupid and Psyche
found beneath the floor of cubiculum (J1 (Atlas, V>e 7), in
San Callisto, described in p. 298, . . . .261
33. Gilded Glass, with Saint Peter as Moses, in Vatican Museum, . 287
34. Fragments of Glass Paten found at Cologne, a.I>. 1864, . . 290
35. Sarcophagus, still containing the body of a man, ornamented with
unfinished figure of the deceased, veiled and clothed in tunic
and pallium, with a roll of a book in his hand, and a box of
books at his feet—described in p. 299. At either end is a
shepherd with a dog. This and two other sarcophagi, like
wise containing bodies, were found in the cubiculum, where
Ihey now are, close to the staircase in Area VII. (Atlas,
(>2), . . . . . . 294
List of Woodcuts. xi
Fig. Pa;e
36. Sarcophagus representing the Passion, in Lateran Museum, of
Fourth or Fifth Century, ..... 307
37. Spandrils of arches on Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, a. n. 359, . 312
38. Glass in the Vatican Library, representing Christ between Sts.
Peter and Paul ; also Christ as the Lamb, and the Faithful
as Lambs—Jews and Gentiles coming from Jerusalem and
Bethlehem (liicle) to Mount Sion, whence flow the four
Evangelical Streams, united in the Mystical Jordan, . 31b
39. Part of Wall of Gallery of St Hermes, .... 323
40. Section of Gallery in St Hermes, .... 323
41. Section of Gallery supported by brickwork, . . . 324
42. Plan of part of Catacomb of St Priscilla, . . . 329
43. Gilded Glass in the Louvre Collection, representing St Callixtus, 332
44. Section of the Cemetery of St Callixtus, .... 336
45. Plan of principal Area of St Callixtus, in the First Period of
Excavation, ....... 340
46. Elevation of outer Wall of Ambulacrum C in it, . 341
47. Elevation of inner Wall of Ambulacrum A, . . 342
48. Second Period of Excavation, ..... 343
49. Third Period : Connexion with Arenarium, . . . 345
50. Section of Secret Staircase into Arenarium, . . . 347
51. Fourth Period of Excavation : Union with a second Area, . 349
52. Fifth Period : Galleries made when old ones were filled with
earth, . . -353
53. Section of Galleries, ...... 353
54. Last Period of Excavation : Works of St 1 >amasus, . 354
.55. St Peter's Chair, ....... 389
ERRATUM.
In page 37, Note (*),fa!. Tacitus Hist. iii. 65, 75, read Dio Cass. Hist.
Ixxii. 4.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
The dates of the Popes' accession are given, and the pl.ice of their burial according to the Liber
Pontificalis ; the dates of the Emperors arc only proximately exact.
ROMAN EMPERORS. A.D. POPES. PLACE OF BURIAL.
NERO. First Persecution, . 67 PETER, In Vaticano juxta Palatium

Neronianum.
GALBA. OTHO. VITEI.LIUS, LINUS, Juxta corpus B. Petri in Vaticano.
VESPASIAN. FallofJerusa
lem! ..... 7"
TITUS
DOMITIAN, .... Si79 CLETUS, Juxta corpus B. Petri in Vaticano.
93 CLEMENT, In Grcrcia, {i.e., in the Crimea.]
NERVA, 9''
TRAJAN <t3
103 ANACLETUS, Juxta corpus B. Petri.
1 10 EVARISTUS, Juxta corpus B. Petri in Vaticannm.
HADRIAN, ALEXANDER. Via Xonteutana, milliario VII.
1»720 SIX TUS I., . Juxta corpus B. Petri in Vaticanum.
Juxta corpus B. Petri in Vaticano.
'..7 TELESPHORUS, Juxta corpus B. Petri in Vaticano.
ANTONINUS PIUS, . <i HVGINUS, .
143 PIUS I., Juxta corpus B. Petri in Vaticano.
if AN1CETUS, . In ctentet rio Callixti X) see page 141.
M. AURELIUS, .
169 SOTER, . In ccrmeterio Callixti Via Appia (?)
sec p ige 141.
177 ELEUTHERUS, Juxta corpus B. Petri in Vatican*.
COMMODUS, 1 So Juxta corpus B. Petri in Vaticano.
SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS, »93 VICl'OR, in ccrnteterie suojuxta ccrni. Callixti
197 ZEPHYRINUS, Via Appia.
CARACALLA, all In cormeterio Calepodii, via Aurelia,
MACRINUS, aiS CALLIXTUS,
milliario III.
HF.LIOGABAI.US. 218 In ccrmeterio Prcrtextati, Via Appia.
ALEXANDER, . 22a URBAN I . . In ccrmeterio Callixti, after being
130 PON ITAN US, brought back from Sardinia.
MAXIMIN, . 235 ANTHEROS, In ccrmeterio Callixti. Via Appia.
2 /> FABIANUS, . in ca-mcterio Callixti, Via Appia.
GORDIAN, . 238
PHILIP, 244 In crypto, juxta ccrmet. Callixti, in
DECIUS, 250 CORNELIUS, prcrdio B. Lucime.
GALLUS, 253 LUCIUS. in ccrmeterio Callixti, Via Appia.
VALERIAN, . 254 STEPHEN. . In ccrmetcrio Callixti, Via Appia.
257 SIXTUS II.,. In ccrmeterio Callixti, Via Appia.
GALLIENUS, 155 DIONYS1US, In ccrmeterio Callixti. 1 'ia Appia.
CLAUDIUS II., . 268 FELIX, . In basilica Via A urelia milliario II.
AURELIAN. . a 70 In ccrmeterio Callixti, Via Appia.
TACITUS, FLORIAN, PRO 274 EUTYCHIANUS,
BUS I In ccrmeterio Callixti, Via Appia.
NUMERIAN CARINUS, 283 CAIUS, .
DIOCLETIAN, . »84 In ccrmeterio Priscillcr, Via Solaria,
290 MARCELLINUS, in cnbiculo claro.
GALF.R1US MAXIMIAN. 303 MARCELLUS, . In ccrmeterio Priscillte, Via Solaria.
CONSTANTINE MAXEN 309 EUSEB1US, . In ccrmeterio Callixti in crypto.
TIUS, In ccrmeterio Callixti in crypta.
3" MELCHIADES, .
Edict of.IfHan, 31a Peace given to the
Church. Via Solaria, milliario III., in ccrmc-
CONSTANTINE. SYLVESTER, terio Priscillee, \in basilica.]
LIST OF CEMETERIES, MENTIONED IN ANCIENT HISTORICAL
RECORDS, ON THE VARIOUS ROADS.
GREATER CEMETERIES. LESSER CEME ! CEMETERIES

TERIES ;
ROADS. Constructed afta
Primitive Name*. Names in 4th Century, Orf Isolated Tombs of ! the Peace of thi
Time of peace Martyrs. Church.
fLucinse, r ! S. Xysti- 27. Soteridis.
APPIA, ! S. Ca:ciliac-
V Hippolyti, I SS. Xysti ct Curnclii.
< I S. Januarii.
I SS. Urbani, Felicissimi
2. Prxtextati, 1 Agapiti. Januarii, ct
(QuirinL
SS. Tiburtii, Valeriani,
et Mftximi-
3. Ail Catacnmba*. f I S. Sebastiani.
S. PetroniHae. 38. Balbiux si
ARDEATINA, 4. DomitilUe, ' SS. Pctronilhc, Nerei. S. Marci.
( I ct Achillei. 39. DamasL
5. Basilei, I SS. Marci ct Marcel-
I liani.
OSTIENS1S. . 6. Cnmmodilla:, j SS. Felicis ct Adaneti 28. Sepulcrum Pauli j
Apostoli 111 [radio I
Lucina;.
29. Coemcterium Timo-
thei in horto Theo-
nis.
io. Ecclesia S. Thec'a:.
31. Ecclesia S. Zenonis
SS-
7. Pontiani ad ursum f S- Anastasii, pp.Abdon et Scnneti. Julii via P<
PORTVENSIS, pile.ttum, . . 1 S. lnnoccntii, pp. tuensi, m
iii , S. Fe
cis via l'u]
AURELIA, . S. Pancratii. tuensis.
^S. Process! S. Felicis v
9. Lucina;, . l I tiniani. Aurelia.
j S. Agatha: ad Giuiium.
m. Calepndii, J 1 S. Callisti via Attrelia.
( I Julii via Aurelia.
CORNELIA, . j2. Memoria Petri Apos
toli et sepultura:
epi.scoponun in Va
ttcano.
KLAMINIA. . 11 S- Valentini.
CLIVUS CU-i 12. Ad Septcm Columbas, Ad caput S. Joanni
CUMEKIS, i
SAL ARIA VE-1 r ' S. Hermetis,
TVS, j 13. Basilla?, . > j SS. Hermctis, Basil ;
I Proti, et Hyacinthi.
14. . S., Pamphyli.
SALARIA 15. Maximi, . , S. Felicitatis. 33. Ecclesia P. HHaria
NOVA. . , in horto ejusdcni.
34. Crypta SS. Chry
santi ct Darix.
35. Ccemeterinm Novellas.
List of Cemeteries\ &c. xv
List of Cemeteries— Continued.
GREATER CEMETERIES. LESSER CEME CEMETERIES

TERIES;
ROADS. Constructed afu-r
Primitive Names. j Names in 4th Century, )rt Isolated Tombs of the Peace of the
Time of Peace. Martyrs. Church.
16. Tbrasonis, S. Saturnmi.

S. Alexandri.
17. Jordanoi 11111, SS. Alexandri, Vitalis
ct Manialis et VII.
Virginum.
18. Priscillx, . S. Silvestri.
S. Marcelli.
N'OMENTANA, 19. Ostrisnum vel Os Ad Nymphas majus.
Oemeterium
S. Petri.
36. Ccemeterium S. Al
liens in ejusdem
I triani, Fontis S. Petri. ageHo.
37. Coemeterium S. Nt-
comedis.
lIIiURTINA. 70. . S. Hippolyti.
21. Cyriaca:, . S. Laurentii.
S. Gorgonii. 42. In Comitatu
LABICANA, 22. Ad Dims Iâuros. SS. Petri et Mnrccllini. sive
S. Tiburtii. SS. Quatuor
23 . S, Castuli. Coronatonim.
1 S. Gordiani.
SS. Gordiani et Epim-
LATINA, achi.
SS. Simplicii et Servi
liani, Quarti ct
Quint!, et Sophix.
25. . . . S. Tertullini.
26- Apromani, S. Eugenia:.
CONTENTS.
— —
INTRODUCTION.
PART I.
Page
Modern Authors. —Roma Sotterranea—Its discovery—Visited in
fifteenth century by Franciscan friars— and by Pomponio Leto
and his companions— In 1578 visited by Baronius—Researches
of Ciacconio, I)e Winghe, and Macarius—Bosio—His life and
labours—Immense learning and industry—His labour in the Cata
combs and its danger—Posthumous publication of his Roimi Sot-
terranea, and its success— Its value and general arrangement —Sad
destruction of antiquities in Catacombs—At length prevented by
the Popes—Protestant notices of Catacombs—John Evelyn—Bur
net and Misson— Fabretti custode of Catacombs—Succeeded by
Boldetti—Works of Boldetti, Buonarrotti, Marangoni, and Bottari
in eighteenth century—Christian Museum in the Vatican—D'Agin-
court, his work and devastations—Padre Marchi—De Rossi—
Follows system of Bosio— His sources of information, . . I
PART II.
Ancient Records. —The Martyrologium Hieronymianum— Its value
and antiquity—Almanac of Furius Dionysius Filocalus—Inscrip
tions of Pope Damasus—Liber Pontificalis—Martyrologies—Acts
of martyrs, their importance even when of doubtful authenticity
—Itineraries of pilgrims in seventh century—Papyrus list of olea'
at Monza in time of St Gregory the Great, . . 17
BOOK I.
ORIGIN OF THE CATACOMBS.
CHAPTER I. —General Description. —Position and extent of
Catacombs—Their number and names- -Their origin and purpose,
and distinctions from sand-pits or nrotnria—Explanation of terms
Contents. xvii
Page
—Different kinds of tombs—The Catacombs as places of pilgrim
age until the relics were removed—Their abandonment and re
discovery in sixteenth century, . . . . -25
CHAPTER II. - Social and Religious Position of the First
Roman Christians. —The Roman Church in Apostolic times
comprised among its members persons of noble rank, Greeks and
Jews—Scattered notices of them in Pagan authors—The Flavii—
Flavins Clemens, the consul and martyr—Flavia Domitilla —
Pomponia Grecina— Their political position—At first confused
with the Jews, and protected as a sect of a legalised religion—
Proscribed by Nero—First persecution—Domitian—Nerva—Tra
jan and Pliny—Insecure position of Christians even under tolerant
princes, . . . . . . • 35
CHAPTER III. —Roman Laws and Customs affecting Burial.
—Christian sepulchres protected by the ordinary privileges of
Roman tombs—Even in times of persecution— Roman burial-
places readily adapted for Christian cemeteries—Their size and
appurtenances—Catacombs originally limited by the size of the
superincumbent area, as in St Lucina—Funeral confraternities in
Rome, fheir rules and customs—Might easily have been made use
of by Christians as a safeguard— Instance of this having been done
—First edict expressly against Christian cemeteries by Emperor
Valerian, . . . . . . . -45
CHAPTER IV.—Beginning of the Catacombs. —Roman burial-
places, extra-mural—Their character as contrasted with Christian
cemeteries—Jewish Catacombs—Christians did not bum their dead,
but buried them entire—First Christian cemeteries small and pri
vate—Examples of these very early cemeteries, . . 5°
BOOK II.
HISTORY OF THE CATACOMBS.
CHAPTER I. —The Catacombs in the First Ages. —Apostolic
origin of some of the Catacombs— Papal crypt on the Vatican—
St Paul's on the Via Ostiensis—St Priscilla on the Via Salaria—
Cemetery of Ostrianus or Fons Petri—Signs of antiquity—Ceme
tery of St Domitilla—Its description—Entrance and arrangement
—Character of its paintings—Evidences of Apostolic antiquity—
Description of the very ancient cemetery of St Pretextatus on the
Via Appia—Its architecture — Tomb of St Januarius—His epitaph
in Damasinc characters—Tomb of St Quirinus—Catacomb of St
Alexander on the Via Nomcntana, ....
xviii Contents.
Page
CHAPTER II. —From the beginning of the Third Century
to Constantine's Edict of Peace, a.d. 312. —Public Christian
cemeteries—Cemetery of St Callixtus— Under the pontificate of
St Zephyrinus—Burial-place of the popes—Other public ceme
teries—Edict of Valerian against the Christian cemeteries—Mar
tyrdom of St Sixtus II. and St Laurence—Cemeteries restored to
Pope Dionysius—Necessity of concealment—Christians attacked
in cemeteries—Martyrdoms in them—Used as hiding-places—
Their condition from Aurelian to Diocletian—Confiscated by the
latter, and restored by Maxentius to St Melchiades—Parishes or
titles of Rome—Each had its own cemetery—Their ecclesiastical
administration—Reflections upon this portion of their history, . 83
CHAPTER III. —From the Edict of Milan to the Sack of
Rome by Alaric, a.d. 410.—Gradual disuse of subterranean
cemeteries—Basilicas of the martyrs—Care of St Damasus for the
Catacombs—His labours and inscriptions—Catacombs as places
of pilgrimage—Described by St Jerome—Also by Prudentius—
Scene on the festa of a saint—Damage caused by indiscreet devo
tion and private interment—Rapid disuse of Catacombs as burial-
places—Total cessation after a.d. 410, . . . -95
CHAPTER IV. —From a.d. 410 until their Final Abandon
ment. — The Catacombs abandoned as burial-places — Still fre
quented as shrines—Profaned by the Goths under Vitigcs, a. I>.
537—Repaired and cared for by the popes—First translation of
relics from Catacombs, a.d. 756, by Paul I. —Afterwards by
Paschal I. and other Popes—Final abandonment of Catacombs—
Origin of the name Catacomb, ..... 104
BOOK III.
CATACOMB OF ST CALLIXTUS.
CHAPTER I. —Irs Discovery and Identification.—Pre-emi
nence of the Via Appia, both in Pagan and Christian Rome-
Its cemeteries and shrines described by ancient writers—Those
in or near the Catacomb of St Callixtus—Basilica of St Sebastian
—The temporary resting-place of the bodies of St Peter and St
Paul—Their translation—Erroneous medieval inscriptions in the
Catacomb beneath this basilica—Proof that the Catacomb of Si
Callixtus is not there— Discovery of the crypt of St Cornelius—
And of the Papal crypt, . . . . . .110
CHAPTER II. —Distinction of the several tarts of the
Catacomb of St Callixtus.—Difficulties of mapping the Cata-
Contents. xix
P.1Re
combs—Overcome by Michele de Rossi—Several different araz of
cemeteries originally independent— Crypt of St Lucina—Belonged
originally to the Gens Cxcilia—Who was St Lucina ?—Charac
teristics of this area —The central area of St Callixtus—Another
area subsequently added to it—Cemeteries of St Soteris and of
St Balbina, . . . . . . .120
CHAPTER III.—The Papal Crypt.—Its entrance— Graffiti on the
plaster—Of three kinds—Mere names—Prayers and pious ejacu
lations — Invocations of saints—Their antiquity—Examination of
the crypt itself—Ancient altar— Original epitaphs of popes of third
century—Iiurial of bishops at that period —Rarely, but sometimes
away from their own churches— Popes buried in this cemetery—
Zephyrinus— Urban I. —Pontianus—Anteros— Fabian—Lucius—
Eutychianus—Sixtus II. martyred in Catacomb of St Pretextatus
—Inscription of Pope Damasus concerning it— Has been erro
neously applied to St Stephen—Caius—Traces of Diocletian per
secution in this cemetery—Tomb of St Melchiades—Inscription by
Pope Damasus in Papal crypt—Vast number of martyrs men
tioned in itineraries not improbable, . . . . 130
CHAPTER IV. —Crypt of St Cecilia. —General appearance of
this chamber—History of St Cecilia—Her martyrdom and burial
—Her body discovered and translated by Paschal I. —Found in
corrupt, K.V>. 1590—Examined by Cardinals Baronius and Sfron-
drati—Statue by Madema from the body itself—Critical examina
tion of the crypt—Its discovery and excavation— Its paintings and
other decorations— Identification of the tomb of St Cecilia, by in
scriptions and graffiti—Verification and correction of the Acts
of St Cecilia—Alterations made in the crypt— Saints depicted on
its luminare% . . . . . . . 151
CHAPTER V.—Epitaph of St Eusebius.—Crypt of St Eusebius
— Fragments of a Damasine inscription found there—Which had
been restored in the sixth or seventh century— Inscription explained
—Its importance as supplying a lost page of history of the ponti
ficate of St Eusebius, . . . . . .166
CHAPTER VI.—The Sepulchre of St Cornelius. —Inscription
to Saints Parthenius and Calocerus—Labyrinth connecting the
cemetery of St Callixtus with the crypts of St Lucina— Family of
St Cornelius— How his epitaph came to be in Latin instead of
Greek—His sepulchre described— Damasine inscription there,
and also one by Pope Siricius, restored by De Rossi—Fresco of
St Cornelius and St Cyprian, its date and peculiarities— Another
of St Sixtus and St Optatus— Pillar near tomb of St Cornelius—
Graffiti on the plaster, . . . . . . 175
XX Contents.
BOOK IV.
CHRISTIAN ART.
Page
CHAPTER I.—Antiquity and Original Tvtes of Christian
Art.—Opinions of D'Agincourt, Raoul Rochette, and others on
the antiquity of Christian paintings—De Rossi claims a very high
and even apostolic antiquity for many of the frescoes in the Cata
combs—Protestant testimony to the same effect—The birth of
Christian art— Its progress checked by persecution— Explanation
of the canon of the Council of Elvira against pictures in churches
—Means of distinguishing the dates of paintings—The nimbus, its
introduction and prevalence—Letters on garments—The mono
gram— Evidence from style, and choice of subject, locality, &c.
—Sketch of early history of Christian art— In apostolic times—
Christian artists by no means confined themselves to Pagan
models, as was supposed, from the discovery of two Gnostic ceme
teries—Christ represented as Orpheus and the Good Shepherd—
Division of our subject, ...... 186
CHATTER II — Symbolical Paintings. — Symbolism explained—
Rules for interpreting symbolical representations and their abuse
—The anchor a symbol of hope— Sheep and dove of living and
deceased Christians—Uove joined with other symbols—The fish :
its symbolical use confined to ages of persecution— A symbol both
of Christ and of a Christian—Origin of its use as symbol of Christ
—Instances of its use by the Fathers in this sense and in monu
ments of art—Used with a ship, a dove, or an anchor—Fish and
bread (St John xxi.) explained of the Holy Eucharist by St Au
gustine and the rest of the Fathers—Confirmed by epitaphs of St
Abercius and of Autun, and by monuments of art—Similar paint
ings in a Catacomb of Alexandria— Summary of evidence on this
subject, and importance of conclusion— Holy Eucharist symbolised
by milk in very ancient frescoes, as in acts of St Perpctua and by
St Augustine—The cross : its different forms and disguises—The
monogram: its successive modifications, .... 202
CHAPTER III.—Allegorical Paintings—Parables of our Lord
give the key to many of these paintings—e.g., The vine—The wise
and foolish virgins—The Good Shepherd : its frequency and va
rious forms—Explanation of Plate XVI., . . . 233
CHAPTER IV.—Biblical Paintings.—Subjects taken from holy
Scripture are but few in number, and confined in mode of treat
ment ; being, in fact, symbolical rather than historical—Noe in
the ark typical of baptism, not copied from Pagan type—Jonas
and the fish a type of the resurrection—The ivy or gourd—Daniel
Contents. xxi
in the den of lions, and the three children—Adoration of the

Magi —Moses striking the rock, and the resurrection of Lazarus
—Moses taking off his shoes—These subjects probably chosen by
ecclesiastical authority, ...... 239
CHAPTER V. — Paintings of Christ, His Holy Mother, and
the Saints.—Historical paintings extremely rare in Catacombs—
No real portrait of Christ, or of the Blessed Virgin— A bust of our
Lord described by Kiiglcr—The saints generally represented pray
ing —The Blessed Virgin as an orante in Catacomb paintings, sculp
tures, and glasses—Sometimes, perhaps, as a figure of the Church
—Remarkable fresco of her in Catacomb of St Agnes—She is fre
quently represented with the adoration of the Magi, who are nearly
always three—Very ancient painting of the Blessed Virgin and
Child with Isaias, in Catacomb of St Priscilla—Its date of the
second century—Other paintings of Our Lady, St Joseph, &c., . 251
CHAPTER VI.— Liturgical Paintings. —Liturgical paintings are
necessarily very rare—Remarkable series of them in cubicula near
the papal crypt—Made in second and third century—Description
of them—Explained by Tertullian—Baptism under figures of
smitten rock, a fisherman, and the paralytic carrying his bed —
Holy Eucharist—Consecrating priest clothed in pallium only—
Church represented by a woman praying—Answers to objections
—Sacrifice of Isaac explains the companion scene—Resurrection
of Lazarus forms a conclusion to the series—Jonas—Painting of
teachers and of fossors—Series probably drawn out by authority
—Other liturgical paintings in Catacomb of St Priscilla, . . 262
CHAPTER VII.—Gilded Glasses found in the Catacombs.—
Various articles found in the Catacombs—Gilded glasses in Vatican
Museum—In England and elsewhere—Description of these glasses
—Their discovery by Bosio and others—Two found recently at
Cologne—The art of making them known only in Rome, and
practised there only in the third and fourth centuries— Subjects
depicted on them—Pagan—Social and domestic—Jewish—But
most frequently Christian— Description of some of these—Bibli
cal subjects—Figures of saints—Most favourite subject is Saints
Peter and Paul—Probably used at the feast of these apostles,
which was very solemnly observed at Rome in the fourth century
—Eighty glasses have these apostles on them— Inscriptions round
them— Ancient portraits of the apostles—Valuable bronze medal
of them found in cemetery of St Domitilla—They are variously
represented on glasses—Sometimes to symbolise the Roman
Church with St Agnes and other saints—St Peter under the type
of Moses, illustrated by sarcophagi and fresco paintings—Large
xxii Contents.
pateme, with small medallions let into the glass—Whether these

glasses have been used for chalices ?—Glass patens and their use
in the third century, . . . . . .27
CHAPTER VIII. —Christian Sarcophagi. —Christian use of sar
cophagi dates from apostolic times —Tomb of St Pelronilla and of
St Linus—It was not a common mode of burial—During the ages
of persecution, Christian subjects were not sculptured on sarcophagi,
for obvious reasons—But Christians selected from Pagan shops those
subjects which suited them—Pastoral scenes—The Good Shepherd
—Instances of such subjects as Cupid and Psyche, and Ulysses
and the Syrens—Orpheus, &c. —The sarcophagi in the Lateran
Museum—Large one from St Paul's described and explained : re
presentation of the Holy Trinity—The fall—The adoration of the
Magi—Christ giving sight to the blind—Eucharistic symbols—
Resurrection of Lazarus—St Peter in three scenes—Daniel among
the lions, and the prophet Habacuc—Small .statues of the Good
Shepherd—Sarcophagus, with history of Jonas, Noe, and other
subjects—Sarcophagi, with Cain and Abel, the fall, and St Mary
Magdalene—Cover with sheep carrying cinmbellc—Sarcophagus
which once contained the relics of the Holy Innocents, having
figures of Mary and Lazarus, St Peter's denial, Moses receiving
the law, the sacrifice of Isaac, St Peter as Moses, Daniel, heal
ing of the blind and paralytic, and Zaccheus— Sarcophagus with
labanim, and scenes from the Passion—Sculpture of the Agape—
Sarcophagus under a canopy, representing Christ in glory, sur
rounded' by the apostles, St Peter's denial, the smitten rock, and
Noli me tangerc—Sculpture of Elias ascending into heaven—The
pallium—The Nativity—Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, its date,
and the subjects on it, especially the lambs in the spandrils of
the arches—Statue of St Hippolytus—Of the third century—His
anion paschalis—Note on the comparative frequency of the various
subjects sculptured, . . . . . . 2c
BOOK V.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE CATACOMBS THEMSELVES.
CHAPTER I.—Testimony of the Catacombs to their Chris
tian Origin.— Scope of this part of the work—Catacombs used
as burial-places by none but Christians—Pagan inscriptions in them
accounted for—Their Christian origin first vindicated by Padre
Marchi—First proof : the nature of the rock in which the Cata
combs are excavated—The various volcanic strata of the Roman
Contents. xxiii
Page
Campagna—Second proof : the form of the Catacombs as con
trasted with that of pozzolana quarries—Instance of arenarium
converted into the Catacomb of St Hermes—Grounds of the theory
of their Pagan origin stated and examined—Meaning of the term
crypto: arenariat—Examination of passages in ancient records
which seem to identify the arenaria with the Catacombs, viz., in
the case of—I. St Cornelius—2. The Quattro Coronati—3. Saints
Chrysanthus and Daria—4. St Crescentianus in cemetery of Pris-
cilla—5. St Hippolytus, &c., on Via Appia. —These apparent
exceptions prove the rule, . . . - 317
CHAPTER II.—Testimony of the Catacombs to the mode
of their Construction and Development.—Scope of this
chapter—Locality of Christian cemeteries, and distance from the
city—On high ground—Excavated in tufa granulare—Systems of
galleries, each horizontal, though in different fiats, one below
another—Section of geological strata—Mode of excavation—Dif
ferent periods to be distinguished in the area in which are the
crypts of the Popes and of St Cecilia—First period—Second period:
level of galleries lowered—Third period : a deeper piano tried,
signs of necessity for concealment, connexion with arenarium—
Union with a second area previously distinct-—Fourth period : ar-
cosolia—Fifth period : earthing up of galleries during the Diocletian
persecution—Sixth period : formation of small galleries upon this
earth—Last period: works of St Damasus—Recapitulation and
application to development of catacombs generally, . . 333
CHAPTER III. —Analytical Description of the Plan of the
most important Area of the Catacomb of St Callixtus, 360
APPENDIX.
Note A. —The finding of the body of St Hyacinth (p. 15), . . 379
Note 15. —The Acts of St Cecilia (p. 22), .... 387
Note C—St Peter's Chair (p. 68), . . . . .388
1. Description of the Chair in the Vatican.
2. Historical Notices of it.
3. Another Chair of St Peter in the Cemetery of Ostri-
anus.
4. The two Feasts of St Peter's Chair.
Note D. —Burial near the sepulchres of saints (p. 102), . . 399
Note E. —Altars in the primitive church (Ii. 184), . . . 401
Note F. —The origin of the pallium (p. 310), . . . 404
Note G. —Description of the Atlas accompanying this volume, . 406
INDEX, . -4°9
INTRODUCTION
TO
ROMA SOTTERRANEA:
ITS LITERARY HISTORY.
PART I.
MODERN A UTHORS.
ON the last day of May, a.d. 1578, some labourers, Discovery,

who were digging pozzolana in a vineyard (now the A'D' '
property of the Irish College) on the Via Salaria, about two
miles out of Rome, came unexpectedly on an old subterra
nean cemetery, ornamented with Christian paintings, Greek
and Latin inscriptions, and two or three sculptured sarco
phagi. The discovery at once attracted universal attention,
and persons of all classes flocked to see it. " Rome was
amazed," writes a contemporary author, " at finding that
she had other cities, unknown to her, concealed beneath
her own suburbs, beginning now to understand what she had
before only heard or read of:" and "in that day," says De
Rossi, " was born the name and the knowledge of Roma Of Roma Sot-
Sotterranea." terranea-
It is true that the man who was destined to be the first
thoroughly to explore and describe this city of the dead, was as
yet only three years old ;* but even then there were not want
ing men whose learning and industry sufficed to keep alive the
* Bosio, Rom. Sott., p. 511.
A
2 Literary History of Roma Sotterranea.
newly enkindled flame of love for Christian antiquities. Nearly

one hundred and fifty years before, and at various intervals
during half a century, the same, or at least precisely similar,
objects had been seen in another vineyard on the opposite side
of the city; but those who saw them were either men of reli
gion, attracted by motives of piety, or men of learning, with
enthusiasm only for what was Pagan. Among the first class
must be reckoned certain Franciscan friars, whose visits to the
Catacomb of St Callixtus between the years 1432 and 1482
are recorded by scribblings on the walls of two or three cubicula
in one quarter of that cemetery. " Came here to visit this
holy place," (fuit hie ad visitandum sanctum locum istum,)
writes Brother Lawrence of Sicily, with twenty brethren of the
order of Friars Minor, January 17th, 145 1. Another visit was
made in 1455, " in the week in which Pope Nicholas V. died,"
(hebdomadti qua defuntus est pp. N. V.) An abbot of St Sebas
tian's entered with a large party, (cum magna comitiva,) May
19th, 1469; some Scotchmen in 1467, (MCCCCLXVII.
quidem Scoti hiefucrunt,) &c. &c. Not one, however, of these
numerous visitors seems to have thought of making any his
torical or antiquarian examination of the precious monuments
of the past which were before them. The other class of visitors
to whom we have alluded belonged to the same period, but were
men of a very different character. The names of Pomponio
Leto and other litterati, his associates in the famous Roman
' Academy, may still be read in several places of the same
quarter of the Catacombs, written there by themselves, with
the addition of their title as Unanimes antiquitatis Amatores,
or Pcrscrutatores ; yet not even one of these seems ever to
have made any study of what he saw, certainly none ever
wrote about it.
Those who are familiar with the literary history of the fif
teenth century, will remember how these men fell into disgrace
with the Sovereign Pontiff, Paul II., on suspicion both of being
infected with heresy and of conspiring against the Government.
One of the grounds for the first of these charges was their
pedantic conceit of taking old Pagan classical names in place
of their Christian ones ; but it has always been a matter of
controversy how far the charge of conspiracy was really sup
ported by evidence; and Tiraboschi hardly mentions any
Modem Authors.
appreciable ground for it at all.* We are not here concerned
with the religious or political integrity of the Academy ; yet,
in elucidation of an obscure point in history, it may be worth
while to mention that the name of Pomponio Leto is found in
these newly-discovered memorials of him, with the title of Pon-
tifex Maximus, and even Pont : Max : regnans ; and that other
titles are added to some of the names, showing the dissolute
habits of the Academicians, and that they were not ashamed
to perpetuate their own memories as lovers, not only of ancient
names, but of ancient manners. We must also express both
our regret and surprise, that men whose lives were devoted to
the revival of learning, and of whose chief it is particularly
recorded that he applied himself to the elucidation of Roman
antiquities " which were then being disinterred," should have
been familiar with these earliest monuments of the heroic age
of Christianity, and yet never have felt sufficient interest to
excite them to investigate their history, or to publish anything
at all about them. Whatever, therefore, they may really have
believed, we cannot wonder at the charge brought against them
by their contemporaries, and which we find addressed to one
of them by a bishop even after their acquittal, that they were
more Pagans than Christians.
We fear, indeed, that this charge might at that time have
been justly urged against many more than the members of the
Roman Academy. Now, however, in the year of which we
first spoke, a.d. 1578, Christian learning and Christian morality
were in a far more hopeful condition in the Eternal City. It
was the age of St Ignatius Loyola, St Charles Borromeo, and
St Philip Neri. Baronius, the friend and disciple of the latter, Baronius.
was already engaged on his immortal work, the " Ecclesiastical
Annals," in more than one page of which he shows the warmth
of his interest in the new discovery, and his just appreciation
of its importance. He was among the first to visit it ; and .
had not his time been fully absorbed by his own gigantic work,
he might, perhaps, have become its first explorer and historian.
As it was, this labour and honour seems rather to have fallen
to the lot of foreigners resident in Rome, than to Romans
themselves. They were Alfonso Ciacconio, a Spanish Domini
can, and two young Flemish laymen, Philip de Winghe, and
* Storia della Litteratura Italian.->, tom. vi. part i. pp. 93-97.
4 Literary History of Roma Sotterranea .
Joannes Macarius, (the Grecised form of Jean l'Heureux ;) and

the labours, even of these, were not destined to be of much
service in spreading a knowledge of the Catacombs among
their contemporaries.
Researches of Ciacconio was a man who delighted in investigating and
laLcomo, collecting curiosities of even- kind, and possessed a valuable
museum of Christian and Pagan antiquities. He also em
ployed artists to copy for him some of the more remarkable
paintings in the Catacombs. Their skill, however, appears
hardly to have been equal to their good intentions, since we
are told that Noe in the Ark, with the dove bringing him the
olive-branch, was represented and explained as " Marcellus,
Pope and Martyr, instructed by an angel whilst he is preach-
De Winghe, ing." De Winghe, not unnaturally, was dissatisfied with his
friend's performance, and had the paintings more faithfully
re-copied for himself. These copies were seen and used both
by Macarius and Bosio. All traces of them, however, have
now been lost, unless De Rossi be correct in supposing that
he has discovered a few in the Imperial Library at Paris ; any
how, they were never made public. Had De Winghe lived,
he would, doubtless, have been the first author on Roma Sotter
ranea ; Baronius, Frederic Borromeo, and other good and
learned men set their hopes upon him, and his talents and in
dustry seem to have been in every way worthy of their expecta
tions. He died, however, at a very early age at Florence, in
the summer of 1592; and his MSS., after having formed part
of the famous library of the Bollandists, were sold in 1825,
with the rest of that magnificent collection, and now remain
unedited in the Royal Library at Brussels. The notes of Ciac
conio, exceedingly voluminous and miscellaneous, appear never
to have been prepared for publication, and still lie buried in
various public and private libraries of Rome and Naples. The
and Macarius. labours of Macarius were scarcely more fruitful ; they were
continued during a residence of twenty years in Rome, and the
work in which they resulted was prepared for publication, and
even licensed for printing on the 2 2d of June 1605. The
author, however, although he lived until 1614, left his work
still in MS. to a public library in Louvain. It was afterwards
annotated by Bollandus, who announced its publication, but
died before redeeming his promise ; and it is only in our own
Modern Authors. 5
day that Padre Garrucci, S.J., has given this precious manu
script to the public.*
The labours, however, of these and some others mentioned
by De Rossi, great as they may have been, fade into insigni
ficance when compared with those of Antonio Bosio, who has Antonio
justly been called the true Columbus of this subterranean Bosl°-
world. He was a man worthy to be had in remembrance.
De Rossi seems unable to speak of him without a certain
feeling of enthusiastic reverence and devotion, in which all
lovers of Christian archaeology can scarcely fail to sympathise.
A Maltese by birth, an advocate by profession, Bosio had His life and
resided in Rome from his earliest years with his uncle, who lal>ours-
was Procuratore or Roman agent for the knights of Malta.
His attention was drawn to the subject of the Catacombs,
while he was yet very young, and when once he had taken up
its pursuit he never abandoned it. The earliest date recorded
in his book, and found written on the walls of the Catacombs,
is December 10, 1593, the year after the death of De Winghe,
when Bosio himself was not yet eighteen ; and his labours
were continued both in the cemeteries themselves, and in
studying the works of authors from whom he expected to
derive information on the subject, for the six and thirty years
of his subsequent life. His industry was prodigious ; and the Immense
volumes of his MSS., still extant in the Bibliotheca Vallicel- !earni"S and
industry.
liana (the Oratorian Library) at Rome, are a wonderful monu
ment of it. Two of these volumes, containing upwards of
two thousand pages folio, besides fifty pages of index, all in
his own handwriting, show that he had read carefully through
all the fathers, Greek, Latin, and Oriental ; all the collections
of canons and councils, ecclesiastical histories, lives of the
saints, and an immense number of theological treatises, in
cluding those of the schoolmen ; in fact, every work in which
he thought there was a chance of finding anything in illustra
tion of his subject. In two other volumes of the same size he
transcribed the " Acts of the Martyrs," especially of all those
who suffered in Rome, together with other ancient records
which bore upon the topography of the Christian cemeteries.
* HAGIOGLYPTA : sivc pictura et sculptures sacne antiquiores pnesertim
ijutv Roniic repei iuutur, explicate a Joanne /'llcurcux (Macario.) Paris.
1856.
These were taken from MSS. in the Vatican and other libraries.
And yet it is certain that even these volumes by no means
represent the whole of his writings. He himself refers to other
commonplace books of his which are now lost.
Labours in the Again, in making our estimate of the labours of this truly
Catacombs. great man, we must never forget the anxious, fatiguing, and
even dangerous nature of his subterranean researches. When,
from his study of ancient records, he had ascertained some
thing as to the probable position of a Christian cemetery on
the Appian or other of the Roman roads, Bosio would explore
with the utmost diligence all the vineyards of the neighbour
hood, in order to discover, if possible, some entrance into the
bowels of the earth ; and often, after returning again and again
to the same spot, his labour would be all in vain. At another
time he would hear of some opening having been accidentally
made into a Catacomb, by the digging of a new cellar or a well,
and would hasten to the spot, only to find that the whole place
was so buried in ruins that all ingress was impossible. Even
when an entrance was once effected, he still had to force a
Dangers of passage, often by the labour of his own hands, through the
his, work. accumulated rubbish of ages ; or, if the galleries were tolerably
clear, there was the danger of being drawn too far in the
eagerness of discovery, and of being unable to retrace his steps
through the intricate windings of these subterranean labyrinths.
In fact, this danger was actually experienced on his very first
visit to the Catacombs, in company with Pompeo Ugonio and
others, on the ioth of December 1593. They had penetrated
into a Catacomb about a mile distant from St Sebastian's, and
having forced their way into a lower level, by means of an
opening in one of the chapels, they incautiously proceeded so
far, that, when they wished to return, they could not recognise
the path by which they had come. To add to their perplexity,
their lights failed them, for they had remained underground
longer than they had intended ; and " I began to fear," says
Bosio, " that I should defile by my vile corpse the sepulchres
of the martyrs." Taught by this experience, he always in
future visits took with him a quantity of candles, and other
requisites sufficient for two or three days.
This indefatigable examination of the Catacombs, and of all
anoient documents connected with them, was continued, as we
Modern Authors. 7
have said, for six and thirty years, and then Bosio too paid the Publication of
debt of nature, without having either completed his work, or *?°8,1° s Ko"m
1 or i Sotterranea,
published any part of it. It seemed as though Roma Sotterranea a.i>. 1632.
were never to be revealed to the world at large. The work of
Bosio was, however, too important to be allowed to lie buried
as had those of his predecessors in these researches. He had
also powerful friends, who would not suffer the fruit of so
much labour to perish. His papers and other property had
been bequeathed to the Order of the Knights of Malta, with
whom, as we have seen, his uncle had been officially connected.
The ambassador of the Order then at Rome, Prince Carlo
Aldobrandini, showed the MSS. to Cardinal Francesco Bar-
berini, the librarian of the Vatican, the nephew of the reigning
Pontiff, the friend of Galileo, and the Maecenas of those days.
The cardinal at once recognised their value, and lost no time
in engaging Padre Severano, of the Oratory, to put the finish
ing-stroke to the work. An eminent architect and a mathema
tician were employed to draw the plans and maps which were
still wanting ; the Knights of Malta undertook the expense ;
and in five years' time the magnificent volume which we now
possess was produced and dedicated to Pope Urban VIII.*
It was welcomed by the whole literary and archaeological world Its success,
with the utmost eagerness, and the demand for it was such that
a Latin translation was begun almost immediately after its
appearance. Bosio himself had at one time intended to com
pose the whole work in Latin, and a portion of it, written in
that language, may still be seen among his MSS., although
through some oversight this portion was not incorporated into
Severano's original edition. Something appears to have pre
vented the publication of Severano's translation ; and it was
not until fifteen or sixteen years later that a new translation,
with considerable alterations and omissions, was published by
Aringhi, in 165 1.t
Although Bosio's work was never completed according to his Value of
own original design, yet the omissions were for the most part Bosl<> s wo™-
* Roma Sotterranea, opera postuma di A ntonio Bosio composta disposta

at aceresauta da Giovanni di Severano, Sacerdote delta Congrcâzume delV
Oratorio. Roma, 1632.
t Roma Subterranea novissima post Ant. Bosium et Joan. Sevcranum.
Romx, 1 65 1.
such as could be supplied from the works of other authors.

Had his life been spared, he intended to have described and
illustrated the practice of the earliest ages of the Church with
reference to the administration of the sacrament of penance,
the viaticum, extreme unction, prayers for the dying and the
dead, and other matters connected with the death and burial of
Christians. In these particulars his book was deficient, but in
its detailed account of each cemetery which he had visited it
was most complete ; and the whole was admirably arranged on
Its general a very simple principle of topography. He took in order all
p ' the great consular roads which led out of Rome, and collected
every historical notice he could find concerning the Christian
cemeteries on each of them ; their precise position, their
names, their founders, and the martyrs or other persons of dis
tinction who had been buried in them. He then by the light
of this information examined all the Catacombs he had seen,
and endeavoured to assign to each its proper name and history.
That his conjectures were often erroneous, is only what might
have been expected from the known inaccuracy and sometimes
spuriousness of the Acts of the Martyrs and other authorities
by which he was led i but these were the only guides which
could then be had ; and the system itself is quite unexception
able, indeed, the only one that can be safely followed in laying
a solid foundation for a scientific treatment of the whole
subject.
Destruction of It is much to be regretted, therefore) that the work so wisely
antiquities in kemln should riot have been continued on the same plan and
Catacombs D r
since their re- with the same diligence. But the re-discovery of the Catacombs
covery was n0t a matter 0f mereiy archaeological interest : the devo
tion of the faithful was excited by the report that in those dark
recesses might still be lying concealed the remains of saints
and martyrs ; and the concessions made to the piety of indivi
duals to search for and extract these relics proved in the end
most disastrous to the cemeteries, as authentic records of the
early Roman Church. Instead of the ecclesiastical authorities
taking this matter into their own hands, as they have since
happily done, and proclaiming themselves the watchful and
jealous guardians of such precious treasures, they permitted a
number of private persons, acting independently of each other,
to make excavations. It is true, that rules were laid down, and
Modern Authors. 9
learned pamphlets were written to prove the value of these
rules, for the identification and translation of the relics, and we
have no reason to doubt that they were scrupulously observed.
But, in the interests of Christian archeology, we may justly too long per
complain that those engaged in the search had no regard for mit,e '
the preservation of monuments, whether of painting, sculpture,
or inscriptions, which came in their way. They did not even
care to keep a record of what they had seen, which would at
least have provided materials for future litterati to continue the
work of Bosio. Many of these permissions to extract relics were
given to religious communities ; and all the explorers availed
themselves, in their researches, of some of the workmen who
had been employed by Bosio. None of them, however, fol
lowed any systematic and comprehensive plan ; and soon after
wards the permissions were all revoked and vigorously repressed stopped at
by the Popes. We find traces of them for the last time during ôut
the pontificate of Urban VIII. ; and under Clement IX., about 16S8.
a.d. 1668, the arrangements which still prevail were definitely
settled. The loss, however, sustained by Christian archaeology
in the interval is incalculable ; and all must heartily sympathise
with De Rossi, both in his lamentations, and his astonishment
that such ravages should have been tolerated in silence under
the very eyes, as it were, of such men as Holstenius, Allaccius,
and other antiquarians who were then living in Rome. We
learn something of the nature and extent of our loss from the Lost treasures,
incidental notices which occur in the writings of the archaeolo
gists of the seventeenth century ; thus, we hear of a sepulchre
all covered with gold, of a superb cameo, a series of the rarest
coins and medals, various ornaments in crystal and metal, &c.,
besides a multitude of other objects which were secretly sold
by the labourers engaged in the excavations ; but we are told
nothing as to the precise localities in which any of these things
were found. Had but an accurate record been kept of all
discoveries, the work of reconstructing the history and topo
graphy of these cemeteries would have been comparatively easy
and certain.
After the works of Bosio and Aringhi, the literary history of Nothing new
the Catacombs remains a blank for nearly half a century. They {™™ l65° 1°
had taken their place among the mirabilia of Rome, and as
such were an object of curiosity to all intelligent travellers ; but
io Literary History of Roma Sotterranca.
those who wrote about them were generally more influenced by

religious than by scientific motives. Bosio's work had been the
means of recalling some learned Protestants to the bosom of the
Church ;* and thenceforward the subject became an arena for
John Evelyn, party strife. John Evelyn, indeed, who visited Rome in 1645,
l645- was content simply to record what he saw or heard, but not so
those who came after him. Evelyn was first taken to the sub
terranean cemetery at St Sebastian's, " where the Fulgentine
monks have their monastery." " They led us down," he says,
" into a grotto which they affirmed went clivers furlongs under
ground. The sides or walls which we passed were filled with
bones and dead bodies, laid as it were on shelves, whereof
some were shut up with broad stones, and now and then a
crosse or a palme cut in them. At the end of some of these
subterranean passages were square rooms with altars in them,
said to have been the receptacles of primitive Christians in the
times of persecution, nor seems it improbable." By and by,
being detained in Rome longer than he expected, he was per
suaded to visit another Catacomb. He says, " We took coach
a little out of towne, to visit the famous Roma Sotterranea,
being much like what we had seen at St Sebastian's. Here, in
a corn-field, guided by two torches, we crept on our bellies into
a little hole, about twenty paces, which delivered us into a
large entrie that led us into several streets or allies, a good
depth in the bowells of the earth, a strange and fearefull pass
age for divers miles, as Bosio has measured and described
them in his book. We ever and anon came into pretty square
roomes, that seem'd to be chapells with altars, and some
adorn'd with very ordinary ancient painting. Many skeletons
and bodies are plac'd on the sides one above the other in
degrees like shelves, whereof some are shut up with a coarse
flat stone, having ingraven on them Pro Christo,t or a crosse
and palmes, which are supposed to have been martyrs. Here,
in all likelyhood, were the meetings of the primitive Christians
during the persecutions, as Pliny the younger describes them.
* Bottari, Rom. Sott. t. i. pref. p. v.

t It would seem that neither Evelyn nor his guides knew Greek. This
is clearly their misinterpretation of the monogram -f, and we are afraid the
same blunder is even now sometimes repeated by persons showing the
Catacombs to si rangers.
Modern Authors
As I was prying about, I found a glasse phiale, fill'd as was
conjectured with dried blood, and 2 lachrymatories. Many of
the bodies, or rather bones, (for there appear'd nothing else,)
lay so entire as if plac'd by the art of the chirurgeon, but being
only touch'd fell all to dust. Thus after wandering two or
three miles in this subterranean maeander, we returned almost
blind when we came into the daylight, and even choked by
the smoke of the torches." * A very different tone pervades
the letters of Bishop Burnet, t who visited the same scenes Burnet, 1685.
forty years later. He reckoned upon his countrymen's reli
gious prejudices, on the one hand, and their ignorance of
Rome, on the other, with such confidence, that he hazarded
the astounding statement that " those burying-placcs that are
graced with the pompous title of Catacombs are no other than
the puticoli mentioned by Festus Pompeius, where the meanest
sort of the Roman slaves were laid, and so without any further
care about them were left to rot," and that the Christians did
not come into possession of them until the fourth or fifth cen
tury. He was followed by some other writers in the same
strain, as for example, Misson, who, being unable to deny that Misson, 1714.
Christians had certainly been buried here in very ancient times,
only insisted that " this was no reason for excluding others
from being interred there also, in those holes that were set
apart for the dregs of the people." \
The controversies which arose out of ignorant or malicious
falsehoods like these, contributed nothing to archaeological
science, and are not therefore worthy of any detailed mention
in this place. We repeat, therefore, that there is a blank of
half a century in the literary history of the Catacombs, from
Aringhi to Fabretti, who, in the year 1700, deserves our grati- Fabretti's
tude for having preserved the account of two cemeteries un- *'ork.on.
°. r Inscriptions,
known to Bosio, together with the inscriptions which they a. d. 1700.
contained. He had been appointed, in 1688, custodt of the
Catacombs, and it belonged to his office to superintend the Boldetti on
removal of any relics that might be discovered. In this post Christian
|jqUj|l(, An-
tiq"iti' x
he was succeeded by Boldetti, who held it for more than thirty 1720.
* Evelyn's Memoirs, edited by Bray, 1819, pp. 153, 164.

t Some letters from Italy ami Switzerland in the years 1 685 and 1686.
Rotterdam. P. 209.
t A new voyage to Italy, &c. London, 1714. Vol. ii. part i. p. 166.
years, but who, unfortunately, did not possess sufficient know

ledge or love of archaeology to enable him to make the most
of the great opportunities he enjoyed. During his time, whole
regions of Roma Sotterranea were brought to light, galleries of
tombs that had remained apparently un visited since the last
corpse was buried in them, a vast number of inscriptions,
medals, and other treasures came under his notice : and yet
it is doubtful whether any account of these things would have
come down to us had he not been commanded to write in the
defence of religion. Mabillon's anonymous letter de enltu
sanctorum ignotorum had attracted considerable attention, and
the unfair use which had been made of it by Misson and other
Protestant controversialists seemed to demand an answer.
Boldetti was therefore desired to publish an account of the
rules which had been followed by himself and his predecessors
in the extraction of relics ; and he accompanied this with a
description of the discoveries that had been made in the
Catacombs generally during his own time.* The object of
his work, however, being not scientific, but religious and
apologetic, its contents were arranged with this view, and its
value as a contribution towards the complete history of the
subterranean city of the dead was proportionably diminished.
lSuonarrotti Buonarrotti, who had assisted Boldetti in the archaeological
thc (,1ilifd part of his work, himself wrote a valuable book on the vessels
(.lasses of the 1
Catacombs. or fragments of gilded glass found in the Catacombs, t—a sub
ject which has been handled afresh and with great erudition in
our own day by Padre Garrucci, S.J. % Another of Boldetti's
Marangoni, assistants, Marangoni, who was officially associated with him
a.d. 1740. for twenty years in the guardianship of the cemeteries, seems
to have intended to carry out Bosio's plan of making a minute
and faithful report of every new discovery arranged according
to the historical and topographical outline of that great man,
and corrected by any new light thrown upon the subject by
later discoveries. After he had continued this plan for about
* Osserr'azioni sopra i eemcteri dci SS. Afartiri ed antichi cristiani tit

Roma. Roma, 1720.
t Osservazioni sopra alcuni frammenti di vasi antichi di vetro ornati di
figure trovati nei cimcleri di /Coma, l' ircnze. 1716.
X lrctr> ornati di figure in oro Irorati nei cimilcri dci cristiani primit^'i
di Roma raccolti c spicgati da Raffaelc Gairncei, D.C.D.G. Roma, 185S.
Modern Authors. 13
sixteen or seventeen years, an accidental fire destroyed all his

papers. " Truly," says De Rossi, " the history which I am
relating seems to be but an Iliad of misfortune and irreparable
losses." The little that remained from this fire, together with
the results of his subsequent labours, Marangoni published in
the Acta Sancti Victorinixa 1740.
The Roma Sotterranea of Bottari,* published by command Bottari's Roma
of Clement XII., was a mere republication of the plates from f^'T^';"
the work of Bosio, illustrated with great care and learning, but
not arranged in any order, nor enriched by any additions,
unless we reckon one which we could well have spared, viz.,
the paintings of a Gnostic sepulchre falsely attributed to the
Christians. These have seriously perplexed and misled later
authors, especially Raoul Rochette, who founded upon it in
great measure his theory as to the origin of Christian art.
The learned students of Christian archaeology who flourished Latter part of
during the latter half of the last century, such as Mamachi, ^mury"i'1
Olivieri, Zaccaria, Borgia, Sec, made considerable use of the
works of Bosio, Aringhi, Boldetti, and Bottari, in their trea
tises on various points of Christian antiquity, but do not
appear to have explored for themselves, or even to have taken
any notice of the new discoveries that were being made year
by year in some part of the ancient cemeteries. Benedict
XIV., by founding the Christian Museum in the Vatican Christian Mu-
Library, and collecting there the inscriptions that had hitherto ^Benedict*'
been dispersed among the various churches, relieved anfiqua- XIV.
rians of the labour of examining the places where these in
scriptions were found, and even such an archaeologist as Marini
does not appear to have thought it worth while to visit the
Catacombs themselves. D'Agincourt, indeed, penetrated their D'Agincourt,
recesses to find materials for his History of the decline of the A-d" I&2*'
fine arts ; and, by attempting to detach the pictures from the His devasta-
walls of living rock on which they had been painted, taught ^tacom'bs
the modern fossors the last lesson in the art of destruction.
The attempt signally failed, and was not long persisted in, but
it resulted in the ruin of many precious monuments which can
never be replaced. Indeed, it is truly lamentable to see what
* Sculturc e Pitture Sacrc estratte dai Cimileri di Roma, pubblicate gia
tlagli autori della Roma Sotterranea ed ora nuovam/nte date in luce colle
spiegationi. Roma, 1734 -1754.
a record of destruction the history of the Catacombs has been,
almost ever since their re-opening in the sixteenth century.
The paintings which were seen at that time in the crypts on
the Via Salaria, by Baronius and others, had been destroyed
when Bosio revisited the place fifteen years afterwards.
Padre Mazzolari, S.J., the pious author of the Vie Sacre, was
only just in time to traverse the gallery accidentally opened
near San Lorenzo in 1779, before he saw the work of devas
tation ruthlessly accomplished under his very eyes. The
lessons of destruction taught by D'Agincourt have been only
too frequently followed even as recently as our own day. The
vast extent of subterranean territory that has to be guarded
from injury, and the facility with which access may from time
to time be gained to the Catacombs in consequence of acci
dental openings in the soil, make it difficult for the authorities
to prevent depredations ; still we cannot but regret that there
should not have been always a succession of antiquarians, able
and willing to transmit to posterity a faithful record of each
new discovery as it was made.
Padre Marchi, At the beginning of the present century, tokens of a reviving
S.J., a.d. 1841. mterest in the Catacombs may be traced in some of the pro
ceedings of the Roman Archaiological Society, and in a few
other writings. It was reserved, however, for the late Padre
Marchi, S.J., to give the first great impulse to that lively
interest in the subject which is now so universally felt. In
1841, he commenced his great work on the Monuments of
early Christian Art.* It is almost needless to enter upon
any detailed examination of the labours of this learned
Jesuit, since they were interrupted and finally abandoned,
partly in consequence of the political vicissitudes of the times
by which his own Order was especially affected ; and also
because he was conscious that the work of rehabilitating (so
to say) these venerable monuments of antiquity, and setting
them forth before the public in their original integrity, was
necessarily reserved for one who should come after him. He
had begun to publish prematurely ; at most he had but broken
the soil. He had, however, imparted his own enthusiasm to
one of his scholars, who was at first the frequent companion
* Momumcnti delle arti Chritiiane Primitive nella Metropoli del Crittian-
esimo. Roma, 1S44.
Modern Authors. 15
of his subterranean exploring expeditions, whom he soon

recognised as a valuable fellow-labourer, and whom he finally
urged in the most pressing manner to undertake the work
which he found too great for his own failing strength. This
scholar was De Rossi, of whom it were hard to say whether De Rossi,
his talent, learning, and industry have done more for the
work of discovery in subterranean Rome, or the discoveries
he has made done more for the increase of our knowledge of it.
At any rate, the fruits of his labour speak for themselves; for
whereas before his time only two or three important historical
monuments* had been discovered in the Catacombs during
more than two centuries of examination—and all of these the
result of accident, — the excavations directed by the Com
mission of Sacred Archaeology, of which De Rossi is one of
the most active members, have brought to light within a few
years six or seven historical monuments of the utmost value,
and in every instance he had announced beforehand with more
or less accuracy what was to be expected.
We are naturally led to ask after the cause of so great a
contrast. From what new sources had De Rossi derived his
information ? or what was his new system for extracting ore from His system of
old mines ? The answer is soon given, and it is much more research,
simple than we might have expected from the magnitude of the
effects to be accounted for. He followed the same general
plan as had been originally laid down by Bosio; he studied
also the same ancient authorities, but with the addition of two
or three more of considerable value which in Bosio's time lay
buried in the MSS. of libraries. Father Marchi indeed had «
known these new authorities ; but he had not adopted Bosio's
topographical system. Moreover, the particular object which
he had proposed to himself, led him precisely in the opposite
direction from that to which these new guides offered to con
duct him. They were, in fact, veritable guides—itineraries or
guide-books—written in the seventh and eighth centuries by
* The baptistery and paintings of SS. Abdon and Sennen, and other
crypts in the cemetery of San Ponziano, on the Via Portuensis, discovered
by Uosio ; the crypt of SS. Felix, Adauctus, and Emerita, discovered by
Marangoni, behind the Basilica of St Paul's, on the road leading to St
Sebastian's ; and the tomb, the original epitaph, and the body of St
Hyacinth, found in the cemetery of St Hermes, by Padre Marchi. (See
Note A. in Appendix.)
pilgrims from foreign countries, who carefully put on record all

the sacred places which they visited in Rome. Especially they
enumerated all the tombs of the martyrs, as they lay each in
his first resting-place in the different suburban cemeteries.
Now these were the precise spots in the Catacombs where St
Damasus and other popes had made many material changes.
They had built spacious staircases to conduct the pilgrims
immediately to the object of their pious search ; opened more
luminaria to supply light and air; widened the galleries, or
added vestibules to the chapels ; or raised small basilicas above
ground ; and for the support of these, solid substructions of
masonry had been sometimes necessary in the crypts them
selves. But when the Catacombs ceased to be used, not only
were all these works left to perish by a process of natural decay,
they also attracted the greedy hand of the spoiler, so that after
the lapse of seven or eight hundred years every centre of his
toric interest had become a mass of ruins. Whereas, then, it
was the special desire of Father Marchi to recover, if possible,
galleries and chambers of the Catacombs in their primitive
condition as first they were hewn out of the rock, any appear
ance of bricks and mortar in the way of his excavation was suf
ficient to turn him aside from that part of the cemetery alto
gether. De Rossi, on the other hand, shrewdly judged that the
crypts which had been changed into sanctuaries contained the
very key, as it were, to the history of each Catacomb. Wher
ever one of these could be recovered and identified, we had a
certain clue to the name and history of the cemetery in which
it was found. He hailed, therefore, every token of ruined
masonry in the heart of a Catacomb with the keenest delight,
as a sure sign that he was in the immediate neighbourhood of
what he most desired to see ; and the results have abundantly
proved that he was not mistaken in his reasoning. ^
I lis sources cf The importance of these results renders it worth our while
information. t0 enumerate and give some short account of the authorities
which have furnished the clue to their discovery. They are such
as the rash criticism of the last century would have contemp
tuously condemned as worthless,—the old Calendars and Mar-
tyrologies, the Acts of the Martyrs, the Lives of the Popes, and
the Itineraries of pious pilgrims of the seventh, eighth, and
ninth centuries. Doubtless there has been need of great
A ncient Records. 17
patience and ingenuity to disentangle the thread of truth from
the web of confusion with which it has been sometimes inter
woven in these documents. Nevertheless, they have proved
themselves such efficient guides, that henceforward no account
of Roma Sotterranea can be considered complete that should
pass them over in silence.
PART II.
ANCIENT RECORDS.
PERHAPS the most ancient record of the Roman Church The Martyr-
to be found is the so-called Martyrologium Hieronymi- "J^^J,^'
anum ; a work which, though not put together in its present form
until the end of the sixth or perhaps even the seventh century,
certainly contains many portions of far older martyrologies be
longing to the ages of persecution. The exceeding care of the
early Church in treasuring up both the acts and the relics of her
martyrs, is too well known to require proof. It is sufficient to
observe, that it is recorded of St Clement, before the end of
the first century, that "he caused the seven regions [of Rome]
to be divided among the faithful notaries of the Church, who
should, each in his own region, with diligent care and zeal
search out the acts of the martyrs ;"* and of St Fabian, Pope
in the middle of the third century, it is added that " he divided
the regions among the deacons, and appointed seven sub-
deacons to superintend the seven notaries, that they might
collect in all their details (in integro) the acts of the martyrs."t
Most of these invaluable records perished in the terrible perse
cution of Diocletian. Still it was impossible but that some few of
them should have escaped, and these furnjshed the first ground
work of the martyrology of which we are speaking. The most
authentic copies of it, say the BQllandists,^ make no mention Its antiquity,
of a single martyr after the time of the apostate Julian ; not of
any, for example, who suffered under the Vandals in Africa.
In itself this is no sure criterion of its antiquity ; but there are
other internal evidences which warrant our assigning one por
tion, or perhaps we should rather say one edition, of it to the
* Lib. Pontif. c. iv. t Ibid.
X Acta Sanct. Octob. tom. ix. p. 269.
I
18 Literary History of Roma Sotterranea .
earlier part of the third century, another to the beginning of
the fourth, and a third to the beginning of the fifth century.
An evidence of the first of these dates is, that the anniversary
of St Antherus, who was Pope a.d. 235, appears on the 24th
November, whereas in all later Martyrologies it is assigned to
the 2d of January. Now, the Liber Pontificalis gives as the
length of his pontificate "one month and twelve days,'' which
is precisely the interval between the two above-mentioned
dates ; so that we feel confident that the 24th of November
was really the date of his succession to the Chair of St Peter,
not of his death. But the anniversary of the accession of a pope,
as indeed that of any other bishop, is never celebrated except
during his lifetime ; whence it follows that this particular por
tion at least of this ancient Martyrology must have been drawn
up during the pontificate of St Antherns. And it is not a little
remarkable, that although his pontificate lasted for so short a
time, yet the Liber Pontificalis expressly records of him that
" he diligently sought out from the notaries the Acts of the
Martyrs, and stored them up in the church ;" it goes on also
to say, " on account of which he received from the Prefect
Maximus the crown of martyrdom." It is by observing similar
notes, which only the keenness of modern criticism has taught
men to appreciate, that archaeologists have been able to detect
the hand of a later compiler or copyist of this Martyrology, who
must have lived in the time of Miltiades, or between a.d. 311 and
314; and a third in the time of St Boniface I., or between a.d.
418 and 422, since festivals are noted here of OrJin. Miltiadis,
on July 2d, and Bonifacii Epi de Ordinaiione, on the 29th of
December, besides the depositio of each of these pontiffs on the
days on which we still commemorate them. But it would
occupy us too long to show in each case how the repetitions,
and even the errors and contradictions, of these various
copyists, have often proved of service in furnishing a clue by
means of which the ingenuity and patience of learned antiqua
rians have succeeded in unravelling the truth. We must con
tent ourselves with observing that this Martyrology is of in
estimable value, as having preserved to us much that would
otherwise have perished.
Almanac of N t . chronological order comes the Christian Almanac.
Fur. Dion. 6 .
Kilocalus. for we can call it by no more appropriate name,) the first edi
tion of which appears to have been published in a.d. 336, and
the latest, with highly ornamented illustrations, in a.d. 354, by
Furius Dionysius Filocalus. This consists of lists of the deaths
or burials of the popes from Lucius to Julius— i.e., a.d. 255 to
352,—of the principal Christian festivals celebrated during the
year, especially of martyrs, but including also Christmas-day,
Cathedra Petri, and other immovable feasts ; finally, a cata
logue of the popes from St Peter to Liberius.* In this last
catalogue the deaths of the popes begin to be registered from
the time of St Antherus, which would seem to show that the
earlier portion of the history had been probably compiled from
some older work, such as the Chronicon of Hippolytus. But
the most important of these documents is undoubtedly the first
of the three. It follows immediately upon the list of prefects
of the city, and this list, evidently compiled with great accuracy
from contemporary registers, begins in like manner from the
year 254. Is this synchronism purely accidental ? or were the
two lists really derived from state documents, the public regis
ters of the government ? At first sight it might seem an almost
extravagant conjecture to suppose that the names of the popes
should have been known to the civil governors of pagan Rome,
and officially taken cognisance of. Yet it is certain, that even
as early as the beginning of the third century, many churches
used to pay a tribute to the government that they might escape
from persecution, and for this purpose they were enrolled on
the registers of the police (so to speak), where they found them
selves, as Tertulliant takes care to remind them, in very strange
company. Again, we read that, after the death of Fabian,
Decius strictly forbade the election of a successor, and was
greatly enraged when he heard of the appointment of Cornelius.
In genuine Acts of Martyrdom the question is sometimes
asked, to what church the prisoners belong. When the ecclesi-
* This catalogue is generally quoted as Liberian, or Bucherian : the
latter name being taken from its first editor, /Egidius Bucherus, S.J. De
Doctrina temponim. Antwerp, 1634.
t Non decet Christum pecunia constare. Quomodo et martyria fieri
possent in gloriam Domini, m tributo licentiam sects? compensaremus.
.... Massaliter totx ecclesi.x tributum sibi irrogaverunt. Nescio dolen-
dum an erubescendum sit, cum in matricibus Beneficiariorum et Curioso-
rum, inter tabernarios et lanios et fures balneanim et aleones et lenones
Christiani quoque vectigalcs continentur. Defuga in pcrsec. ce. xii. xiii.
astical property is restored after a persecution, it is to the

bishops that the surrender is ordered to be made ; from them
the sacred books are demanded ; against them and their clerics
special edicts are issued. All this seems to indicate a certain
knowledge and even recognition of their position in the eccle
siastical hierarchy.* And it is very curious to observe how
some of the difficulties in this catalogue are immediately cleared
up, if we suppose it to have been derived from civil and official
sources. Thus, for instance, it is stated of the year 304, that
at this time the episcopacy ceased for seven years, six months,
and twenty-five days. This statement cannot be reconciled
even with the dates given elsewhere jn the same list ; but it is
observable that it was precisely during this very time that Dio
cletian confiscated the loca ecelesiastica, and that the hierarchy
was (at least legally) suppressed. Again, we read in the Liber
Pontificalis that Maxentius required of St Marcellus that he
should deny that he was a bishop, (because he had not been
recognised,) and his name accordingly does not appear in this
list. However, be this as it may, from whateyer source these
lists may have been originally procured, it js certain that they
have proved to be of the greatest use in the hands of De Rossi.
Inscriptions of To these we must next add the numerous inscriptions com-
St Damasus. p0seci fay pCpe Damasus, engraved by the same Furius Filocalus,
and set up by the Holy Pontiff at so many of the martyrs'
tombs. Several of these monuments destroyed by the Goths,
Lombards, and other sacrilegious barbarians, were restored,
more or less correctly, by later popes : many are preserved to
us only through the copies that were taken by learned ecclesi
astics or pious pilgrims in the ninth or tenth centuries ; some few
yet remain in their original integrity, and some also have been
recovered by De Rossi himself. These monuments, wherever
they are found, are witnesses of the utmost value on questions
relating either to the history or the geography of the Catacombs.
Liber Poniifi- The Lilur Poniificalis, or, as it is sometimes (less correctly)
called, the Lives of the Pontiffs by the Librarian Anastasius, is
our next authority. It was, from the first, formed out of docu
ments more ancient than itself, like the Martyrologium Hierony-
* De Rossi does not hesitate to say, that the proofs of this new and
unexpected fact are so strong that they amount almost to a complete
demonstration. R. S. II. 372.
mianum, and there had been at least three versions or editions

of it before the days of Anastasius. Two of these had been
made at the beginning and about the middle of the eighth
century, and another in the beginning of the sixth ; but a por
tion of it may even be traced to the times of St Damasus, if
not to a yet earlier period. Its statements are often at variance
with those of the Almanac and the most ancient Martyrology,
especially in the matter of dates; yet these very variations are
sometimes useful, and enable us to detect the truth. Often
they are accounted for by the fact that they record some
translation of the popes' relics, instead of the day and place of
their original burial. Certainly there could be no object in
changing the dates without reason ; the compiler can only have
followed some other authority.
The Martyrologies of Bede, of Ado, Usuard and others, are Other Martyr
sometimes useful ; but they are inferior in importance to the olok'lt:s-
Acts of the Martyrs, which, even when not authentic, often Acts of the
contain most valuable fragments of truth. Tillemont and other "ty15,
critics of his school have dealt with these venerable monuments
of antiquity too summarily. Disgusted by the flagrant ana
chronisms, or the barbarous diction, or the tone of legendary
exaggeration, or the historical difficulties which abound in
them, they have found it easier to reject altogether than to
criticise and distinguish ; whilst a more learned and cautious
examination not unfrequently succeeds in detecting many
traces of a true and genuine story. The Acts of St Cecilia, for
example, which were so thoroughly set aside by Tillemont that
he questioned whether there had ever been such a virgin and
martyr in Rome at all, and suspected that her history might
perhaps have been a myth imported from Sicily, are certainly
not, in their present form, a genuine and original document ;
they are not contemporary with the martyrdom itself ; on the
contrary, both in the preface and in the body of the Acts there
are clear tokens of a writer in the time of peace, between the
fourth and fifth centuries;* nevertheless it is equally certain
that they must have been composed upon very minute and
truthful records, since a number of circumstances which they
narrate were most exactly confirmed on the rediscovery of her
* The liturgical prayers bull> of Leo and of (Jclasius abound with allu
sions :o them.
relics at the end of the sixteenth century, which relics were
certainly hid from every human eye at the time of the compila
tion of the Acts. Moreover, on a critical comparison of the
various readings even of the MSS. which still exist of these
Acts, it is easy to detect the little additions and embellishments
introduced by later writers.* They are precisely such as we
might have anticipated ; and it is probable that the original
compiler did not use greater license in dealing with the mate
rials before him, than his own successors used towards himself.
In either case, it was not such as to destroy the substance of
the story, nor to distort its principal features, historical or geo
graphical ; and as mc*t of these spurious Acts (if they must still
be branded by this opprobrious epithet) were written before the
sacred deposits in the Catacombs had been translated from their
first resting-place, they have been of great service in enabling De
Rossi to reconstruct both the history and the geography of sub
terranean Rome. The same may be said also of some incidental
notices in the ancient Liturgical Books of the Roman Church.
Itineraries of \\\ these documents, however, were accessible to the prede-
pilgrims in
the seventh cessors of De Rossi, and were freely made use of by them. J o
century. him belongs the credit of having demonstrated by argument,
and still more by actual discovery, the immense importance of
the information to be derived from the ancient Itineraries or
local guide-books to the sanctuaries bf Rome. One of these
descriptions may be seen in the works of William of Malmes-
bury, where he records the visit of the Crusaders to Rome, a.d.
1095 ;t but as this description speaks of the Saints still resting
in their subterranean sepulchres, it is manifest that the chro
nicler has copied it from some document written four or five
centuries before his own time : and there is internal evidence
that it was written between the years a.d. 650 and 680. An
other of these Itineraries, about a century later, was published
by Mabillon, in 1685, from a MS. in Einsiedlen ; and a third,
belonging to the tenth century, by Eckart, in 1729, from a MS.
in the library of Wurtzburg. These, however, are all surpassed
in value by two others which were discovered about a hundred
years ago in the library of Salzburg, and published as an
appendix to an edition of the works of Alcuin, with which the
* See Note B. in Appendix.
t In the excellent edition of Duffus Hardy, tom. ii. 5.19 -544-
MSS. had been accidentally bound up. It is certain from
internal evidence that one of these, and that the most exact,
was written between the years 625 and 638, and the other is
not many years later. The first is a genuine Itinerary, written
on the spot, and abounds with topographical notices of all that
the writer saw, above ground or below, on his right hand or
his left, to the east or the west, He starts from the centre of
Rome, and proceeds northwards through the Flaminian gate ;
and in visiting the various roads in order, he does not return to
Rome and make a fresh beginning every time, but goes across
from one road to another by by-paths, many of which still remain.
The second, though following the same general plan and taking
each road in succession, is not the real journal or description
of what had been seen by the traveller himself ; rather, it bears
tokens of being an epitome of some larger work. However,
both of them were written before the practice of translation of
relics had begun, so that the minute topographical details
which they record have reference to the original condition of
the Catacombs before their sanctity had been profaned or their
traditions obscured.
In the same category with these Itineraries may be classed Papyrus list of
the list of relics collected by the Abbot John, in the days of St ""* a onza'
Gregory the Great, and sent to Theodelinda, Queen of the
Lombards. This list, written on papyrus, together with many
of the relics themselves, and the little parchment labels
attached to them, is still to be seen in the cathedral of Monza.*
We must not, however, be misled by the word " relics" and
picture to ourselves, according to modern custom, the bodies or
portions of the bodies of saints. St Gregory himself specifies
the only kinds of relics that in his day were permitted to be
carried away by the faithful. He writes to the Empress Con-
stantina : " When the Romans present the relics of the saints,
they do not touch the bodies : their custom is only to put a
piece of linen in a box, which is placed near the holy body,
and which they afterwards take away. ... In the time of the
Pope St Leo, some Greeks, doubting of the virtue of these
relics, brought scissors and cut the linen, from whence pro
ceeded blood, as is reported by the ancient inhabitants. ''t
* It has been published by Marini, Papir. Diploui., p. 327, No. CXI, 111.
See also p. 377.
t Kpist. lib. iii. ep. 30. The pieces of linen were callcd brandca.
24 Literary History of Roma Sotterranca.
But besides these, drops of the oil from the lamps which
burned before the tombs of the saints were frequently carried
away as relics ; and St Gregory often sent these olea in little
glass phials to persons at a distance.* These latter were the
relics collected by John the Abbot ; and in the list of them he
carefully records every shrine which he visited, and this (as was
natural) in the order of his visits. By comparing this local order
with the topographical notices in the Itineraries, De Rossi has
been enabled to decide with accuracy many important ques
tions concerning the localities of particular tombs. To follow
him into these details would require us to transcribe many
entire pages of his work, and would weary the unscientific
reader. It is sufficient to say, that a careful study of them will
amply repay all who are capable of appreciating the keenness
of his criticisms, and the happy boldness with which he fre
quently seizes upon some fact, or hint about a fact, before
unnoticed, but which eventually leads to valuable discoveries.
This work an These are the principal sources of information of which De
De^Rossi's Rossi has made use in his Roma Sotterranea ; and by the help
of them he has constructed a very full and life-like narrative of
its history. The labour which it has cost him to do this can
only be appreciated by those who take the pains to follow him
through the slow, deliberate, sometimes almost wearisome
method of his operations, and examine in detail the mass of
minute criticisms by which he insists upon justifying every step
which he takes ; and for this it is indispensable that the whole
work should be read exactly as he has himself written it.
Many threads of his argument are so subtle, yet so strong and
so necessary to the establishment of his conclusions, that they
can neither be omitted nor reproduced in any compressed
form, without injury to their substance. These, therefore, we
must perforce leave untouched ; nevertheless, we hope to be
able to extract from his pages sufficient matter to set before
our readers an intelligible account of the history of the Cata
combs, sufficiently supported both by the language of ancient
documents, and by the remains which his researches have
enabled us to see and examine for ourselves.
* This custom may even now be observed in the Church of Sam' Agostino.
where people lake oil from the lam]> that burns before the statue of the
Mndonna del Parte, and from other shrines.
BOOK I.
ORIGIN OF THE CATACOMBS.
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION.
THE daily-increasing celebrity of the Roman Catacombs General de-

might almost seem to render a general description of^"^™°
them unnecessary ; for who does not know, if not by per- coml>S-
sonal observation, at least from the accounts of friends or from
popular literature, the leading features of that marvellous city
of the dead which has received the appropriate name of Roma
Sotterranca, subterranean Rome ? Nevertheless, so many errors
are often mixed up with these popular accounts, and our know
ledge of the subject has been so much improved of late, both
in point of accuracy and of extent, that it will conduce to
clearness, and the general convenience of our readers, if we
set before them at once some outline at least of what is con
tained in the following pages. We shall make our statement
as concise as possible, not strengthening it at present by any
proofs or arguments, but leaving these to be supplied when we
come to fill in the several parts of the picture in detail.
The Roman Catacombs —a name consecrated by long usage, Their position
, . , . , . , . and extent,
but having no etymological meaning, and not a very determinate
geographical one—are a vast labyrinth of galleries excavated
in the bowels of the earth in the hills around the Eternal City ;
2h Roma Sotterranea.
not in the hills on which the city itself was built, but in those
beyond the walls. Their extent is enormous, not as to the
amount of superficial soil which they underlie, for they rarely,
if ever, pass beyond the third milestone from the city, but in
the actual length of their galleries ; for these are often excavated
on various levels, or piani, threei four, or even five, one above
Flu. [. —Gallery with Tombs.

the other ; and they cross and recross one another, sometimes
at short intervals, on each of these levels ; so that, on the whole,
there are certainly not less than 350 miles of them ; that is
to say, if stretched out in one continuous line, they would
extend the whole length of Italy itself. The galleries are
from two to four feet in width, and vary in height according
to the nature of the rock in which they are dug. The walls
on both sides are pierced with horizontal niches, like shelves
in a book-case or berths in a steamer, and every niche once
General Description. 27
contained one or more dead bodies. At various intervals this
succession of shelves is interrupted for a moment, that room
may be made for a doorway opening into a small chamber ;
and the walls of these chambers are generally pierced with
graves in the same way as the galleries.
These vast excavations once formed the ancient Christian Their number
, , , . ,. ami names,
cemeteries of Rome ; they were begun in apostolic times,
and continued to be used as burial-places of the faithful till
the capture of the city by Alaric in the year 410. In the
third century, the Roman Church numbered twenty-five or
twenty-six of them, corresponding to the number of her titles,
or parishes, within the city ; and besides these, there are about
twenty others, of smaller dimensions, isolated monuments of
special martyrs, or belonging to this or that private family.
Originally they all belonged to private families or individuals,
the villas or gardens in which they were dug being the property
of wealthy citizens who had embraced the faith of Christ, and
devoted of their substance to His service. Hence their most
ancient titles were taken merely from the names of their lawful
owners, many of which still survive : Lucina, for example, who
lived in the days of the Apostles, and others of the same family,
or at least of the same name, who lived at various periods in
the next two centuries ; Priscilla, also a cotemporary of the
Apostles ; Flavia Domitilla, niece of Vespasian ; Commodilla,
whose property lay on the Via Ostiensis ; Cyriaca, on the Via
Tiburtina ; Praetextatus, on the Via Appia ; Pontian, on the
Via Portuensis ; and the Jordani, Maximus and Thraso, all
on the Via Salaria Nova. These names are still attached to
various catacombs, because they were originally begun upon
the land of those who bore them. Other Catacombs are known
by the names of those who presided over their formation, as
that of St Callixtus, on the Via Appia; or St Mark, on the Via
Ardeatina ; or of the principal martyrs who were buried in
them, as SS. Hermes, Basilla, Protus and Hyacinthus, on the
Via Salaria Vetus ; or, lastly, by some peculiarity of tYieir
28 Roma Sotterranea.
position, as ad Catacumbas on the Via Appia, and ad duos
Lauras on the Via Labicana.
:ir origin It has always been agreed among men of learning who have
purpose. had an opportunity of examining these excavations, that they
were used exclusively by the Christians as places of burial and
of holding religious assemblies. Modern research has now
placed it beyond a doubt, that they were also originally de
signed for this purpose and for no other ; that they were not
deserted sand-pits (arenaria) or quarries, adapted to Christian
uses, but a development, with important modifications, of a
form of sepulchre not altogether unknown even among the
heathen families of Rome, and in common use among the
Tig. 2 - Plan ofArmaria 'at St Agnes.

Jews both in Rome and elsewhere. Our readers may judge
for themselves, even from the miniature specimen here set
before them, how easy it is to distinguish the galleries of an
arenaria from those of a Catacomb. These plans represent
a portion of the cemetery, commonly called of St Agnes, in the
Via Nomentana, and of a sand-pit which lies over it, (both drawn
to the same scale ;) and the greater width of the passages
excavated in the sand-pit, and the greater regularity of those
in the Catacomb, are characteristics which at once arrest the
attention, and suffice to impress upon our minds the essential
difference between thein.
At first, the work of making the Catacombs was done openly,
without let or hindrance, by the Christians ; the entrances to
them were public on the high-road or on the hill-side, and the
galleries and chambers were freely decorated with paintings of
a sacred character. But early in the third century, it became
necessary to withdraw them as much as possible from the
public eye ; new and often difficult entrances were now effected
ft
Fig. 3. —Part of Catacomb ofSt Agnes-
in the recesses of deserted arenaria, and even the liberty of
Christian art was cramped and fettered, lest what was holy
should fall under the profane gaze of the unbaptized.
Each of these burial-places was called in ancient times either
hypogeenm, i.e., generically, a subterranean place, or emmeterium, Explanation
, . , , . . . . , . , , of terms,
a sleeping-place, a new name of Christian origin, which the
Pagans could only repeat, probably without understanding;*"
sometimes also martyrium, or confessw,^ (its Latin equivalent,)
to signify that it was the burial-place of martyrs or confessors
of the faith. An ordinary grave was called locus or locultts, if
* Euseb. H.E. vii. 1 1.
t Hence the crypt under the high altar of the Vatican Basilica is called
the Confession, i.e., the tomb, of St Peter.
3Q Roma Sotterranea.
it contained a single body ; or bisomum, trisomum, or quadriso-
mum, if it contained two, three, or four. The graves were
dug by fossores, and burial in them was called depositio. The
galleries do not seem to have had any specific name ; but the
chambers were called cubicula. In most of these chambers, and
sometimes also in the galleries themselves, one or more tombs
are to be seen of a more elaborate kind ; a long oblong chasse,
like a sarcophagus, either hollowed out in the rock or built
Fig. 4. —A rcosolium.
up of masonry, and closed by a heavy slab of marble lying
horizontally on the top. The niche over tombs of this kind
was of the same length as the grave, and generally vaulted
in a semi-circular fonn, whence they were called arcosolia*
Sometimes, however, the niche retained the rectangular form,

in which case there was no special name for it, but for dis
tinction's sake we may be allowed to call it a table-tomb.t
* Solium was used to denote the urn of marble or terra cotta, in which
the Pagans sometimes buried their dead,
t De Rossi calls it sepolcro a niensa.
Those of the arcosolia which were also the tombs of martyrs

were used on the anniversaries of their deaths (Natalitia, or
birthdays) as altars whereon the holy mysteries were cele
brated ; hence, whilst some of the cubicula were only family-
vaults, others were chapels, or places of public assembly. It
is probable that the holy mysteries were celebrated also in the
private vaults, on the anniversaries of the deaths of their occu
pants ; and each one was sufficiently large in itself for use on
these private occasions ; but in order that as many as possible
Fig. 6. —Interior ofa Cubicutmn in St Agnes, with chairs atui bench hewn out ot
the rock.
might assist at the public celebrations, two, three, or even four
of the cubicula were often made close together, all receiving
light and ventilation through one shaft or air-hole, (luminare,)
pierced through the superincumbent soil up to the open air.
In this way as many as a hundred persons might be collected
in some parts of the Catacombs to assist at the same act of
public worship ; whilst a still larger number might have been
dispersed in the cubicula of neighbouring galleries, and received
there the Bread of life, brought to them by the assistant priests

and deacons. Indications of this arrangement are not only to
be found in ancient ecclesiastical writings; they may still be
seen in the very walls of the Catacombs themselves, episcopal
chairs, chairs for the presiding deacon or deaconess, and
benches for the faithful, having formed part of the original
design when the chambers were hewn out of the living rock,
and still remaining where they were first made.
Catacombs By and by, when peace was restored to the Church, the
shnnesl6l' " Catacombs were constantly visited as objects of pious interest,
.and of course the graves of the Popes and other principal
martyrs became special centres of attraction. The number
of the faithful who flocked to these shrines on the annual
recurrence of their respective festivals was immense ; so that
it became necessary to provide more commodious means of
entrance and exit, and in other ways to enlarge and improve
the chapels within. Pope Damasus distinguished himself
above others in his devotion to this work : he also set up a
number of inscriptions at various places, generally written in
verse, and all engraved by the same artist, in which he some
times commemorates the triumphs of the martyrs, and some
times his own work of restoration or decoration at the tomb.
The festivals continued to be celebrated here as long as the
bodies of the martyrs remained in their original resting-places,
till the transla- But these having been desecrated, and sometimes plundered,
a.i>. 750 ; ' by the Lombards and other invaders of Rome, all the principal
e'ân'd f^1 relics were removed into the city-churches by the care of succes-
tjotten. sive Popes, during a period of sixty or seventy years, beginning
from the middle of the eighth century; and when this had been
done, the catacombs were naturally neglected, and by degrees
forgotten. They remained in oblivion for nearly seven cen
turies and a half, so that when Onuphrius Panvinius, an
Augustinian friar, considered the marvel of his age for learn
ing and industry, published a work in 1578 on the " Ceremonies
of Christian Burial and the Ancient Christian Cemeteries," he
could only gather their names from the Acts of the martyrs
and other ancient documents. He expressly states that only
three of them were at all accessible,—that at St Sebastian's,
that at San Lorenzo, meaning (as is clear from his description)
the single gallery which may yet be seen from the window of
the chapel of St Cyriaca in the Basilica itself, and that of St
Valentine on the Via Flaminia, which lay under property
belonging to his own order. It happened, however, that in
this same year, 1578, an accident brought to light another of Re-discovere<l
the ancient cemeteries, far more interesting than either of
these ; and a desire was soon enkindled, both in the interests
of religion and of learning, to know something more about
such venerable monuments of antiquity. But this could only
be the fruit of much time and labour ; it was impossible to
reconstruct their history, which had been lost, except by a
careful examination of them, and a comparison of their con
tents with the notices to be discovered in ancient books. It
has been already shown invpur sketch of the Literary History
of the Catacombs, how this work has been attempted by many
authors, during the last two hundred years, with various
degrees of success ; and how, in our own day, the Commen-
datore de Rossi, having had his interest awakened to the
subject from his earliest youth, having devoted to its study
great natural abilities and untiring industry for more than
twenty years, and having, moreover, enjoyed some advantages
beyond most of his predecessors, has far outstripped them all
both in the extent and importance of his discoveries. Hence
the opportunity and the necessity for the present volume, which
aims only at putting within the reach of English readers the
fruit of De Rossi's labours. Treading faithfully in his foot
steps, we propose first to trace the history of the Catacombs
from their beginning, and then to describe the cemetery of St
Callixtus in particular ; after which we shall consider the light
which they throw upon early Christian art and doctrine. But
in order that this work may be done well, and that we may
c
34 Roma Sotterranca
satisfy our readers that the history we shall give rests on a sure
foundation, it is necessary that we should go back to the first
introduction of Christianity into Rome, and make a brief
review of the legal and social position of its professors even
from the days of the Apostles.
Fig. 7.- Section of Chambers in Catacomb ofSaints Mamllbu attd J'ietro, shewing
lower etui ifthe shaft ofthe ii.rn.uare, with dovepainted on it.
CHAPTER IL
THE SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS POSITION OF THE FIRST

ROMAN CHRISTIANS.
THE first sowing of the seed of the gospel in the metro- Among the
. _ first Christians
polls of the ancient Pagan world is involved in some m Rome
obscurity. It is certain, however, that it must have been
almost simultaneous with the birth of Christianity. For we
know that among the witnesses of the miracle of Pentecost
were "strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes;"* and on
the return of these strangers to their homes, the wonderful
sight they had witnessed would be at once communicated to
others, and the solemn tidings they had heard would be circu
lated from mouth to mouth among the Jews of the capital.
Moreover, the Gentile converts in " the Italian band," t of
which Cornelius was a centurion, probably returned to their
native city soon after the appointment of Herod Agrippa to
the kingdom of Judea, at the accession of Caligula, and these
too would have given a fresh impulse to the movement ; and
if St Peter, who had been about the same time miraculously
released from prison, accompanied them from Caesarea, this
would agree with the tradition which assigns a.d. 42 as the
date of the coming of the Prince of the Apostles to Rome.
At any rate, the faith of the Roman Christians was " spoken
of in the whole world "J as early as a.d. 57; and it is the
opinion of learned and impartial judges that, even from the were native
first, there were several of noble blood and high rank who ^r^w and
made profession of this faith. " From the time of Caesar Jews-
* Acts ii. 10, 11. t lb. x. 1. + Rom. i. 8.
downwards," says Mr Merivale, " Jews had thrust themselves

into every Roman society, and not least into the highest. . .
Many citizens of every rank had more or less openly addicted
themselves to Jewish usages and tenets ; and when a Jewish
sect ventured to transfer its obedience from the law of Moses
to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the number of its adherents in
the capital of the empire would seem to have embraced Jews,
Greeks, and Romans in nearly equal proportions." *
Scattered We are not unmindful of the Apostle's testimony relative to
them6* ° the Church at Corinth—viz., that " there were not amongst
them many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble ;"t nevertheless everything combines to show
that the spread of Christianity among the higher classes, and
even among the imperial families at Rome, was more exten
sive, from the very earliest times, than either the records of
ecclesiastical history or the pious legends of the Church
would have led us to expect. Indeed, it is easy to see how
scanty and imperfect these are. Thus no memorial has reached
us of the names or condition of those " of Caesar's household "
to whom St Paul sent a special salutation ; of Flavius Clemens,
the consul and relative of Domitian, we know little beyond
the fact of his martyrdom ; of Apollonius, the senator and
martyr under Commodus, we only know that little which
Eusebius has told us, writing so long after (fie event, and at
so great a distance from the scene of it. Ancient metrical
inscriptions have been found, celebrating the praises of another
noble patrician, named Liberalis, holding the highest office in
the State, and laying down his life for the faith, whose memory
in all other respects is buried in oblivion. Other inscriptions
also have been found, in more recent times, recording the
burial, by their husbands, of noble Roman ladies of senatorial
rank (elarissima), in the common graves of the galleries in the
most ancient parts of the Roman cemeteries. It was only
* History of the Romans under the Empire, vii. 380. See also vi. 436,
et seq. . t I Cor. i. 26.
Position of the First Roman Christians. 37
from the pages of a Pagan historian* that we knew of the pro

fession of Christianity, or at least of a great interest in it and
partiality towards it, by Marcia, concubine of Commodus,
until, in our own day, this intelligence has been confirmed and
enlarged by the newly-discovered Philosophumena. Ter-
tullian,t again, writing at the beginning of the third century,
tells us that Septimius Severus protected Christian senators
and their wives, but says nothing as to their names or number,
excepting indeed that in another place he says boldly, before
the whole Pagan world, that not only were the cities of the
Roman empire full of Christian people, but even the senate
and the palace.
One cause of the extreme scantiness of our information as chiefly
to the early Christians in Rome is doubtless the destruction of Pagan
all ecclesiastical records during the last terrible persecution by
Diocletian ; and there was nothing in the temper or practices
of Christianity to commend it as a special theme for Pagan
writers. Nevertheless it was not altogether overlooked by
them ; and we know, from the testimony of Eusebius, % that
some at least wrote about it whose histories have not reached
us. Indeed it is to Pagan rather than to Christian writers that
we are indebted for our knowledge of some of the most -
interesting and remarkable facts in the annals of the early
Church. One of these it will be well for us to dwell upon at
some length in this place, as the history of a Catacomb depends
upon it : we allude to the early conversion of some of the e.g., of
family of the Flavii Augusti, that is, of the family which gave avli-
Vespasian to the throne. His elder brother, Titus Flavius
Sabinus, had been Prefect of the city in the year in which the
Princes of the Apostles, Sts Peter and Paul, suffered martyrdom ;
and it is certain, therefore, that he must have been brought into
contact with them, and heard something of the Christian faith.
He is described by the great historian of the empire as a
• Tacitus Hist. iii. 65, 75. t Ad ScapuL c. 4.
% Hist. Keel. iii. 18.
man whose innocence and justice were unimpeachable ;* a
mild man, who had a horror of all unnecessary shedding of
blood and violence. Towards the close of his life, he was
accused by some of great inactivity and want of interest in
public affairs ; others thought him only a man of moderation,
anxious to spare the lives of his fellow-citizens ; others again
spoke of his retiring habits as the natural result of the infirmi
ties of old age. Whilst we listen to all these conjectures as
to the cause of a certain change which seems to have come
over him in his declining years, the question naturally occurs
to us, whether it is possible that he can have had some lean
ings towards the Christian faith, or even been actually con
verted to it ? It is a question which cannot now be answered ;
but at least it is certain that charges of this kind were com
monly urged against Christians ;\ and the fact that some of his
descendants in the next generation were undoubtedly of this
faith, gives a certain degree of probability to the conjecture.
Flavius Sabinus seems to have had four children, of whom the
most conspicuous was Titus Flavius Clemens, the consul and
martyr. He married the daughter of his cousin, who was
sister to the Emperor Domitian, and called by the same name
as her mother, Flavia Domitilla. Flavia Domitilla the
younger bore her husband, the consul, two sons, who were
named respectively, Vespasian junior, and Domitian junior,
having been intended to succeed to the throne ; and the
famous QuinctilianJ was appointed by the Emperor himself
to be their tutor. At what time their parents became Chris
tians, and what was the history of their conversion, we do not
know ; but the facts of Clement's martyrdom and Domitilla's
banishment are attested by Dio Cassius.§ His words are, that
" Domitian put to death several persons, and amongst them
Flavius Clemens, the consul, although he was his nephew, and
* Tacitus Hist. iii. 65, 75.

t " Infructuosi in negotiis dicimur."— Tertull. Apol., ji 42.
* Inslit. iv. 1, ji 2. S Hist, lxvii. 1,5.
although he had Flavia Domitilla for his wife, who also was a
relation of the Emperor's. The charge of atheism was brought
against them both, on which charge many others also had
been condemned, going after the manners and customs of the
Jews ; and some of them were put to death, and others had
their goods confiscated ; but Domitilla was only banished to
Pandatereia," an island opposite the Gulf of Gaeta, half-way
between Ponza and Ischia, now known by the name of Sta.
Maria. Learned critics are agreed that the atheism and adop
tion of Jewish manners, here urged against Flavius Clemens
and his wife, were in reality nothing else than a profession of
Christianity, the charge of atheism never having been brought
specifically against the Jews.* Both Christian and Pagan
writers alike testify to the persecution which Domitian insti
tuted against Christians towards the end of his life ; and we
cannot understand the motives which have led some modern
writers to call it in question. However, we are not at present
concerned with this fact. We only care to insist upon the
Christianity of this branch of the imperial family, and the
martyrdom of the consul, facts whose importance will soon be
recognised. Had it been handed down in any Acts of the
Martyrs that, immediately after the death of the apostles, Chris
tianity was within an ace of mounting the imperial throne,
that a cousin and niece of the Emperor not only professed the
new religion, but also suffered exile, and even death itself, on its
account, we can imagine with what vehemence the pious legend
would have been laughed to scorn by many modern critics ;
but the testimony of Dio Cassius, to which we may add per
haps that of Suetonius also, is received with greater respect.t
There was yet a third lady of the same noble family, bearing st Domitill
the same name of Flavia Domitilla, who was a granddaughter
(on the mother's side) of Titus Flavius Sabinus, and conse
quently a niece of the consul. She, too, suffered banishment,
like her aunt, and for the same cause—profession of the
* Merivalc, vii. 381. t He accuses the consul " contemptissima inertia"
Christian faith. It is in speaking of this lady that Eusebius

has that striking passage to which we have already referred,
and which testifies so clearly to the marvellous spread of the
Christian religion, even before the expiration of the first
century. He has just had occasion to mention the latter
part of Domitian's reign, and he says : " The teaching of our
faith had by this time shone so far and wide, that even Pagan
historians did not refuse to insert in their narratives some
account of the persecution and the martyrdoms that were
suffered in it. Some, too, have marked the time accurately,
mentioning, amongst many others, in the fifteenth year of
Domitian, (a. d. 97,) Flavia Domitilla, the daughter of a
sister of Flavius Clemens, one of the Roman consuls of those
days, who, for her testimony for Christ, was punished by
exile to the island of Pontia." The same writer, in his
" Chronicon," * gives the name of one of the authors to whom
he refers, and that name is Bruttius. It is worth remembering,
for we shall meet it again in the cemetery of the vejy same
St Domitilla whose exile he had recorded. He was a friend
of the younger Pliny, and the grandfather of Crispina, wife of
the Emperor Commodus.
It is generally supposed that there is another still more
ancient notice, by a Pagan writer, of the conversion to
Christianity of a Roman lady of rank, which ought not,
therefore, to be altogether omitted ; we mean that by Tacitus,
of Pomponia Grecina, the wife of Plautius, who conquered
Britain under Claudius. We read that, in the year 58, this
lady was accused of having embraced the rites of " a foreign
superstition ;" that the matter was referred to the judgment
of her husband, in the presence of a number of her relations,
who pronounced her innocent ; that she lived afterwards to
a great age, but " in continual sadness ;" no one, however,
interfered with her in this matter any more, and in the end
* St Hieronym. Interp. Chron. Eus. Pamph., a.d. 98, Opera, tom, viii.,
p. 6oC, ed. Migne.
it was considered the glory of her character.* It must be

confessed that the language in which this history is recorded
is not so precise as what we have read from Dio about the
Flavii, neither has the history itself so intimate a connexion
with the Catacombs ; nevertheless it has its point of contact
with them, and the ordinary interpretation of the " foreign
superstition," as having been intended for Christianity, has
lately received considerable confirmation from an inscription
found in the Catacomb of St Callixtus, showing that a person
of the same name and family was certainly a Christian in the
next generation, and buried in that cemetery.
These glimpses at the social condition of the first Roman The political
. position of the
Christians, slight and imperfect as they are, are valuable ; and first Chris-
when we come to study the first period in the history of the tians-
Catacombs, they will be found to furnish some very interesting
examples of "undesigned coincidences." A still more im
portant subject, however, and one on which it is happily
much more easy to throw sufficient light, is the political or
religious position of Christians in the eye of the law, and
consequently their freedom with reference to the rites and
usages of burial.
It is certain that, at first, the Imperial Government looked They were re-
upon the Christians as only a sect of the Jews. Gallio, the fecfofth^
proconsul of Achaia, drove both Paul and his accusers from Jews-
his tribunal, refusing to adjudicate upon " questions of a word
and of names, and of your law."t Claudius Lysias wrote to
Felix, procurator of Judea, saying that Paul had been accused
before him " concerning questions of the Jewish law;"J and
Festus explained to Agrippa that the clamours of the Jews
against the Apostle were about " certain questions of their
own superstition, and of one Jesus, deceased, whom Paul
affirmed to be alive."§ The very terms in which Suetonius ||
* " Mox in gloriam vertit."—Anna!, xiii. 32. t Acts xviii. 12-17.

% lb. xxiii. 29. S lb. xxv. 19.
II " Impulsore Chrcsto."—Sutt. hi Claud, xxv.
Roma Sotterranea.
mentions the expulsion of the Jews from Rome under Claudius,

and which we know included the Christians Aquila and
Priscilla,* while they indicate a disturbance raised by the
Jews against the faith, show at the same time that, in the eyes
of Romans, both the Jews and the Christians were regarded
as belonging to one and the same religion. Indeed it is not
easy to see how the Romans could take any other view of
the matter, since it was notorious that the Christians worship
ped the God of Moses and the Prophets, and claimed that
their religion was the fulfilment of all the promises, types,
and figures of Judaism, and thus enjoyed the protection
afforded to Judaism.
Now Judaism, both in its national customs and its distinctive
religious rites, " even in Rome itself," was expressly recognised
and protected by the Roman laws from the days of Julius
Caesar ;t and though under Tiberius, J and (as we have just
seen) under Claudius, the Jews were banished from the city,
yet this was merely a temporary suspension of the decree of
the same emperor, which permitted " the Jews, who are in all
the world under us, to keep their ancient customs without
being hindered so to do."§ This is proved by the fact of
St Paul, a few years afterwards, finding at Rome very many
Jews, and being allowed to assemble them at his lodgings,
and preach to them without prohibition. || From inscrip
tions on Jewish Catacombs, and from incidental expressions
in Suetonius, it is evident that this protection extended to
both classes of proselytes. As long, therefore, as the Christian
Church continued to be confounded with the Jewish religion,
the Christians would enjoy the protection of the law both
in their assemblies and in the burial of their dead. They were
akin to the Jewish religion, as Tertullian says,1l "and lived
* Acts xviii. 2. t Joseph. Ant. xiv. 10, 8. J lb. xviii. 3, 5.

§ lb. xix. 5, 3. II Acts xxviii. 17—31.
"\ "Nosquoque ut Judaicie religionis propiuques, sub umbiaculo in>i^nis-
>im;v religionis n-rlt* lii'ilu"— IWtnlL Ad Nationcs, i. I !.
under the shadow of that most famous religion, about whose

lawfulness there was no question."
The Jews, however, vigorously denounced their supposed Christian reli
gion proscribed
co-religionists, and became, in Rome, as elsewhere, the first by the Roman
cause of the persecution of the Church.* Thenceforward it law' a'D' 64°
became necessary that the Roman Government should either
legally recognise the Christian religion as well as the Jewish,
or else proscribe it.t The burning of Rome by Nero, and his First persecu-
false accusations and unjust punishment of the Christians, tlon'
decided between these alternatives. " This," says Sulpicius
Severus, speaking probably with exact historical accuracy,
" was the beginning of cruelties against Christians ; afterwards,
the religion was forbidden even by express laws, and decrees
were published declaring it to be illegal to be a Christian." J
It does not appear, however, that there was any further open
persecution of Christians for a period of thirty years after
Nero. Domitian, as we have seen, renewed it, banishing Domitian.
and putting to death even members of his own family. The
same Emperor also persecuted the Jews and their proselytes
for matters connected with the fiscal regulations. § Both Jews
and Christians, however, were protected by his successor,
Nerva,|| so that Iâctantius, or whoever else may have been Nerva.
the author of the work " De Mortibus Persecutorum" even goes
so far as to say (c. 3) that the Church was then restored to her
former condition of liberty. This, however, must not be inter
preted too strictly, for the statutes which created the distinc
tion between the impiety or " atheism " of the Christians, and
the " religion " of the Jews and proselytes, had never been
repealed ; and their operation, though for awhile suspended,
could be revived at any time, as in fact it was on the death of
Nerva. Pliny's famous letter to Trajan distinctly says that Pliny's letter
to Trajan, a.l>.
* Merivale, vi. p. 449, note viii. p. 361 ; Mamachi Orig., tom. i. lib. vi. 5. 104.
t " As soon as the Christians established their independence of Judaism,
they fell under the ban of an illicit religion."—Merivale, vii. 381.
X Sulp. Sev. Hist. ii. 41. S Sueton. in Domit. xii.
I Tertiill. Apolog. 5.
the Christians worshipped Christ as God; and the Emperor's

reply leaves no doubt as to the state of the law, for while he
counsels Pliny not to originate active measures against them,
nor to seek for them, yet he tells him that if they were denounced,
and brought before the tribunal, the laws required that they
should be punished, unless they consented to renounce their
faith. Non licet esse vos I * was the cruel but plain letter of the
Roman law against the very existence of the Christians, and their
only means of escape were to be found in the hindrances put
in the way of accusers by benevolent and tolerant princes.
And even this did not always prove a sufficient protection,
when the malevolence of individuals insisted on pressing the
execution of the law. Thus, when the Senator Apollonius,
in the reign of Commodus, was accused of Christianity, the
informer was condemned to be broken on the wheel ; but
Apollonius was required to defend himself before the Senate,
and suffered martyrdom by decapitation, " as there was a law
of long standing with them, that those who had been once led
to trial, and would by no means change their purpose, should
not be dismissed." t From the time of Nero, then, the sword
was always suspended over the Church. "Sometimes it
descended, and the disciples, always insecure, were made
to suffer ; for, whenever the jealousy of the State was awakened,
no special edict was required to drag them before the altar of
Jupiter, and invite them to sprinkle it with incense, and con
ceive a vow to the genius of the Emperor," % which, if they
refused, they were at once liable to capital punishment as
traitors and rebels. It is no part of our present purpose to
pursue the history of the Church's fortunes through all its
vicissitudes during the first three centuries. It is enough to
have given this general outline, and to have pointed out the
principle on which they depended. How this affected the
origin and development of the Roman Catacombs will appear
more clearly in the sequel.
* Tertull. Apolog. vi. 4. f Euscb. II. E. v. 21. J Merivale, vi. 451.
CHAPTER III.
ROMAN LAWS AND CUSTOMS AFFECTING BURIAL.
IT does not follow, from the refusal of the Roman law to Christian se-
, , pulchres pro-
protect, or even to tolerate Christianity, that the sepul- tect«l by ordi-
chres of those who professed it would be interfered with. jaws of
Neither the correspondence of Pliny and Trajan, nor any other
cotemporary document of the first two centuries, can be
alleged in proof oi any difficulty attending Christian burial, or
any necessity for concealment. In fact, it required a special
decree against the Christian cemeteries, such as we first meet
with in a.d. 203, to exclude them from the protection ex
tended by law over all burial-places. No classical scholar
need be reminded of the sacred character which attached to
such places among the civilised peoples of antiquity. In
Athens it entered into the preliminary examination of men
chosen to fill the highest offices of the State, whether they had
been negligent in the care of their father's sepulchre.* In Privileges of
t. , . .... , , . r ... , Koman tombs.
Rome, land which had been once used for purposes of burial
was protected by special privileges of the law. It did not,
indeed, ipso facto become sacer, for this could only be effected
by all the ceremonies of a ritual consecration ; but it became,
in the technical language of the time, religiosus ;t and one of
the chief consequences of this religious character, which hence
forth attached to it, was its exemption from many of the laws
which regulated the tenure or transfer of property. It could
* Xen. Mem. ii. 2, § 13.
t " Religiosum locum unusquisque sua voluntate facit, dum mortiuim
infert in locum suum.— Marcian. Digest, i. 8, 6, § 4.
46 Roma Sotterranca.
not become the lawful property of a man by usucapio, or pre
scription ;* and it was inalienable, belonging exclusively and
for ever to the families of those who had been buried in it.
In times of war, and during any prolonged period of civil
disturbance, those rights were probably not always strictly
observed ; but the law, at least, remained always the same.
Hence the frequent recurrence on ancient Roman monu
ments of these letters, or something equivalent to them—
H.M.H.EX.T.N.S., (Hoc monumentum haredes ex testamento
ne sequatur ;) in other words, " This tomb and all that belongs
to it is sacred : henceforth it can neither be bought nor sold ;
it does not descend to my heirs with the rest of my property ;
but must ever remain inviolate for the purpose to which I have
destined it, viz., as a place of sepulture for myself and my
family," or certain specified members only of the family ; or,
in some rare instances, others also, not of the same family.
Thus, without any desire on his part, the Christian, by the
mere fact of burying his dead, put his sepulchre under the pro
tection of the Roman laws, and though he himself might be an
outlaw, yet his burial-place was secure from disturbance, and
under the guardianship of the Pontifices, who from time to time
inspected the tombs, and without whose permission no serious
alteration could be made.t
Christian mar- The Roman Government also permitted the bodies of those
the honours of who had forfeited their lives to the law to be delivered up for
burial. burial to any who asked for them. J Diocletian and Maximin
distinctly confirmed, by a new edict, this merciful provision ;
* Cic. De Legibus, ii. 24.

t De Rossi [Bnllettino, 1865, pp. 89, 90] shows that this permission was
only necessary as far as the portion of the sepulchre above ground was
concerned, and that there was a regular system of fees which removed all
difficulties. In fact, so insignificant were these, that the Christian Emperor^
Constans confirmed the Pagan l'ontifices in their authority over Roman
sepulchres.
X " Corpora animadversorum quibuslibii petentibus ad sepulturam danda
sunt."—Digest, xlviii. 24, 2. This law illustrates the fact of " Joseph of
Arimathea going in to Pilate and begging the Body of Jesus."
Roman Laws and Customs affecting Burial. 47
and it was only under very special ciicumstances, says Ulpian,

that this permission was ever refused. Of course, we know
from ecclesiastical history that some of the Christian martyrs
were precisely among the few who were excepted, and the
reason of the exception is expressly mentioned, viz., that the
faithful who survived might not have the consolation they so
highly prized, of preserving and honouring the sacred relics.
Still there is no trace in the first two centuries of such prohibi
tion ; and, as a matter of fact, some of the most ancient
Catacombs had their origin from this very circumstance, that a
pious Christian, generally a Roman matron of noble rank,
buried the remains of some famous martyr on her own pro
perty.
The extent to which the private burial-places of Roman Size of Roman
Christians could be made available for the necessities of their a^pied for S
brethren in the faith, will appear more clearly if we consider Christian
11 ' cemeteries.
that not only was the sepulchre itself invested with a sacred
character, but the Roman law included in its protection also
the area in which the monument stood, the hypogenm, or sub
terranean chamber, which not unfrequently was formed beneath
it, and perhaps even the buildings, gardens, and other pos
sessions attached to it. Letters inscribed upon most of the
sepulchral monuments which line the public roads leading
into Rome tell us how many feet of frontage, and how many
feet backwards into the field, belonged to the monument.
IN • FR • P. [so many] ; IN - AG " P. [so many] : In fronte,
pedes — ; In agro, pedes —. From these inscriptions it ap
pears that quite a moderate-sized area for a Roman sepulchre
might have extended 125 Roman feet, more or less, each
way. The classical example in Horace* gives us 1000 feet
by 300. Sometimes of course it was very much less, e.g., 16
feet square, 24 feet by 15, &c. Sometimes also it was very Ancient plan
much larger; for instance, 1800 feet by 500 is the measure- °|^pulchral
ment given on a marble slab, once a part of the monument
* 1 Sat. viii. 12.
48 Roman Laws and Customs affecting Burial.
itself, which was dug up many years ago on the Via Labicana,
and given to the museum at Urbino. On this slab, not only
are the usual measurements of frontage and depth carefully
recorded, but also the private or public roads which crossed
the property, the gardens and vineyards of which it consisted,
the swampy land on which grew nothing but reeds, (it is called
Harundinetum,) and the ditch by which, on one side at least,
it was bounded. Unfortunately the slab is not perfect, so that
we cannot tell the exact measurements of the whole. Enough,
however, remains to show that the property altogether was not
less than twelve Roman jugera,ox nearh/350,000 square feet; and
other inscriptions are extant, specifying an amount of property
almost equal to this, as belonging to a single monument (eg.,
Huic monumento cedunt agri purijugera decem).* The necessity
for so large an assignment of property to a single tomb was
not so much the vastness of the mausoleum to be erected, as
because certain funeral-rites were to be celebrated there year by
year, sacrifices to be offered, feasts to be given, &c. ; and for
these purposes semicircular recesses (exedrat)wem provided, with
sofas, and all things necessary for the convenience of guests.
A house also (cttstodia) was often added, in which the person
lived who looked after the monument, and provided the requi
sites for the annual festivals, and for his support the gardens,
vineyards, &c., were set apart as a perpetual endowment.
Plan of Cata- The Catacombs themselves not only illustrate these remarks,
combs shows
the mode and by showing the care that was taken lest the subterranean exca-
excavations6 vations should transgress the limits assigned above ground to
the area of the sepulchre ; but also show how a comparatively
small area might be made available for the burial of a great
number of bodies. The crypt of St Lucina, for example, which
now forms part of the Catacomb of St Callixtus, and in which
St Cornelius was buried in the middle of the third century,
was originally confined within an area the dimensions of which
can be exactly determined— 100 feet in froute, 180 in agro :
* Gruter, Inscript. p. cccxcix. I.
and there was a building of some kind above it, which in the
beginning of the fourth century, (prior to the conversion of
Constantine,) if not at a much earlier period, was certainly in
the possession of the Christians. Now in this crypt M. de
Rossi has counted upwards of 700 loculi, and considers that,
allowing for galleries destroyed, and others not yet thoroughly
explored, 2000 would be a very moderate figure at which to
estimate the number of persons buried within this area, which
forms a very small and by no means crowded part of the
cemetery of St Callixtus.
Hitherto we have considered the facilities afforded by the Funeral con-

Roman laws relating to private mausoleums, under cover of Rom'"'"65
which individual Christians, possessing property, might, by
observing the requisite formalities, secure to themselves and
to their poorer brethren an inalienable resting place for their
dead. But though the charity of the more wealthy Christians
was in the early ages proverbial, and we may be sure that they
took heed to the burial of the poor, and even of the slaves,
whose bodies were laid side by side with their masters in the
Christian cemeteries,* yet as, from apostolic example, we
find that the Church, in its corporate capacity, provided for
the maintenance of those Christians who were unable to main
tain themselves,+ it is worth while to inquire whether there
were any provisions under the Roman laws whereby a society
of men might hold a place of burial in the name and for the
use of the members of that society. Now, a multitude of tes
timonies have come down to us of the existence, both in
republican and imperial Rome, of a number of collegia, as they
were called,—corporations, confraternities, guilds or clubs, as
we should rather call them,—whose members were associated
with a view to the due performance of the funeral-rites. In-
* " Apud nos inter pauperes et divites, servos et dominos interest nihil."
—Lactant. Dtv.Hnst. v. 14, 15.
t Acts ii. 44, 45 ; iv. 34-37 ; vi. 1 ; 1 Tim. v. 16.
5o Roma Sotterranea.
scnptions, which are still extant, testify to nearly eighty of
these collegia, each consisting of the members of a different
trade or profession. There are the masons and carpenters,
soldiers and sailors, bakers and cooks, corn-merchants and
wine-merchants, hunters and fishermen, goldsmiths and black
smiths, dealers in drugs and carders of wool, boatmen and
divers, doctors and bankers, scribes and musicians ; in a
word, it would be hard to say what trade or employment had
not its collegium. Nor was this the only bond of fellowship
upon which such confraternities were built. Sometimes (gene
rally, indeed) the members were united in the worship of
some deity. They were cultores Jovis, or Hcrculis, or Apollinis
et Diana. Sometimes they merely took the title of some
deceased benefactor whose memory they desired to honour,
e.g., cullores statuarum et dipeorum L. Abulli Dextri; and
sometimes the only bond of union appears to have been
service in the same house or family.* A long and curious
Description of mscrip':ion! belonging to a collegium which consisted mainly
a funeral con- of slaves, and was erected " in honour of Diana and An-
frutcrnity
tinous, and for the burial of the dead" in the year a.d. 133,
reveals a number.of most interesting particulars as to its inter
nal organisation, which it will not be altogether beside our
purpose to repeat. A certain fixed sum was to be paid on
entrance, with a keg of good wine besides, and then so much
a month afterwards. For every member who had regularly
paid up his contribution, so much was to be allowed for his
funeral, a certain proportion of which was to be distributed
amongst those who assisted. If a member died at a distance
of more than twenty miles from Rome, three of the confrater
nity were to be sent to fetch the body, and so much was to be
* One collegium was " convictomm qui una epulo vesci solent.'1 Can
this vague and ambiguous phraseology have been adopted by some con
gregation of Christians for the purpose of concealment ? See Bullettino,
1864, 62. A collegium quod est in liomo Sergia Paulina, reminds us of " the
Church which is in their house," (Rom. xvi. 5.) It is also worthy of notice
that the ancient privileges of these collegia were confirmed by an edict of
Septimius Severus about A n. 200.
Roman Laws and Customs affecting Burial. 5 1
allowed them for travelling expenses. If the master of the

slave would not give up the body, the deceased member was
nevertheless to receive all the funeral-rites. He was to be
buried in effigy. If any of the members, being a slave,
received his freedom, he owed the collegium an amphora of
good wine. The newly-elected president (magister) must
inaugurate his accession to office by giving a supper to all
the members. Six times a year the members dine together
in honour of Diana, Antinous, and the patron of the collegium ;
and the allowance of bread and wine on these occasions was
specified, —so much to every mess of four. No complaints or
disputed questions might be mooted at these festivals, " to the
end that our feasts may be merry and glad." Finally, who
ever wished to enter this confraternity, was requested to
study all the rules before he entered, that he might not
grumble afterwards, or leave a dispute as a legacy to his
heir. *
In connection with these collegia, it is to be remarked that, Christians
though the ordinary assemblies of the Christians were for- Jh^selvesof
bidden by' the edicts of Trajan
J against
° clubs (hctaria),
\ /' as the
tion !e8a} sanc
of these
appears from Pliny's letter, yet an exception was expressly societies,
made in favour of associations which consisted of " poorer
members of society, who met together every month to make a
small contribution towards the expenses of their funerals." t
To understand how Christians might shelter their funeral-
rites under this exception, we have only to recall the words in
which Tertullian describes to a heathen ruler the habits of
Christians at the end of the second century: "Every one
makes a small contribution, on a certain day in the month, or
when he chooses, provided he is only willing and able ; for no
one is compelled, all is voluntary. The amount is, as it were,
a common fund of piety ; since it is expended, not in feasting
* " Les Antonins," par le Cte. dc Champagny, tom, iii., Append. 399.
t '• Permittitur tenuioribus stipem menstruam conferre, dum tamen semel
in mense eoeant."—Digest, xlvii. 22, I.
or in drinking, or in indecent excesses, but in feeding and

burying the poor" &c. *
and even of This subject has lately received still further important illus-
hihTOnnecUonS trations from a Pagan will, which had once been engraved in
with funeral- marble on a Roman sepulchre in Langres : was copied thence
rites.
by some disciple of the school of Alcuin in the eighth or ninth
century ; and now two pages of his copy have been discovered
in the binding of a MS. of the tenth century in the library at
Basle. This curious document begins by ordering the com
pletion of the cella memories which the testator had already
commenced. It was to be finished in exact accordance with
the plan he should leave behind him ; in it were to be set up
tw o statues of himself of a certain size—the one in bronze, the
other in marble—and in front of it, an altar of the finest Carrara
marble, in which his bones should be laid. Provision was to
be made for the easy opening and shutting of this alla ;
couches and benches also were to be provided for those days
on which it was to be opened, and - even garments for the
guests.t Orchards and other property were assigned for the
maintenance of the sepulchre, which was left in charge of two
freedmen, who are named, and certain fines imposed upon the
heirs if they should allow this duty to be neglected. Finally,
all the testator's freedmen were to make a yearly contribution,
* " Modicam unusquisque stipem menstrua die, vel quum velit, et si

modo velit, ct si mcxlo possit, apponit .... Nam inde non epulis ....
sed egenis alendis humandisqxe," Sec.— Tert. Apol. 39.
t This reminds us of the history of the man in the gospel who "had
not on a wedding-garment." In the legal inventory of the goods which were
confiscated under Diocletian in Cista, "in the house where the Christians used
to meet," besides two chalices of gpld, and six of silver, and six cruets, and
seven candlesticks, all of the same metal, small brazen candlesticks and lamps
with their chains, there were found also eighty-two garments for women, six
teen for men, thirteen pairs of men's shoes, forty-seven of women's, &c.—Acta
Phigat: Coril: post Oplati Opera, ed. Dupin, 168. Nor is this the only
feature in this description whereby the reader will be reminded of the
agapa; or Christian love-feasts, which, before they had degenerated into the
scenes of excess and superstition so feelingly deplored and condemned by
the Fathers of the fifth century, were held at the tombs of the martyrs and
others of the faithful.
out of which a feast was to be provided on a certain day, and

duly consumed by them on the spot.
The constitution of the collegium, of which we have already
said so much, gives a long ordo canarum, or list of days on
which convivial entertainments were to be celebrated ; and in
this ordo there are such entries as the following :—viii Idus '.?.> Ordo ccc-
narum.
Martias natali Ceesenni patris . . . xiii k. Sept. natali Casetmi
Silvani frain's . . . xix Jan. natali Casenni Rufi patroni
municipi. Even the anniversary of the dedication, or first Anniversaries,
&c.
opening of the monument itself, seems sometimes to have been
celebrated : Natalis monumenti v. Id. Maias was lately found
on a pagan inscription. The eye-witnesses of St Ignatius'
martyrdom testify to the Christian practice of observing the
natalitia of the martyrs, for they make known " the day and
the time, that being assembled together at the season of his
martyrdom, we may communicate with the combatant and
noble martyr of Christ;"* and it must be obvious to all what
an admirable cover for this and other pious practices of
Christianity was provided by the existence of such institutions
as we have described. That they were actually so used by instance of
Christians seems almost certain when we compare with the their doinS so-
foregoing inscriptions the following Christian monument, dis
covered recently in the ruins of Caesarea, one of the Roman
towns in Africa : —
AREAM AT [AD] SEPVIXHRA CVLTOR VERBi CONTVUT

ET CELLAM STRVXIT SVIS CVNCTIS SVMPTIBVS
ECCLESI/E SANC1VE HANC RELIQV'IT MEMORIAM
SALVETE FRATRES PVRO CORDE ET SIMPL1CI
EVELP1VS VOS SATOS SANCTO SPIRITV
ECCLESIa FRATRVM HVNC RESTITVIT TITVLVM. MA I . SEVERIAN1 C. V
EX INC. . ASTF.RH
" Euelpius, a worshipper of the Word, has given this area for sepulchres,
* Mart. S. Ignat., 9, a.d. 107.

t Ex iugenio Asteri denotes that Asterius was the poet who composed
this epitaph. Cf. Tertull. Apol., c. 39-
and has built a cella entirely at his own cost. He left this memoria to the
Holy Church. Hail, brethren ! Euelpius with a pure and simple heart
salutes you, born of the Holy Spirit."
The identity of the expressions cultor verbi, arcam, cellant,
memoriam, with the corresponding terms used by the collegia,
can hardly be the result of accident. It is true that this in
scription, as we now have it, is not the original stone ; it is
expressly added at the foot of the tablet, that Ealesia fratrum*
has restored this tituhts, at a period subsequent to the perse
cution, during which the original had been destroyed ; but both
the sense and the words forbid us to suppose that any change
had been made in the language of the epitaph, to which we
cannot assign a date later than the middle of the third cen
tury. It may have been destroyed either in the persecution
of a.d. 257 or of 304.
First express From all that we have said, then, it appears certain that
edict against . , ,. , . , . r . .
Christian in earliest ages there was no special interference with
cemeteries. Christians in their burial of the dead, and therefore no special
a.it. 257. ' ?
necessity for secresyand concealment. In fact, the assemblies
of the Christians would be less liable to interruption at the
buildings erected over the burial-places than anywhere else.
And it seems that the fact of these assemblies being frequently
held there was the cause of the invasion of the sanctity of
Christian graves by popular violence and express legal enact
ments. The first historical notice of such an invasion which
has come down to us, belongs to Africa in the year a.d. 203.
We are then told by Tertullian, that at Carthage there was a
popular outcry raised dc arris sepulturarum nostrarum, and a
demand for their destruction. t These, however, were not
subterranean cemeteries, and probably differed externally in
little or nothing from the burial-places of the heathen which
surrounded them ; still they were known to belong to the
Christians as their exclusive property. The first general edict
* This very term, unknown to theology, savours of being adopted for
sake of concealment and its similarity to collegium convictorum, &c.
t " Arex non sint !"— Tertull. ad Scapulam, c. 3.
by which the Roman Catacombs were affected was published

by the Emperor Valerian, a d. 257, and was aimed rather at
their use as places of worship, or at least of secret assembly,
than as mere places of burial. After this, they enter expressly
into most, if not all, of the imperial edicts concerning the
Christians, so that the relations between the Roman laws and
the Christian cemeteries will henceforward be most conve
niently considered in our direct chronological account of the
Catacombs themselves.
VNI
Fin. 8.--Sepulchral Stene found in a cemetery on the l in Latitta.

CHAPTER IV.
BEGINNING OF THE CATACOMBS.
Roman burial- T T has been shown that there was nothing, either in the
mural.' social or religious position of the first Christians in Rome
to interfere with their freedom of action in the mode of dis
posing of their dead. The law left them entire liberty, and
there were not wanting to them either the means or the will
to discharge this duty in the most becoming way. There was
indeed one limit set to their liberty, viz., as to the choice of
place ; but this attached to all Roman sepulchres alike,* and
was not peculiar to the Christians. It was strictly forbidden
by the ancient laws to bury within the walls of the city ; and,
excepting in one or two instances where the pressure of per
secution forced them for a while to unusual secrecy, the
Christians seem never to have disregarded this prohibition.
The law was really restricted in its application to the old walls
of Servius Tullius ; but with the exception of the burial of Saints
John and Paul in their own house on the Cffilian, and the bodies
secretly buried by St Pudentiana, we do not find any trace
of a Christian cemetery within the circuit of the walls of
Aurelian and Honorius. Beyond these limits they were free
to consult their own convenience, laws, or tastes, in this
matter ; and being a mixed company of Greeks, Romans, and
Jews, they had the examples of various nations from which
to choose. Among the Greeks, the corpse was either buried
or burnt; both practices appear to have been always used
* Even thc few privileged families who had a legal right of burial within
the w alls did not avail themselves of it.— Cic. de Leg. ii. 23.
Beginning of the Catacombs. 57
to a greater or less extent at different periods. In Rome,
the ordinary custom, at least from the later times of the
Republic, was not to bury, but to burn, the bodies of the dead,
and to enclose the ashes in an urn. The urn was then placed
in a recess in the family sepulchre, which, from its containing Pagan colum-
a number of these little niches, like so many pigeon-holes, was othe'r''toml>s,
called a columbarium or dove-cot. This, however general, and
latterly almost universal, was not the primitive custom.*
Warriors, lying at full length in their armour, have been found
in Etruscan tombs, and outside the ancient Porta Capena
(though within the present walls of Rome) may still be seen
the sepulchre of the Scipios, with its full-sized sarcophagi,
showing that that great family followed the ancient practice.
Fabretti gives another example, which he saw four miles out of
Rome, on the Via Flaminia, on which road are also the sepul
chres of the Nasones, described by Bartoli. These latter, and
some others that might be named, resemble the plan which was
adopted by the Christians more closely than do the tombs
of the Scipios, inasmuch as they have chambers cut in the
tufa, with horizontal niches for bodies ; whereas the tombs of
the Scipios are both irregular in form, as though the place
had been a deserted quarry, and have no graves cut in the
wall, but only recesses for sarcophagi, which are half-buried,
as it were, in the living rock.t The principal marks which
distinguish these Pagan sepulchres from the Christian ceme- contrasted
, . . . . with Christian
tenes are— their comparatively small size ; their exclusiveness cemeteries,
in containing only the remains of a single family, as contrasted
with the all-embracing catholicity of the Christian cemetery ;
and that the loculi of the Pagan sepulchre were often left open,
because it was their custom to close the chamber for ever when
it had once received its destined occupants, while the Christian
loculi were always hermetically sealed, since the chambers in
which they were situated were frequently visited by the faithful.
" Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 55.

t Opere di Ennio Visconti, i. 10, Milano.
These particulars, however, are not of the essence of this mode

of burial ; and the examples referred to are abundantly suffi
cient for the purpose for which they have been alleged, viz.,
to show that the practice of burying in sepulchres hewn out
of the rock was not altogether unknown even to the Pagans
Jewish cata- of Rome. To the Jews it had always been familiar, and
numerous examples are to be found in every part of the world,
wherever they have settled themselves and the nature of the
soil permitted it—in Palestine, in Southern Italy,* and in Rome
in Vigna Ran- itself. One was discovered not long since on the opposite
<lanini, _ _
side of the Via Appia from the Church of St Sebastian, and
somewhat nearer to Rome, in the Vigna Randanini. Here
the galleries resemble those of the Christian cemeteries very
closely, except that they are not quite so regular. The loculi
are closed with stone and terra-cotta, like those in the Cata
combs ; but the lowest range are sunk beneath the floor, and
the stone closing these leans against the wall in a slanting,
instead of an upright position. There are no cubicula, properly
so called, but sometimes an opening leads to a small recess
where two or three graves are sunk behind the ordinary range
of loculi. The inscriptions are in Greek, with unmistakeable
Jewish expressions and symbols, amongst which the seven-
branched candlestick holds the first place. From the variety
of names, and the absence of the usual exclusive occupation
of the tombs by one family which characterises most Jewish
sepulchres of a similar kind, it has been conjectured that here
the Jews rather imitated than set an example to the Christians.t
Bosio,J however, describes a Jewish Catacomb which he saw
ami at Monte on Monte Verde, outside the Porta Portese. which was far more
ancient, and seems certainly to have been of an earlier date than
the Christian cemetery of San Ponziano on the same hill. How
ever, it is not worth while to discuss minutely the chronology
* See Murray's Handbook for Southern Italy, 361.

t Cimitero degli Antichi Kbrei, &c., per P. Garrucci, Roma. 1862.
X Bosio, Rom. Sou. 142.
Beginning of the Catacombs. 59
of the specimens of Jewish Catacombs to be seen in Rome. We
need only refer to the language of the prophets when speaking
of places of burial in the Old Testament,* or quote the instance
of the Father of the Faithful himself, whose only possession in
the land of promise was "the field wherein was the double
cave, which Abraham bought for a possession of a burying-
place."t It is, of course, still more to the purpose to name
the new sepulchre hewn out in a rock in which Joseph of
Arimathea laid the Body of our Lord—an example which was
not likely to be without effect on His earliest disciples.
A modern writer, indeed, has ventured to say of the first
Christians in Rome, that as they continued to dwell in the
midst of their unconverted countrymen, so they continued also
their ordinary usages of daily social life ; in particular, " that
they burnt their dead after the Roman fashion, gathered their Christians di<l
. . , , . r , . ..... not burn, but
ashes into the sepulchres of their patrons, and inscnbed over buried, their
them the customary dedication to the Divine Spirits" % The <1eal1,
only authority given for this statement is " the frequent occur
rence of the letters D. M. on the tombs of the early Christians,"
which is certainly quite inadequate to support the weight of so
new and startling a theory. We do not for a moment doubt
that wherever these letters were used, they were intended to
stand for Dis Manibus, and not (as Boldetti, Fabretti, and
others have tried to maintain) for Deo Maximo. But it is one
of the discoveries for which we are indebted to the skill and
diligence of De Rossi, in attempting a chronological arrange
ment of the Christian inscriptions of Rome, that we are able
to fix the date of the Christian epitaphs on which these letters
have been found—and they are extremely rare,§ not frequent—
to the end of the third century, by which time they may per
haps have been almost accounted a characteristic of mortuary
inscriptions, and so have been used thoughtlessly, without any
* Isaias xxii. 16. t Gen. xxiii. 17-20. % Merivalc, vi. 444.
§ " Quam rarissime, partim oscitantia, partim aliis de causis, Christianis
adhibitam epitaphiU fuisse satis constat," says De Rossi. —Spic. Solesm.
iii. 551.
6o Roma Solterranca.
advertence to their real meaning,* e.g., they are found, in one

instance, coupled with the sacred monogram itself, D. M. S.
Or the tombstone may have been bought with the letters
already inscribed ; the surviving relatives who put it up may
have been ill-instructed in the faith ; or many other explanations
might be given, any one of which seems to us more easily admis
sible than that suggested by Mr Merivale. For whilst, on the
onehand,it is not pretended that amongthe innumerablecinerary
urns of the Roman columbaria,\ a single specimen has yet been
found with Christian emblems or inscriptions, we have very
distinct testimony, on the other hand, that the Christians con
demned the destruction of dead bodies by fire, and insisted on
restoring them to the earth, whence they came. J
We conclude, then, that there was nothing strange or un
natural in the mode of burial adopted by the early Christians
of Rome, although the spirit of Christianity soon made itself
felt in the characteristics which distinguish its cemeteries from
the sepulchres both of Jews and of Pagans, just as the Christian
Church itself grew up, men knew not how, in the midst of
* They only came into use among; the heathen themselves under the
first C;.vsars.
t Mr Merivale, indeed, in another place, refers to the inscriptions in the
columbaria of Claudius, recently discovered, as containing several of the
same names as occur in the salutations of St l'aul to his fellow-countrymen
in Rome, and he considers that one at least, Sentia Renata, bespeaks a
Christian baptism. The whole of the inscription referred to stands thus- -
Sentije Renal,c
q. v. Ann, tiii. m. xi. d. viii.
Sentius Fclicissimus
Et Amabilis Filicr
Dulcissima.
We do not know of any Christian inscription in which the title amabilis is
assumed by the survivor ; it is, of course, often given to the deceased.
The instances of identity of name are only seven or eight out of 250, and
seem to prove nothing but that such names were not uncommon in Rome.
—Di due Scpoleri Romani del Secolo di Augusto, <5rY., da Gio. Pietro Cam-
pana, ed. 2da., Roma, 1852.
J Execrantur rogos et damnant ignium sepulturas.- -Minuc Felix-
Oclav. c. ii. 451, ed. 183S. Veterum et meliorutn consuetudincm humandi
frequentamus.— lb., c. x. 468.
Beginning of the Catacombs. 6i
Judaism and Paganism, claimed as its own all that was good
and true in the religions around it, and, at the same time,
preserved intact its own identity as a " holy nation," the
kingdom of God which shall stand for ever. But in the
beginning of the Christian Catacombs, there was absolutely First rata-
nothing extraordinary or requiring explanation ; the faithful anj private,
did but use their liberty in the way that suited them best,
burying their dead according to a fashion to which many of
them had been long accustomed, and which enabled them at
the same time to follow in death the example of Him who was
also their model in life. Accordingly, they began cemeteries
here and there on different sides of the city, as occasion
required and opportunity served, not at all foreseeing the
enormous proportions which their work would ultimately
attain, nor the manifold uses it would serve. It is quite pos
sible that some of these cemeteries may always have remained
the burial-place of single families, as in point of fact Christian
subterranean sepulchres have really been found in the neigh
bourhood of Rome, consisting each of a single chamber only.
Others again, begun with the same intent, may have been
afterwards indefinitely enlarged, and particular portions only
appropriated to private use by means of inscriptions, such as
that recently discovered in the Catacomb of St Nicomedes, Examples,
in the garden of the Villa Patrizi, just outside the Porta Pia;*
MONVMENTVM - VAI.ERI - M
ERCVRI - ET - JVLITTES - JVL1AN
I - ET - QVINTILIES - VERECVNDES
I.IISERTIS-LIBERTABVSQUE-POSTE
RISQUE - EORVM - AT - RELIGIONE
M - PERTINENTES - MEA - M - HOC - A
MHUVS - IN - CIRCVITVM - CIRCA -
MONVMENTVM i- LATI - LONGI -
PER - PEDES - BINOS -QUOD- PERTIN
ET - AT - IPSVM - MONVMENT -
* It is slated in his Acts that he was buried "in the garden of Justus,
or this other, which may yet be seen in a most ancient part of
the Catacomb of Sts Nereus and Achilles, at no great distance
from the sepulchre of those saints.
M - ANTON I
VS - RESTVTV
S - FECIT - YPO
GEV - SIBI - ET -
SVIS - FIDENTI
BVS-IN-DOMINO.
Both of these monuments are very ancient. Neither of

them seems to have contemplated the existence of penal laws,
proscribing the free exercise of the Christian religion, or inter
fering with the privacy and sacredness of their graves. They
merely announce with simplicity and candour, as an inscription
on a pagan monument might have done, for whose benefit
that place of burial had been provided. Each desires to
include those only who belong to his own religion, and it is
attempted to secure the fulfilment .of this desire, in the one
case by limiting the use of the hypogenm to those relatives
" who believe in the Lord," in the other, by declaring that the
monument is for the use only of those of my dependents " who
belong to my religion." No precedent can be found for such
a phrase as this amid the tens of thousands of pagan epitaphs
which are still extant. It is doubtful whether it would have
conveyed any meaning at all to a pagan mind ; it could have
been used by a Jew or a Christian, but by no one else, and
even a Christian could not have used it in public when once
his religion had been condemned and declared unlawful by the
state. It might have been used, therefore, before persecution
was begun by Nero, or, again, between his death and the
accession ot Domitian, or under Nerva and in the earlier part
of the reign of Trajan, and it is very possible that to one of
these periods this inscription really belongs.
near the cily walls." The author quoted by William of Malmesbury also
places his tomb very near this gate of the city.
BOOK II.
HISTORY OF THE CATACOMBS.
CHAPTER I.
THE CATACOMBS IN THE FIRST AGES.
WE now enter upon a most interesting portion of our Apostolic

origin of son
subject; on which; however, little reliable information of the Cata-
could be obtained until the archaeological genius of De Rossi combs
succeeded in reducing to order the fragments of tradition
scattered through the writings of antiquity, so laboriously
collected by Bosio and others, and verifying these by the
monuments found in the Catacombs themselves. By these
means we have at length the outlines at least of a chrono
logical history of Roma Sotterranca, which we may hope that
future discoveries will correct and enlarge. Our readers will
not expect us to produce the testimony of cotemporaneous,
or nearly cotemporaneous authors, for the history of the
Catacombs during the first ages. So terrible was the tenth
and last persecution under Diocletian, that hardly any of the
ancient records of the Roman Church escaped destruction.
We have already enumerated the principal documents from
which the early history of that Church is to be reconstructed ;
and all that can now be done is briefly to collect the informa-
tion we derive from those sources, and then to examine the

Catacombs themselves for whatever confirmation of it they
may be able to give.
It has been said or implied that the history of the Cata
combs probably dates from the burial of the first Roman
Christian. Are there, then, to be found in any of the exist
ing Catacombs traces of apostolical antiquity? De Rossi
replies :—" Precisely in those cemeteries to which history or
tradition assigns apostolic origin, I see, in the light of the
most searching archaeological criticism, the cradle of Christian
art and of Christian inscriptions ; there I find memorials of
persons who appear to belong to the times of the Flavii and
of Trajan ; and finally, I discover precise dates of those
times."* This is a bold statement, and we purpose in the
present chapter to bring together some at least of the proofs
upon which it is based.
Papal crypt on Among the cemeteries ascribed by tradition to apostolic
the Vatican. . ....
times, the crypts of the Vatican would have the first claim on
our attention, had they not been almost destroyed by the
foundations of the vast basilica which guards the tomb of
St Peter. We cannot, however, pass them by altogether,
especially as the most ancient notice of them that we have
confirms in some degree what has been said as to the perfect
liberty of the first Christians in the burial even of their martyrs.
The Liber Pontificalis states that Anacletus, the successor of
Clement in the Apostolic See, " built and adorned the sepul
chral monument (construxit manoriam) of blessed Peter, since
he had been ordained priest by St Peter, and other burial-
places where the bishops might be laid." It is added that he
himself was buried there; and the same is recorded of Linus
and Cletus, and of Evaristus, Sixtus I., Telesphorus, Hyginus,
Pius I., Kleutherius, and Victor, the lasf of whom was buried
a.d. 203 ; and, after St Victor, no other Pontiff is recorded to
* R. S. i. 185.
The Catacombs in the First Ages. 65
have been buried at the Vatican until St Leo the Great was
laid in St Peter's, a.d. 461. The idea conveyed by the wofds
construxit memoriam is that of a monument above ground
according to the usual Roman custom ; and we have seen that
such a monument, even though it covered the tombs of^Kiris-
tian bishops, would not be likely to be disturbed at any time
during the first or second century. For the reason we have
already stated, it is impossible to confront these ancient
notices with any existing monuments. It is worth mentioning,
however, that De Rossi believes that the sepulchre of St
Linus was discovered in this very place early in the seven
teenth century, bearing simply the name of LINUS*
From St Peter's on the Vatican the mind passes naturally St Paul's on
to the resting-place of the apostle of the Gentiles on the other ^j^1* °stl
side of the river and of Rome. But here, too, the hill has
been cut away to make room for the Basilica of St Paul extra
muros ; and hence the greater part of the Catacomb of St
Lucina, or of St Commodilla, as it is sometimes called in
ancient records, has been destroyed, and what galleries yet
remain are so choked with earth and ruins of various kinds
as to be almost impassable. Nevertheless, it must not be for
gotten that Boldetti read within this Catacomb the most
ancient inscription with a consular date that has come down
to us.t It was scratched on the mortar of one of the loculi,
and the consulate of Sura ct Senecio marks the* year a.d.
107. A second was also found in the same place, in marble,
recording the names of Piso et Bolano, consuls a.d. iio.
The same explorer discovered here also yet a third inscrip-
* Bullettino, 1864, p. 50.
t There is, indeed, a more ancient dated Christian inscription of the
third year of Vespasian, /'.<.., a.d. J2 ; but, unfortunately, it is no longer
possible to ascertain to what cemetery this inscription belonged. It must
be rememlx;red that a very small proportion of the inscriptions have the
date of the year upon them. The day of the month was sufficient to mark
the anniversary ; the particular year was regarded as of less import
ance.
I
tion, which De Rossi considers one of the most ancient in
Rome :—
DORMITIONI
T . FLA . EVTY
CHIO ,QVI . VI
XIT . ANN . XVIIII
MES . XI D . Ill
HVNC . LOCVM
DONABIT . M
ORBIVS HEM
VS . AMICVS
KARISSIMVS
RARE BALE
" As a resting-place for Titus Flavius Eutychius, who lived nineteen
years, eleven months, three days. His dearest friend, Mafcus Orbius,
gave this spot. Farewell, beloved."
The place where it was found, and certain symbols rudely

carved at the boUom (apparently intended to represent loaves •
and fishes), show this inscription to be Christian ; while the
style, the ancient nomenclature differing from the usual Chris
tian epitaphs, and the praenomen, T. Flavius, point to the
age of the Flavian emperors, i.e., the end of the first century.
It can hardly be a mere accident that these rare and cotem-
poraneous dates should have been discovered in the same
place, and precisely in the cemetery where less than forty
years before had been deposited the body of the apostle Paul.
They may be taken as certain proofs that a Catacomb was t
begun here not long after his martyrdom.
St Priscilla on The cemetery of St Priscilla, on the Via Salaria Nova, is said
theV ia Salana. t0 yi&ye êen dug in the property of the family of Pudens, con
verted b% the apostles ; and a particular chapel in it, known,
from the language of its inscriptions, as the Cappella Greca, is
supposed to have been the burial-place of St Pudentiana, St
Praxedes, and other members of the family. The classical
style of the frescoes' the scenes depicted in most of them
differing widely from the usual well-known subjects which in.
after- times repeat themselves so frequently, when Christian
symbolism had assumed a more fixed and stereotyped charac-
ter; the beautiful ornaments in stucco, like those in the baths
of Titus ; a special family of inscriptions traced in vermilion
on the tiles, and unlike later Christian epigraphs in their
language (being sometimes bare names, sometimes the apos
tolic salutation PAX TECVM, very often the symbol of the
anchor) ; the classic forms of the characters of the inscriptions
on marble ; the name TITO FLAVIO FELICISSIMO ; the
construction of the principal crypt, which is not excavated in
the tufa, but regularly built, and, without any loculus in the
walls, was evidently intended for the reception of sarcophagi ;
—all these variations from the uniformity of Christian subter
ranean cemeteries, such as we find them in the third century,
point to a date anterior to any such systematic arrangement,
and confirm in a remarkable manner the high antiquity assigned
. to this cemetery by tradition.
In certain acts of Pope Liberius mention is made of the Cemetery of
n _ . . . r , Ostrianus or
cemetery of Ostrianus as being " not far from the cemetery jrons petri
of Novella, which was on the third mile of the Via Salaria."
When Panvinius compiled his catalogue of the cemeteries,* he
set down this as having been the oldest of all, " because it was
in use when St Peter preached the faith to, the Romans."
Bosio, however, and all other antiquarians have failed in any
attempt to identify it; whilst De Rossi's more scientific mode
of procedure seems to have been more successful. He ob
served that the Abbot John, in the papyrus MS.t at Monza,
in which he gives a list of oils from the lamps before the cele
brated shrines of Rome which he visited, after " the oil of St
Agnes and many others" on the Via Nomentana and before
" the oil of St Vitalis, St Alexander, and others on* the Via*
Salaria,'' mentions " oil from the chair where Peter the apostle
was first enthroned (prius sedit),'' as though this were situated
somewhere between the roads that have been named. In like
manner, in the index of the cemeteries in the Liber Mirabilium,
between that of St Agnes and that of St Priscilla, that is, be-
* See page 32. t See page 23.
Roma Sotterranea.
tween the same two roads, is placed the cemetery of the font of
St Peter (fontis S. Petri—in other copies Ad Nymphas S. Petri),
near the basilica of St Emerentiana. Now, this situation ex
actly corresponds with that of the cemetery upon which Father
Marchi bestowed all his labours, and which has therefore be
come so familiar to all Roman visitors under the name of the
Catacomb of St Agnes ; but the galleries and chambers which
are at present accessible there do not bear marks of greater
antiquity than the third century. Bosio, however, tells us that
he went down by a square hole (which is at present undis
covered), and found a crypt, also unknown to us, evidently of
an historical character, from the frequency of the luminaria
and the beauty of the ornamentation. Near one of these
light-holes, which he found still open, " without the light of a
candle," he writes, " one sees a large niche like a tribune, with
leaves in stucco-work, and within the niche are seen some red
letters, which, being almost all obliterated, are illegible, but
some few which remain are beautifully formed ; under that
niche must anciently have been the altar, the place being
sufficiently spacious.''* De Rossi observes that it is now well
ascertained that the ancient custom was to place in the tribune,
not the altar, but the pontifical chair; and this passage from
Bosio seems to him to read like an account of the crypt
where was formerly venerated on the 18th of January, " the
chair in which Peter was first enthroned "—sedes ubi prius
sedit—and which was also known in the martyrologies of Ado
and Bede as the Catmeterium adNymphas ubi Petrus baptizabat.f
The extreme antiquity of some cemetery in this neighbour
hood is still further confirmed by the inscriptions which have
been found here ; their classical and laconic style, form, and
nomenclature, all betoken a most ancient date. In nearly a
hundred instances the names are of Claudii, Flavii, Ulpii,
Aurelii, and others of the same class ; once the deceased is
stated to have been the freedwonian (liberta) of Lucius Clo-
* Roma Sott. 438. t See Note C in Appendix.
The Catacombs in the First Ages. 69 "
dius Crescens ; often nothing whatever is added to the names,

or only the relationship between the deceased and the person
setting up the tablet, with perhaps the epithet of affection,
duleissimo or duleissima. In fact, these epitaphs vary so little
from the old classical type, that had they not been seen by
Marini and other competent witnesses in their original posi
tion, and some of them been marked with the Christian sym
bol of the anchor, we might have hesitated whether they ought
not rather to be classed among pagan monuments.
The Cemetery of St Domitilla, or of her chamberlains, Saints St Domitilla
fit Tor Mtii -
Nereus and Achilles, on the Via Ardeatina, claims to be of the ancia.
same age, and its claim deserves a more detailed examination,
as it is connected with what has been already mentioned as
one of the most remarkable facts in the annals of the early
Church, the profession of the Christian faith by some of the
Imperial family. For this Domitilla was the same of whom
we have spoken in a former chapter as having been banished*
to the island of Ponza. St Jerome t tells us that in his days
this island was frequented by pious Christian pilgrims, " who
delighted to visit with devotion the cells in which Flavia
Domitilla had suffered a life-long martyrdom." Whether she
really shed her blood at the last for the faith is uncertain, the
acts of Saints Nereus and Achilles being of doubtful authen
ticity. They state, however, that she and two of her female
companions were buried in a sarcophagus at Terracina, but
that her chamberlains suffered death by the sword, and were
buried in a cemetery about a mile and a half out of Rome, on
the Via Ardeatina, in a farm belonging to their mistress. The
farm, now known by the name of Tor Marancia, is situated
just at this distance from Rome, and on the road named ; and
inscriptions which have been found there show clearly that it
once belonged to this very person, Flavia Domitilla. One of
them gives the measurements of a sepulchral area of 35 feet
in front and 40 into the field, whether for a pagan or a Chris-
* See page 39. t Ep- ad Eustoch. 86.
tian monument we cannot say ; but at all events the ground
had been granted ex indulgentia F/avia Domitilla, neptis Ves-
pasiani; another is ex beneficio of the same, and the others
also are equally unequivocal. Moreover, within the cemetery
which underlies this farm, or at least in its immediate neigh
bourhood, two or three other inscriptions have been found
of a Bruttia Crispina and others of the Gens Bruttia, from
which we may infer that there was some sort of connexion
between the two families, and that this was the reason
which induced Bruttius the historian to make special men
tion of the exile of Domitilla in his narrative of the public
events of his day.* Although, therefore, no historical monu
ments have been found within the cemetery itself, which
like those in the cemetery of St Callixtus, declare its iden
tity beyond all power of reclamation, yet nobody now
doubts but that at Tor Marancia we have certainly recovered
that cemetery which, in ancient times, was sometimes called
by the name of St Domitilla, and sometimes of Saints Nereus
and Achilles.
One of the chapels, in the second story, at the left-hand
side after you have descended a very handsome flight of
steps from the open air, is pointed out as the probable scene
of the burial of the two saints. This, however, does not
now concern us ; a recent discovery on the outer surface
of the hill, and at no great distance from this part of the
cemetery, claims all our attention. De Rossi unhesitatingly
introduces it to us as a monument of some member or
special friend of the Flavian family, who lived and died in
the days of Domitian. It is certainly one of the most
ancient and remarkable Christian monuments yet discovered.
Its position, close to the highway; its front of fine brick
work, with a cornice of terra-cotta, w-ith the usual space
for an inscription (which has now, alas ! perished) ; the
spaciousness of its gallery, with only four or rive separate
• See page 39.
niches prepared for as many sarcophagi ; the fine stucco on

the wall ; the eminently classical character of its decorations ;
all these things make it perfectly clear that it was the monu
ment of a Christian family of distinction, excavated at great
cost, and without the slightest attempt at concealment. On
each side of the entrance there was a small chamber ; the one
on the right (c) was probably for the schola, as it was called, or
place of meeting for those of the^rw or religio, whose duty it
was to assemble here on the anniversaries, to do honour to the
deceased ; that on the left (b) bears evident tokens of having
Fig. 9. —Entrance to a most ancient Christian Sepulchre at Tor Mnraucia,

been a place of residence, probably for the guardian of the
monument, just as we find attached to so many pagan monu
ments of the same period.
After descending two steps from the portico, the pathway
slopes gradually for a short distance, leaving, as we have
said, only a few recesses, capable of receiving each a large
sarcophagus, all of which however have long since been re
moved. One of these recesses was enlarged at a subsequent
period, and a tomb in the form of an arcosolium made in
it; and the whole hypogaum was ultimately united by addi
tional galleries to the adjacent catacomb. Before this was
done, however, the vestibule had been filled with sarcophagi

of various sizes, of which numerous fragments may still be
seen lying about ; we find them also (of terra-cotta) buried
underneath the ground ; and the date even of the last of these
seems not to come below the middle of the second century.
Fie io.—Painting on roofofmost ancient fiart ofCemetery of St Domitilta.
In passing from the vestibule into the catacomb, we recognise

the transition from the use of the sarcophagus to that of the
common locuhts ; for the first two or three graves on either
side, though really mere shelves in the wall, are so disguised
TIic Catacombs in tJic First Ages. 73
by painting on the outside as to present to passers-by the
complete outward appearance of a sarcophagus. Some few
of these graves are marked with the names of the dead,
written in black on the largest tiles—just like those which we
have seen in the most ancient part of the Catacomb of St
Priscilla; and the inscriptions on the other graves are all of
the simplest and oldest form. Lastly, the whole of the vaulted
Fig. II.—Fragment ofDaniel in the Lions' Den, from most ancient part of
Cemetery ofSt Domitilta.
roof is covered with the most exquisitely graceful designs, of

branches of the vine (with birds and winged genii among them)
trailing with all the freedom of nature over the whole walls,
not fearing any interruption by graves, nor confined by any of
those lines of geometrical symmetry which characterise similar
productions in the next century. Traces also of landscapes
may be seen here and there, which are of rare occurrence
anywhere in the Catacombs, though another specimen may

be seen in the chamber assigned by De Rossi to Sts Nereus
and Achilles. The Good Shepherd, an Agape, or the hea
venly feast, a man fishing, and Daniel in the lions' den,* are
the chief historical or allegorical representations of Christian
mysteries which were painted here. Unfortunately they have
been almost destroyed by persons attempting to detach them
from the wall ; a process which, while it effectually ruined
them for those who should come after, can never have yielded
anything but a handful of mortar and broken tufa to the
plunderers themselves. Would that we could have seen this
chamber or vestibule in its original condition ! Perhaps
we should have found, as De Rossi conjectures, that it was
the very memoria of Flavius Clemens himself, the martyred
consul, whose remains were afterwards translated to the
Basilica of St Clement within the walls. At any rate we are
quite sure that we have been here brought face to face with
one of the earliest specimens of Christian subterranean burial
in Rome.
We have now visited the principal Catacombs for which a
claim is made to apostolic antiquity; and it will be well for
us to take a brief review of the results that may be gathered
from our visits. They may be stated thus :—
General cr>n- The local traditions of ancient Christian Rome have come
aêxamina™ down to us, partly embodied in the Acts of the Martyrs; partly
tion of these m t|)e stories that were told to foreigners visiting the city in
cemeteries. J
the seventh and eighth centuries, and by them committed to
writing in itineraries; partly in the " Books of Indulgences" and
in the " Book of the Wonders of Rome," compiled both for the
use of strangers and of citizens ; partly also, but more sparingly,
in the scattered notices of a few mediaeval writers. From a
diligent comparison of all these various authorities, it is
* The fragment which remains of this picture, and which is given on
the preceding page, small as it is, displays a much higher skill in execution
than any other representation of the same subject that we have seen
throughout the Catacombs.
gathered that some five or six of the subterranean cemeteries

of Rome were believed to have had their origin in apostolic
times ; and in every one of these instances, so far as we have an
opportunity of examining them, something peculiar has been
either noted by our predecessors, or seen by ourselves, which
gives countenance to the tradition. When these peculiarities
are brought together, they are found to be in perfect harmony,
not only with one another, but also with what we should have
been led to expect from a careful consideration of the period
to which they are supposed to belong. The peculiarities are
such as these :—paintings in the most classical style, and
scarcely inferior in execution to the best specimens of cotem-
porary pagan art ; a system of ornamentation in fine stucco
such as has not yet been found in any Christian subterranean
work later than the second century ; crypts of considerable
dimensions, not hewn out of the bare rock, but carefully, and
even elegantly, built with pilasters and cornices of bricks or
terra-cotta ; no narrow galleries with shelf-like graves thickly
pierced in their walls, but spacious ambulacra, with painted
walls, and recesses provided only for the reception of sarco
phagi ; whole families of inscriptions, with classical names, and
without any distinctly Christian forms of speech ; and lastly,
actual dates of the first or second century. It is impossible
that such a marvellous uniformity of phenomena, collected
with most patient accuracy from different and distant ceme
teries on all sides of the city, and from authors writing at so
many different periods, should be the result of accident or of
preconceived opinion. There never was any opinion precon
ceived on the subject; or rather, the opinion that was in
general vogue a few years ago was diametrically opposed to
this. But the opinion which has now been enunciated by De
Rossi, and is gaining universal acceptance among those who
have an opportunity of examining the monuments for them
selves, has been the result of careful observation ; it is the fruit
of the phenomena, not their cause. Whereas then former
writers have always taken it for granted that the first beginnings
of Roma Sotterranea must have been poor and mean and insig
nificant, and that any appearance of subterranean works on a
large scale, or richly decorated, must necessarily belong to a
later and more peaceful age, it is now certain that this state
ment cannot be reconciled with the monuments and facts
that modern discovery has brought to light. All who have
any knowledge of the history of the fine arts are agreed
that the decorations of the many remarkable crypts lately
discovered are much more ancient than those which form
the great bulk of the paintings in the catacombs with which
we were familiar before, and which have been always justly
regarded as the work of the third century. Nor can any
thoughtful and impartial judge fail to recognise in the social
and political condition of the first Roman Christians, and in
the laws and usages of Roman burial, an adequate cause for
all that is thus thrown back on the first and second centuries.
On the subject of Christian art we shall have to speak more
fully hereafter, and the architectural analysis which we propose
to give of a part of the cemetery of St Callixtus will furnish
a convenient occasion for distinguishing the various features
which characterise the work of successive periods in the
construction of subterranean Rome.
Our present chapter will be fittingly concluded by some
account of another cemetery, which, though we have no
authentic record of the precise date of its commencement,
was certainly in use in the middle or before the end of the
second century ; that is to say, it was made whilst yet there
had been no legal interference, and (so far as we know) no
outbreak of popular violence against the liberty of Christian
burials. We have a right, therefore, to look for some, at
least, of the same characteristics which we have already seen
in the first and most ancient of the cemeteries, nor will this
expectation be disappointed.
The Catacomb to which we refer is that of St Prtetextatus, on
the Via Appia, nearly opposite to the Catacomb of St Callixtus. St Pr.-ttextn-

_ , , , , ., , . tus, on the Vi
It has only lately been recovered. An accidental opening Appia.
into it was effected in 1848, and as a painting of St Sixtus
(identified by the legend SVSTVS) was found on one of the
sepulchres, it was conjectured that this must be the cemetery
of that martyr. In 1850 another crypt in it was brought to
light, ornamented with some of the oldest and most classical
paintings that had yet been seen; and in 1852, De Rossi
read a paper to the Pontificia Academia di Archcologia, in
which he argued, solely on topographical grounds—i.e., on
arguments derived from the position of the cemetery, as com
pared with other cemeteries, and with the descriptions given
in the old itineraries—that this must certainly have been a
part of the cemetery anciently known by the name of St
Praetextatus, and which was famous as the scene of St Sixtus's
martyrdom, and as the place of burial of St Januarius, the
eldest of the seven sons of St Felicitas, who laid down their
lives for Christ on July 10, a.d. 162 ; also of St Felicissimus
and Agapitus, deacons of St Sixtus, and many others. At the
same time, he insisted upon identifying the ruins of two
buildings, the one round, the other rectangular, which still
remain in the vineyard above ground, as having once been
the basilica dedicated to Saints Tiburtius, Valerian, and
Maximus, companions of the martyrdom of St Cecilia, and to
St Zeno. Later discoveries completely established the truth
of his reasoning. In 1857 the labourers employed in the
Catacombs came here to seek for stones, tiles, or other mate
rials for repairs which were being executed in St Callixtus',
and in the course of their quest they opened a way to the ruins
of a very large and beautiful crypt. As soon as De Rossi had
scrambled through the opening, he looked about for the usual
arcosolium ; but of this there was r;o sign. Nev ertheless, it
was clear that the absence of this ordinary feature of a chapel
in the Catacombs in no way detracted from its value, nor
indicated that this was a chamber without a history. On the
Its architec- contrary, further and more careful examination revealed the fact
oration of 60 "lat tnis crypt was not hewn out of the living rock, but that,
second cen- though underground, it had been all built with solid masonry,
and that its three sides had been originally intended only for
three sarcophagi. It had once been lined throughout with
Greek marble, and its internal face (towards the cemetery)
was a piece of excellent yellow brickwork, ornamented with
pilasters of the same material in red, and cornices of terra
cotta. The workmanship points clearly to an- early date, and
specimens of pagan architecture in the same neighbourhood
enable us to fix the middle of the latter half of the second
century (a.d. 175) as a very probable date for its erection.
The Acts of the Saints explain to us why it was built with
bricks, and not hewn out of the rock—viz., because the Chris
tian who made it (St Marmenia) had caused it to be excavated
immediately below her own house ; and now that we see it,
we understand the precise meaning of the words used by the
itineraries describing it—viz., "a large square cavern, most
firmly built " (ingens antrum quadratum, ct firmissima fabrica).
The vault of the chapel is most elaborately painted, in a style
by no means inferior to the best classical productions of the
age. It is divided into four bands of wreaths, one of roses,
another of corn-sheaves, a third of vine-leaves and grapes (and
in all these, birds are introduced visiting their young in nests),
and the last or highest, of leaves of laurel or the bay-tree. Of
course these represent severally the seasons of spring, summer,
autumn, and winter. The last is a well-known figure or symbol
of death ; and probably the laurel, as the token of victory, was
intended to represent the new and Christian idea of the ever
lasting reward of a blessed immortality. Below these bands is
another border, more indistinct, in which reapers are gathering
in the corn ; and at the back of the arch is a rural scene, of
which the central figure is the Good Shepherd carrying a
sheep upon his shoulders. This, however, has been destroyed
by graves pierced through the wall and the rock behind it,
from that eager desire, of which we shall have occasion to
speak elsewhere, to bury the dead of a later generation as near
as possible to the tombs of the martyrs. As De Rossi pro- St Januarius,
ceeded to examine these graves in detail, he could hardly a D' 1 2'
Fig. 12.—Fainting o* Vault cfan Arcotolium in Cemetery vjSt Prcrlcxtatus.
believe his eyes when he read around the edge of one of them
these words and fragments of words:—. . . miRefrigeriJcinuarius
Agatopus Felicissim martyres— "Januarius, Agapetus, Felicis-
simus, martyrs, refresh the soui of . . ." The words had been
scratched upon the mortar whilst yet it was fresh, fifteen centuries
ago, as the prayer of some bereaved relative for the soul of him
whom he was burying here, and now they revealed to the
antiquarian of the nineteenth century the secret he was in
quest of— viz., the place of burial of the saints whose aid is
here invoked ; tor the numerous examples to be seen in
other cemeteries warrant us in concluding that the bodies of
So Roma Sotierranea.
the saints, to whose intercession the soul of the deceased is
here recommended, were at the time of his burial lying at no
great distance, and the reader will have observed that they are
three of the very martyrs whose relics once rendered famous
the cemetery of St Proetextatus. De Rossi, therefore, really
needed no further evidence in corroboration of the topo
graphical outline which he had sketched five years before to
the Roman archaeologists ; yet further evidence was in store
for him, though it did not come to light until six years later,
when the commission of Sacred Archaeology were persuaded to
take this cemetery as the special scene of their labours. Then,
amid the soil which encumbered the entrance to this crypt,
three or four fragments were discovered of a large marble slab,
1 (amasine in- marked by a few letters of most certain Damasine form, but of
Bcnption. unusual size. More fragments * have been discovered since, so
that we are able to say with certainty that the whole inscrip
tion once stood thus :—
St Quirinus, The excavations of the commission revealed the existence

a.d. 130.
of another crypt on the opposite side of the gallery, which is
still older than that of St Januarius ; so that, whereas the
martyrdom of St Januarius belongs to the year a.d. 162, De
* Only those letters, or parts of letters, which are in darker tints, have
been found ; but in inscriptions executed with such mathematical precision
as these, they are quite enough to enable us to restore the whole.
Rossi does not fear to designate this second crypt as the pro
bable burial-place of St Quirinus, somewhere about a.d. 130.
We have no detailed account as yet of its contents or even its
principal characteristics ; nor has it been possible, for want of
funds, to continue the work of excavation in this cemetery.
Most heartily do we repeat the wish, so modestly expressed by
De Rossi,* that some generous souls could be found who
would do for the advancement of Christian archaeology in
Rome what so many—and some of our own country, as the
Duchess of Devonshire—have done there at various times in
the interests of Pagan antiquity, viz., place funds at the dis
posal of the proper authorities to enable them to resume their
suspended labours both here and elsewhere, and to begin them
de nm'o in those many other places which our present improved
knowledge, both of books and of the locality, enable us to
point out as promising a plentiful harvest.
There is yet another catacomb belonging to the second StAlexander'
century which deserves to be mentioned, though the particular ^'^f°
portion of it which was of that date has undergone so much
alteration since that time as to be no longer capable of recog
nition. It is recorded in the Liber Pontificalis that St Alex
ander, Bishop of Rome, who suffered martyrdom a.d. 132, was
buried on the Via Nomentana, where he was beheaded, not
far from the seventh milestone ; and there, accordingly, an
ancient Christian cemetery was discovered some twelve or
fourteen years since ; and amid its ruins a portion of an
epitaph, or rather of an inscription set up in honour of St
Alexander, in very ancient times, in a basilica which was then
built over his grave, and has lately been restored. In the
small subterranean galleries round this basilica, many of the
loculi have remained undisturbed to the present day ; but
these scarcely belong to the oldest part of the cemetery.
Moreover, this whole cemetery lay beyond the limit we have
assigned to the Roman Catacombs proper ; and therefore we
* Bullettino, 1865, 99.
do not at present care to examine it. We only mention it at
all as an additional instance of the trustworthiness of the
ancient documents whose guidance we have been following.
We have seen how, in six several instances, an examination of
the actual condition of a Catacomb most singularly confirms
what the language of these old authorities taught us. There
yet remain two or three others which are attributed by the
same writers to the apostolic, or immediately post-apostolic
times, but as these have not yet been identified, there is no
occasion to enumerate them.
Fig. 12. — Tombstonefrom the very ancient Cryfit ofSt Lucina, ncnu united with the
Catacomb ofSt Callixtus.
CHAPTER II.
HISTORY OK THE CATACOMBS FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE

THIRD CENTURY TO CONSTANTINE'S EDICT OF PEACE,
A.D. 312.
E have now brought our history of the Catacombs down Public Chris-
w to the period when, as we said before, they first ^rie""16
come under the express notice of the Roman law. The
popular violence against the Christian burial-grounds in Africa,
at the beginning of the third century,* reveals the fact of the
Christians there possessing a common burial-place ; and it is
impossible to suppose that so great a Church as that of Rome
should not also by this time have possessed some common
cemetery. The memoria of St Peter must have been known to
be the common burial-place of his successors ; and, in fact,
Caius, a priest of this same period, disputing with a heretic,
Proclus, says, " I can show the trophies of the Apostles. For
if you go to the Vatican, or to the Via Ostiensis, you will find
the trophies of those who have laid the foundation of this
Church." t It is a remarkable coincidence that the date of
Tertullian's mention of the popular outbreak against the
African Christian cemeteries, a.d. 202, should synchronise so
exactly with the death of St Victor, the last Pope who was
buried in the public memoria on the Vatican. Victor's sue- Cemetery of
cessor, Zephyrinus, as we are informed by the author of the 200 U'b'
Philosophumena, " intrusted Callixtus with the government of
the clergy, and set him over the cemetery." % These words
naturally excite our curiosity, and require comment. What
* See page 54. + Euscb. Hist. Keel. ii. 25. % Philosoph. ix. 11.
was the cemetery of Rome ? Rome had already many ceme
teries on all sides—of St Priscilla on the Via Salaria, of St
Lucina on the Via Ostiensis, of St Prsetextatus on the Via
Appia, of St Domitilla on the Via Ardeatina, and several
others. What was the distinction between them ? and what
was there so special and singular about any that it should
have been put under the charge of one of the highest eccle
siastical authorities after the Pope, the same as was entrusted
also with " the government of the clergy " ? We shall have no
difficulty in solving these questions, if we call to mind what
was said in a former chapter* about the burial-confraternities
in Rome, and the solemn renewal, or at least renewed publi
cation of their rights and privileges, precisely at this time, by
Septimius Severus. Let us set side by side with this fact the
words of Tertullian, also written about the same time, in "which
he describes the Christian society as it might have appeared,
and as he wished to make it appear, to their heathen neigh
bours and rulers. " There preside over us," he says, " certain
approved elders, who have attained that honour, not by pur
chase, but by the good testimony of others. . . . And if there
be any kind of treasury (arca) among us, it is made up, not of
fees paid by these presidents or others on their appointment, t
as if religion were bought and sold among us, but each person
contributes a small sum once a month, or whenever he likes,
and if he likes, and has the means. . . . All these contribu
tions are, as it were, pious deposits ; for they are spent, not on
feasting, but on feeding the hungry, on burying the poor, on
orphans, old men confined to their houses, and shipwrecked
persons, and if any are condemned to the mines, or exiled, or
in prison, provided only that it be on account of God's sect,
these also become the foster-children of their confession," i.e.,
* See page 49.
t This has now been clearly ascertained from ancient inscriptions found
in Africa and elsewhere, to be the true meaning of Tertullian's words, de
honoraria summa, which have been the cause of so much perplexity to
earlier commentators. — Bullett., 1866, n.
The Catacombs in the Third Century. 85
provided they suffer these punishments for the profession of

Christianity, they are supported by the Church. *
It is clear from this passage, and from all that has been said
elsewhere, that it would have been easy for the Roman Chris
tians of the third century, under cover of a mere burial-con
fraternity, to make collections for other charitable purposes,
and even to meet together for purposes of religious worship ;
and we can hardly doubt that they did so. Moreover, we
know, from the history of St Laurence and many other sources,
that the care of the poor and distribution of alms was the
special province of one of the deacons. Indeed, the very
office of deacon had been originally instituted for this purpose.
But not the poor only, the clergy also received what was
necessary for their sustenance out of this common chest, and
the deacon kept the register (matriculd) of their numbers and
offices. By and by, in obedience to that law whereby the
moral and the material life of any society are so intimately
linked together, that he who provides for the one is sure to
gain a powerful influence over the other, the first deacon grew
into an archdeacon ; that is to say, he became, in some sense,
the guardian and judge of the other clergy, and his authority
was inferior to none, save only the bishops. Hence it came
to be almost a law in Rome, that on the death of the Pope,
not a priest, but the first deacon, succeeded to the vacant see ;
and to promote this deacon to the priesthood was sometimes
resented, because it seemed to shut the door against his attain
ment of the highest rank in the hierarchy.
These considerations will enable us to appreciate more
justly the import of the words we have quoted from the
author of the Philosophumena, viz., that St Zephyrinus " in
trusted Callixtus with the government of the cleigy, and set
him over the cemetery." The Christian community in Rome
was entering at this time upon a new phase of its existence ;
it availed itself of the protection which the laws afforded to
* Apol., c. 39.
certain corporate bodies, and, as those laws required,* one of

its members was appointed as the agent, or syndic, in whose
name the common property should be held, and by whom its
business should be transacted. The cemetery, therefore, en
trusted to Callixtus was one common to the Christians as a
body ; and it was " the cemetery on the Via Appia," which the
Liber Pontificalis states that Callixtus " made, where many
priests and martyrs repose, and which is called, even to the
present day, the cameterium Callixti." This also explains to us
Popes buried why henceforward the Popes were buried here, and no longer at
iIk "' the Vatican ; out of the eighteen, from Zephyrinus to Sylvester,
thirteen having certainly been laid in this cemetery, according
to the testimony of the same Liber Pontificalis. And it is a
striking confirmation of De Rossi's conjecture that this was
the first common cemetery given to the Pope by some noble
Other ceme- family for the whole Christian community, when we find that
moTurcoHhe St Fal)iarl> A-D- 238> " divided the regions among the Deacons,
Church. • .... and ordered numerous buildings (fabricas) to be con
structed in the cemeteries."] It seems to imply that other
wealthy Christians soon followed the example of those who
had given the cemetery of Callixtus to the Church ; and these
fabrics: were probably little oratories constructed above the
cemeteries, either for purposes of worship, or the celebration
of the agapa, or of mere guardianship of the tombs, according
to the common practice of the Romans, of which we have
probably seen an instance in the more ancient fabriccc attached
to the Catacomb of St Domitilla. \ The long peace from the
* " Quibus pcrmissum est corpus habere collegii, societatis tnv cujusque
alterius eorum nomine, propriuni est . . . habere res communes, arcam
communem, et actorem sive syndicum, per qucm, quod communiter ai;i
fierique oporteat, agatur, fiat."— Digest, iii. 4, 1, § 1. Compare with this the
words of the letter of Licinius and Constantine, (apud Lactam., I)e MorL
Persec., § 48, and Euseb., Hist. Keel., x. 5) :—" Quoniam Christiani non ea
loca tantum, ad quae convenire consueverunt, sed alia etiam habuisse nos-
cuntur, ad jus corporis eorum, id est, Ecelesiarum, twn hominum singulorum
pertinetttia," &c. Also the words, used in the case of Paul of Samosata,
" tov r^s tKK\r}aiat ohov."— Eusel: Hist. Eccl. vii. 30.
t Lib. Pont., Fabianus. % Sec fig. 8, at page 71.
reign of Caracalla to that of Decius might well have encour
aged the Christians to erect such buildings, and allowed them
to make frequent use of them, notwithstanding occasional dis
turbances from popular violence, the short persecution of
Maximin, and other similar interruptions.
In January a.d. 250, St. Fabian fell a victim to the persecu- a.d. 250.
. . , , ,. Persecution of
tion of Decius ; but it does not appear either from the edicts i)Ccius.
of that Emperor, from ecclesiastical history, or from the Acts
of the Martyrs, that Decius made any special decree against
the cemeteries. Not so, however, in the persecution of
Valerian, which broke out in a.d. 257. Although the edict a.d. 257.
Edict of Valer-
ltself has not come down to us, yet, from words spoken by jan forbidding
Emilianus, Prefect of Alexandria,* and by Aspasius Paternus, .to ceme-
Pro-consul of Africa, we learn that it forbade the sacred assem-.
blies, and all visits to the sepulchres in the cemeteries. In
fact, Pope Sixtus II. was, with his deacons and sacred ministers,
(St I>aurence was the chief of them, and we have seen the
tombs of two others,t) hunted out, surprised, and beheaded in
the cemetery of Praetextatus,J " because he had set at nought
the commands of Valerian." §
- In a.d. 260, Gallienus revoked the edicts of persecution,
and sent throughout the empire a rescript by virtue of which
the possessors of loca religiosa belonging to the Christians and
confiscated by Valerian, were to make restitution to the bishops
of each church. By loca religiosa seem to have been meant all
churches or places of assembly ; for besides this general order,
he directed rescripts to particular bishops by which they might
recover the free use of " what they call their cemeteries."]] And
both the one and the other enter into the account which has
reached us of the acts of Dionysius, the successor of Sixtus II.,
* " Neither you nor any others shall in anywise lie permitted either
to hold assemblies or to enter ?•'/t<!/ you call your cemeteries." (These ex
pressions prove the exclusively Christian origin of the word "cemetery.")—
Letter of St Dionysius of Alexandria in Ettssh. Hist. Eecl. vii. c. II.
t Sec |>age So. % St t'ypr. Ep. 82.
§ Lib. Pont. U Ettscb. Hist. Eccl., vii. c. 13.
8S Roma Sotterranea.
of whom it is recorded,* that " he divided the churches and

cemeteries among the priests, and constituted parishes and
dioceses."
Hence came It was, however, only too evident to the Christians that
necessity of henceforward they could not reckon upon the inviolability of
concealment.
their graves; and it is from tiiis period that we must date
those studious efforts to conceal the entrance to the cemeteries
which are visible even now in the staircases leading from the
arenaria, and in other ways. Even at a much earlier period,
Tertullian testifies to the occasional interruption of Christian
Christians worship by a sudden invasion of the heathen. " We are daily
attacked in besieged," he says, " and betrayed and caught unawares in our
cemeteries.
very assemblies and congregations ;"t and again, in another
place, still addressing the heathen, % he says, "You know the
days of our meetings ; hence we are besieged, entrapped, and
often detained in our most secret congregations." But it is
specially to the latter half of the third century that those
accounts belong which have come down to us of Christians
being pursued and overtaken and sometimes martyred in the
Martyrdom in arenaria. Thus, in an account preserved by St Gregory of
cemetery, a.d, Tours, we are told that, under Numerianus, the martyrs Chry-
2S4.
santhus and Daria were put to death in an arenaria, and that
a great number of the faithful having been seen entering the
subterranean crypt on the Via Salaria to visit their tombs, the
heathen Emperor ordered the entrance to be hastily built up,
and a vast mound of sand and stones to be heaped in front of
it, so that they might be all buried alive, even as the martyrs
whom they had come to venerate. St Gregory adds, that when
the tombs of these martyrs were re-discovered, after the ages of
persecution had ceased, there were found with them, not onlv
the relics of those worshippers who had been thus cruelly put
to death, skeletons of men, women, and children lying on the
floor, but also the silver cruets (urcci argentei) which they had
taken down with them for the celebration of the sacred mys-
* Lib. Pnnt., />:>«t'-««'. t Apol., vii. \ Ad Nationcs, i. 7.
teries.* St Damasus was unwilling to destroy so touching a

memorial of past ages. He abstained from making any of
those changes by which he usually decorated the martyrs'
tombs, but contented himself with setting up one of his in
valuable historical inscriptions, and opening a window in the
adjacent wall or rock, that all might see, without disturbing,
this monument so unique in its kind —this Christian Pompeii
in miniature. These things might still be seen in St Gregory's
time, in the sixth century ; and De Rossi holds out hopes that
some traces of them may be restored even to our own genera
tion^ some fragments of the inscription perhaps, or even the
window itself through which our ancestors once saw so moving
a spectacle, assisting, as it were, at a mass celebrated in the
third century. Instances like these explain the common re- Catacombs
proach of the Pagans at this time, that the Christians were p^^s hldlng'
"a skulking, darkness-loving race;"£ and the numerous tra
ditions of the same period, even though the authenticity of
many of them may be doubtful, of Christians and even Popes §
taking refuge in the crypts, testify the importance attached by
the faithful to their cemeteries, and the jealousy with which
they were now regarded by their enemies.
The edicts of Aurelian, a little before his death, against the From Aurel-
Church which he had legally recognised, even to the length J.*".^ >I°
of ordering the buildings occupied by Paul of Samosata at
Antioch " to be given up into the hands of those in communion
with Christian bishops of Italy and Rome,"|| show how pre
carious a security for the cemeteries was even that legal re
cognition ; still we find the Christians taking courage, at the
commencement of the reign of Diocletian, to pull down the
* St Greg., Turon., I)e Gloria Mart., i. c. 28.
t " Cette espcrance est fondee ; j'oserais presque dire, elle sera remplie,"
are ])e Rossi's words in " Rome dans sa Grandeur," part 2me, p. 6, Char-
pentier, Nantes.
X " I.atebrosa ct lucifugax natio."—Minuc. Felix.
S "Caius . . . fugiens pcrsecutionem Diocletiani in crypt is habitando,
martyr io coronatur." Lib. Pout.
I Kuseb. Hist. Keel., vii. c. 50.
old churches and to build new ones, and we shall presently
see the deacon Severus about the same time constructing a
large double sepulchral chamber, with its open light-hole, in the
cemetery of St Callixtus.
Cemeteries The storm of the tenth persecution, under Diocletian, burst
confiscated, upon the Church with frightful violence in a.d. 303. The
a.d. 303.
churches erected during the peace were burned and demolished,
the farms or gardens under which the cemeteries lay were con
fiscated ; and though the acts of confiscation in Rome have
perished, yet a significant trace of them is left in the fact that
Pope Marcellinus, and his successor Marcellus, were neither of
them buried in the Papal crypt of St Callixtus, but the former
reposed in " a cubiculum which he himself had prepared in the
cemetery of Priscilla : " and the latter " requested leave from
a matron named Priscilla, and made a cameterium on the Via
Salaria." And a vast region of the deepest level of that
cemetery, of a lineal regularity hitherto unique in Roma Sotter
ranea, bears witness to the efforts of the Pope, while persecu
tion was raging, to provide for the necessities of the faithful
in some other place than that which had been discovered and
forfeited to the Government, on the Via Appia.
Restored to At tne close of a.d. 306, Maxentius put a stop to the per-
Church, a.d. secution, but the property of the Church was not restored until
Testimony of tne Pontificate of Melchiades, a.d. 311. St Augustine tells
st Augustine. us that the Donatists " recited the Acts in which it was read
how Melchiades sent deacons with the letters of the Emperor
Maxentius and the letters of the Prefect of the praetorium to
the Pnefect of the city, that they might receive the property
which the aforesaid Emperor had commanded to be restored
to the Christians, as having been taken from them in time of
persecution. . . . The Donatists said that the deacon
Strato, whom Melchiades had sent with the rest to receive the
toca <rclesiastica, was declared in the above acts to be a traititor
and . . . the Donatists also calumniated Melchiades on
account of Cassian, because this name is found also among the
deacons whom Melchiades sent to the Prefect," &c.* In fact,

this Pontiff having recovered the cemetery of St Callixtus
through his deacons, two of whom were named Strato and
Cassian, buried there the body of his predecessor Eusebius,
who had died in exile in Sicily, and placed him in one of the
largest crypts in the Catacomb. But even while the persecu
tion was raging, Marcellus had provided, as best he could, for
the re-organisation of the parishes and their cemeteries ; for
we readt that " he constituted the twenty-five tituli in the city
of Rome as parishes (dioeceses) for the reception by baptism
and penance of the multitudes who were converted from
among the Pagans, and for the burial-places of the mar
tyrs."
Titles were, of course, of much older date than the time of 7V/f.r,orpari;>h
Marcellus, though their number might have varied according churches>
to the increase in the number of the faithful. Thus, it is
recorded in the Liber Pontificalis, that Evaristus, the sixth from
St Peter, divided the titles in the city of Rome among the
priests, and appointed seven deacons. St Fabian, nearly a
century and a half later, is said by the same authority to have
divided the fourteen regions of Rome among the deacons ; and
now Marcellus constitutes (or more probably restores) twenty
five, which is the number most frequently met with in all the .
most ancient notices on the subject.^ The objects which are
contemplated in this arrangement are stated to be the admin
istration of the sacraments and the burial of the dead ; and
this is not the only occasion on which we learn from authentic
records that the care of the cemeteries entered into the details
of ecclesiastical management. It seems probable that, at least na<J each its
., own cemetery,
from the time of St Kibian, each title within the city had its
corresponding cemetery or cemeteries, outside the walls, and
the priest or priests of the title had jurisdiction over the
cemetery also. In the time of St Damasus, each church had
* St Aujj. Brcv. Coll. cum Donat., iii. 34-36. t I.il>. Punt

X Blanchinii, Ana>t. Vit. Pont., ii. ,<7.
two priests,* and even in the days of St Cyprian t we find two

priests attached to the same church, one as a subordinate to
the other. If we might suppose the number of titles in the
time of St Cornelius to have been twenty-three, (or, if more,
that some of them were vacant,) this would account for the
number of Roman priests, which he sets down at forty-six,J
two for each title, one of whom might well have ministered at
the cella or oratory (in later times basilica §) above the ceme
tery, whilst the other ministered in the city. It is not difficult
to understand, after what has been said upon the Roman law
respecting burials and burial-confraternities, how this system of
administration might, under ordinary circumstances, have been
carried on without any interference from the Government, even
during the ages of persecution. And perhaps the following
inscription on a grave-stone, in the cemetery of St Domitilla,
may be quoted in illustration and confirmation of the theory
that is here suggested, _/ii«ii being the official expression in use
among the heathen magistrates of that time for a command or
permission given by one having jurisdiction, and Archelaus
and Dulcitus being the two priests of the title to which that
cemetery belonged.
AI.EXIVS ET CAPRIOI.A FECERVNT SE VIVI

IVSSV ARCHELAI ET DVLCITI PRESBB
Moreover, if we suppose, as we very reasonably may, that the
* " Nunc autem septem diaconoscsse oportet et aliquantos presbyteros, ut

bini sint per Ecclesias."—Ambros. [Hilar.], in I Tim. iii.
+ Ep. xviii., " Felix qui presbyterium subministrabat sub Decimo."
X " There were forty-six priests, seven deacons, seven sub-dcacons, forty-
two acolytes, exorcists, lectors, and ostiarii, in all fifty-two ; widows, with
the afflicted and needy, more than 1500. all of which the goodness and love
of God doth nourish."—Cornelius to Fabius of Antioch. apud Euseb., II.
E., vi. 43. See also the " quadragintn et quod excurrit basilieas" men
tioned by Optatus c. Don. ii. 4.
§ This name seems to have been in occasional use from the days of
Diocletian. -A'. S. i. 205.
Popes who succeeded Zephyrinus continued to retain the

cemetery of St Callixtus under their own immediate jurisdic- Cemetery of
tion, administered by their chief deacon (or archdeacon, as he unc]er t)le
was afterwards called), we have another illustration of the same c!lre^ care of
" the Pope.
system in the following inscription, belonging to the time of
Marcellinus, which records that Severus, his deacon, made, by
the permission of his Pope, (jussu papa sni,) a double chamber,
with arched tombs and light-hole, for himself and his relations :—
CVBICVLVM DVPLEX CVM ARC1SOLIIS ET LVMINARE
IVSSV PP SVI MARCELLINI DIACONVS ISTE
SEVERVS FECIT MANSIONF.M IN PACE QVIETAM
SIBI SVISQVE. . . .
It would be easy to show, from a multitude of testimonies Reflections on

belonging to the fifth and sixth centuries, that each suburban tile history of
cemetery was at that time dependent on some particular parish theCatacombs.
within the walls. But about this there can be no dispute. It
is only when we seek to penetrate the thick darkness which
envelopes the history of the earlier ages, that it is difficult to
find clear and abundant proofs ; and the precise province of
an archaeologist is to supply these deficiencies, not out of his
own imagination, but by acute and cautious induction, based
on a most careful examination of every fragment that remains.
If we set before a skilful professor of comparative anatomy a
few bones dug out of the bowels of the earth, he will recon
struct the whole form of the animal to which they belonged ;
and it often happens that these theoretical constructions are
singularly justified by later discoveries. The work of an
archaeologist is much of the same kind. An historian only
rearranges, transcribes, or interprets annals already composed
and faithfully transmitted by his predecessors. He may have
to gather his materials from various sources ; must be able to
distinguish the true from the false, and give form, consistency,
and life to the whole ; but, for the most part at least, he has
little to supply that is new from his own resources. An archae
ologist, on the contrary, if he be really a man of learning and
science, and not a mere collector of old curiosities, aims at

discovering and restoring annals that are lost, by means of a
careful and intelligent use of every fragment, often of hetero
geneous materials, that the most unwearied diligence has been
able to bring together.
This remark seems not uncalled for, at the end of a chapter
in which we have professed to set before our readers a con
tinuous history of the subterranean cemeteries of Rome during
the ages of persecution, and even to unfold the system of their
ecclesiastical administration. Such a history has never been
written before, and some readers may be disposed to think
that even now the materials for it are too scanty. De Rossi
frankly acknowledges that each fact that he has been able to
collect, if taken alone, throws but a faint and uncertain light
upon the obscurity of the subject ; but he justly argues that
the wonderful harmony which he has been able to establish
between facts and documents, so unlike one another, and
separated so far asunder, both in point of time and place, are
a very strong presumption of truth. The " Lives of the Popes,"
compiled in the seventh or eighth century ; the Philosophu-
mena, written in a spirit of bitter personal hatred against a Pope
of the third century, and only brought to light in the nine
teenth ; sepulchral inscriptions also, of the third century, in like
manner unknown before our own time ; ecclesiastical historians
and learned commentators of different times and countries ;
each of these has been made by De Rossi to contribute its
quota to this chapter of history as it stands in his own volumin
ous work ; and even in this imperfect abridgment of it, the
readers will have been struck with the number and variety of
fragments out of which so complete a skeleton, if we ought
not rather to say so full and life-like a body, has been com
posed.
CHAPTER III.
FROM THE EDICT OF MILAN, A.D. 3 1 2, TO THE SACK OF ROME

BY THE GOTHS, A.D. 410.
\I 7ITH the conversion of Constantine and the Edict of Gradual disuse

V V Milan a new era opens in the history of the Cata- ^"c^™j
combs. Melchiades, the first Pope who sat in the Lateran, after peace w
given to the
was the last who was buried in the subterranean cemetery of Church.
St Callixtus—in ccemeterio Callixti in crypta. Sylvester, his
successor, had his sepulchre in cameterio Priscilla, not, how
ever, in crypta, but in a basilica, which, having always pre
served his name, had probably been built by him. The next
Pontiff, Mark, was in like manner buried in cameterio Balbina,
explained by the Liber Pontificalis to be a basilica quam camc-
terium constituit; that is to say, he probably built a small basilica
or cella memorice, near the entrance of a subterranean cemetery
already existing, to which he now assigned its own priest and
guardian, as the other principal cemeteries had already had.
Other instances might be given to show that the cemeteries in
which succeeding Pontiffs are said to have been buried were
really basilicas above ground ; and though subterranean burial
continued to be practised, yet the example set by the Pontiffs
was not long in being followed, and graves within and around
the basilicas gradually superseded the loculi of the Catacombs.
The inscriptions with consular dates probably furnish us with
a sufficiently accurate guide to the relative proportions of the
two modes of burial. From a.d. 338 to A.d. 360 two out of
three burials appear to have taken place in the subterranean
portion of the cemeteries, while from a.d. 364 to a.d. 369 the
proportions are equal. During the next two years hardly any
notices of burials above ground appear, but after that the sub
terranean crypts fall rapidly into disuse. This marked and
sudden change demands an explanation, and history at once
supplies it.
Basilicas The first care of the Christians, when peace and liberty had
tombs ofVmar- been secured to the Church by the conversion of Constantine,
•yrs, was to honour those illustrious martyrs whose bodies lay con
cealed in the recesses of the various Catacombs. Basilicas more
or less sumptuous began to be erected over their sepulchres,
and as the faithful shrank from disturbing their original resting-
places, it became the ordinary custom to cut away the surface
of the ground on the side of the hill in which the galleries had
been excavated, and thus gain access to the martyr's tomb,
caused much 1 ne Vatican hill behind St Peter's, the hill opposite to St
damage to Paul's outside the walls, the galleries and chambers still
Catacombs. 0
visible in the hill cut away for the site of San Lorenzo in
Agro Verano, are witnesses to this practice. Sometimes, as
in St Agnese fuori le mura, it was necessary to go down to
a great depth ; for the martyrs had perhaps been buried in the
second floor of the Catacomb ; and hence the long flight of
steps by which we descend to that church at the present
day. Such a wholesale sacrificing of hundreds of graves
for the sake of one illustrious sepulchre must have been dis-
1 )evotion of St pleasing to many ; and St Damasus in particular, ardently as
Damaaus to ne iaDoured in tne search for the bodies and the furthering of
Catacombs ; 0
the devotion to the remains of the martyrs, yet found means to
encourage that devotion without destroying the character of
the subterranean cemeteries. When the cemeteries had been
taken from the Christians, and made over to other hands by
Diocletian, there is evidence to show that the Church pro
vided for the inviolability of the tombs of her more venerated
heroes by blocking up the galleries which led to them ; and it
was a labour of love in after-years to re-discover* these tombs.
* "Quaeritur, inventus colitur" is the language of St Damasus' inscrip
tions.
The Catacombs in the Fourth Century. 97
the precise situation of which was only known by tradition.

St Damasus then removed the earth, widened the passages so his labours
as to make them more serviceable for the crowd of pilgrims, tions!"SCr'P
constructed flights of stairs leading to the more illustrious
shrines, and adorned the chambers with marbles, opening
shafts to admit air and light where practicable, and supporting
the friable iufa walls and galleries, wherever it was necessary,
with arches of brick and stone work. Almost all the cata
combs bear traces of his labours, and modern discovery is
continually bringing to light fragments of the inscriptions
which he composed in honour of the martyrs, and caused to
be engraved on marble slabs, in a peculiarly beautiful charac
ter, by a very able artist, Furius Dionysius Filocalus. It is
a singular fact that no original inscription of Pope Damasus
has ever yet been found executed by any other hand, nor
have any inscriptions been found, excepting those of Damasus,
in precisely the same form of letters. Hence the type is well
known to students of Christian epigraphy as the Damasine
characters.*
Now, the sudden return to the subterranean mode of burial Catacombs as
in the years a.d. 370, 371, exactly corresponds with the time grinui„<'.f P"
of the labours of St Damasus, and it is obvious to conjecture,
that the faithful who visited the tombs of the martyrs, came
away with a desire to lay their own bones beside theirs.
Some, as the priest St Barbazianus, even made little cells
underground, and led the lives of hermits in their immediate
neighbourhood, and all were assiduous in visiting them. St St Jerome,
Jerome gives a vivid description of a devout Roman youth's A'd' "+
feelings on such a visit ; but his words seem more immediately
applicable to the ordinary condition of the common galleries,
than to any that had been specially decorated by the Pope.
" When I was a boy," he writes, " being educated at Rome,
I used every Sunday, in company with other boys of my own
age and tastes, to visit the tombs of the apostles and martyrs,
* Specimen* may be scen in Plates I. and III. at the end of the volume.
r,
and to go into the crypts excavated there in the bowels of the

earth. The walls on either side as you enter are full of the
bodies of the dead, and the whole place is so dark, that one
seems almost to see the fulfilment of those words of the pro"
phet, ' Let them go down alive into Hades.' Here and there
a little light, admitted from above, suffices to give a momentary
relief to the horror of the darkness ; but as you go forwards,
and find yourself again immersed in the utter blackness of
night, the words of the poet come spontaneously to your
mind : ' The very silence fills the soul with dread.' " * On the
Prudentius on contrary, the words of the poet Prudentius, written about the
cemetery of ... . , , ,
StHippolytus. same time, clearly commemorate the results ot some such
labours as we have been describing those of St Damasus to
have been. He is writing of the tomb of St Hippolytus, and
his description runs thus :—
" Not far from the city walls, among the well-trimmed
orchards, there lies a crypt buried in darksome pits. Into
its secret recesses a steep path with winding stairs directs
one, even though the turnings shut out the light. The light
of day, indeed, comes in through the doorway, as far as
the surface of the opening, and illuminates the threshold of
the portico; and when, as you advance further, the dark
ness as of night seems to get more and more obscure through
out the mazes of the cavern, there occur at intervals aper
tures cut in the roof which convey the bright rays of the
sun upon the cave. Although the recesses, twisting at ran
dom this way and that, form narrow chambers with dark
some galleries, yet a considerable quantity of light finds its
way through the pierced vaulting down into the hollow bowels
of the mountain. And thus throughout the subterranean crypt
. it is possible to perceive the brightness and enjoy the light of
the absent sun. To such secret places is the body of Hip
polytus conveyed, near to the spot where now stands the altar
dedicated to God. That same altar-slab (memo) gives the
* Si Ilieron. in K/cch. c. Ix.
sacrament, and is the faithful guardian of its martyr's bones,

which it keeps laid up there in expectation of the eternal
Judge, while it feeds the dwellers of the Tiber with holy food.
Wondrous is the sanctity of the place ! the altar is at hand for
those who pray, and it assists the hopes of men by mercifully
granting what they need. Here have I, when sick with ills
both of soul and body, oftentimes prostrated myself in prayer
and found relief. Yes, O glorious priest ! I will tell with what
joy I return to enjoy the privilege of embracing thee, and that
I know that I owe all this to Hippolytus, to whom Christ, our
God, has granted power to obtain whatever any one asks of him.
That little chapel (adiculd) which contains the cast-off garments
of his soul [his relics] is bright with solid silver. Wealthy Shrine richly
hands have put up tablets glistening with a smooth surface jgvoutily "*
[of silver], bright as a concave mirror ; and, not content with v'sued.
overlaying the entrance with Parian marble, they have lavished
large sums of money on the ornamentation of the work." He
goes on to describe the pilgrimages to the shrine, and with
somewhat of poetic licence continues : " Early in the morning
they come to salute [the saint] : all the youth of the place
worship there : they come and go until the setting of the sun.
Love of religion collects together into one dense crowd both
I-atins and foreigners ; they imprint their kisses on the shining
silver ; they pour out their sweet balsams ; they bedew their
faces with tears." His description of the scene on the festa of
the martyr, his dies natalis, reminds one forcibly of the way in
which the modern Romans stream out to San Lorenzo, or to
San Paolo fuori le mura, or to any other of the old churches,
when a festival or a station is held there. " The imperial city Scene on the
festa of the
vomits forth her stream of Romans, and the plebeian crowd, saint,
animated by one and the same desire, jostle on equal terms
their patrician neighbours, faith hurrying them forward to the
shrine. Albano's gates, too, send forth their white-robed host
in a long-drawn line. The noise on the various roads on all
sides waxes loud : the native of the Abruzzi and the Etruscan
IOO Roma Sotterranca.
peasant come, the fierce Samnite, the countryman of lofty

Capua and of Nola, is there ; each with his wife and children
delights to hasten on his road. The broad fields scarcely
suffice to contain the joyful people, and even where the space
is wide, the crowd is so great as to cause delay. No doubt,
then, that that cavern, wide though its mouth be stretched, is
too narrow for such crowds ; but hard by is another church
(templum), enriched with royal magnificence, which this great
gathering may visit ; " * and then follows the description of a
basilica, supposed by many to be the basilica of San Lorenzo
in Agro Verano.
Damage done This devotion to the cemeteries, which, as we have seen,
to Catacombs
by indiscreet caused them to be used again as burial-places so frequently
devotion. in the time of St Damasus, was not always regulated by prud
ence. In the anxiety of Christians to be buried as near as
possible to the saints, they excavated loculi at the back of the
arcosolia, not sparing even the most beautiful paintings with
which their forefathers had adorned them. They destroyed the
symmetry of the chapels with new monuments and sarcophagi,
and often endangered the safety of the constructions by indis
Examples. creet excavations. One ancient inscription speaks of "a new
crypt behind the saints," in which two ladies bought a bisomum
for themselves during their lifetime from two fossores.
IN CRYPTA NOBA KETRO SAN
CTVS EMERVM SE VIVAS BALER
RA ET SABINA MERVM LOC
V BISOM AB APRONE ET A
BIATORE
Here is another inscription which testifies to a similar pur
chase " from Quintus the fossor" of a single grave near St
Cornelius.
SEREPENT1V
S EMIT I.OC
M A QUIN'I O
KOSSORE AD
SANTVM C
RNET.IVM
Prudent. Peristeph. xi 11. 153. &c.
A third records the purchase of a grave for a father and

mother and one daughter, " above the arcosolium" at the very
tomb of St Hippolytus, of which we have heard so much from
Prudentius (at Jppolytv siper arcosoliv).
A fourth inscription of the year 381 (during the Pontificate
of Damasus) tells us of one who obtained the privilege of
burial " within the thresholds of the saints, a thing which
many desire and few obtain " (intra limina sanctorum, quod
multi cupiunt et rari aceipiunt). *
It appears that, at this time, the work of excavation was no Theyareunder
longer continued at the public expense under the special care ment'of'the
of the parish priests, but that it was left as a matter of p"vateê priests' °f
bargain between the deceased's friends and the fossores. No
vestige of contracts of this kind with fossors has been found
earlier than the last years of the fourth century, and no record
of the existence of this body of men has come to light later
than the first quarter of the fifth century. But the monuments
are very numerous during this short period which testify to
their having had in their own hands the disposal of new graves
in the Catacombs. It is no longer jussu of the Pope or of the
priests that such and such a tomb has been made, but the
names of both buyers and sellers are recorded on the tomb
stone, together with the witnesses to the contract, and even
the price that was paid ; and the sellers are always fossors.
It is generally supposed that the fossors were themselves
clerics, the lowest order in the hierarchy. But even though
it should be considered that there is not sufficient ground for
this opinion, yet, at least, it is obvious, that, in the earlier ages,
they must have been on very intimate relations with the clergy,
and, no doubt, were supported by the Church, whose most
devoted and laborious servants they were. It is not difficult,
therefore, to understand how, under the altered circumstances
of the times, the whole matter had been allowed to fall more
entirely under their management. Nevertheless, we must be
* Inscr. Christ, i. 142.
allowed to regret that they should not have used a more whole
some severity in withstanding the pious but indiscreet desires
of the faithful. How common those desires were is sufficiently
attested, not only by these and other similar inscriptions, but
still more by the fact that it forms the subject of a long letter,
or short treatise, by the great St Augustine, written at the
request of his friend, St Paulinus of Nola, in which he explains
and justifies them.* Nevertheless we may easily imagine the
displeasure with which so ardent a lover of the cemeteries as
St Damasus would regard a system which tended to their
destruction. His own example spoke more eloquently than
any words could do. No one had a greater right to be buried
there than he, and yet he was content to build himself a tomb
above the cemetery of St Callixtus, and to write upon a tablet
in the papal crypt the reason for his not being buried within
it :—
HIC FATEOR DAMASVS VOLVI MEA CONDERE MEMBRA,
SED TIMVI SANCT03 CINERES VEXARE PIORVM.
" Here I, Damasus, wished to bury my limbs, but I was afraid of dis
turbing the holy ashes of the saints." t
The archdeacon Sabinus, in his epitaph lately found at San
Lorenzo, tells the faithful plainly, that the only way to obtain
a place near the saints is to imitate their lives :—
NIL JVVAT IMMO GRAVAT TVMVLIS H/F.RF.RE PIORVM
SANCTORVM MERITIS OPTIMA VITA PROPE EST.
CORPORE NON OPVS EST, ANIMA TENDAMVS AD ILLOS
QU/E BENE SALVA POTEST CORPORIS ESSE SALVS.
"It nothing helps, but rather hinders, [merely] to stick close to the
tombs of the saints ; a good life is the best approach to the saints'
merits. Not with the body, but with the soul, we must make our way to
them ; when that is well saved, it may prove the salvation of the body
also." %
Raoid disuse Whether in consequence of any direct prohibition, or merely
of Catacombs .
for burial. from difficulties being put in the way, whatever cause may have
produced the result, the evidence of the dated inscriptions makes
* See Note D. in Appendix. t Rom. Sou. i. 214.
X Bullettino, 1864, 33.
it clear, that after the brief furore for subterranean interment

during the years 370 and 371 there was a rapid disuse of that
mode of burial. Between a.d. 373 and 400, the subterranean
epitaphs are only one out of three. From a.n. 400 to 409, Rome taken
the decrease is still more rapid, until, after a.d. 410, scarcely ^^.^
a single certain example is to be found.* In that fatal year,
to use the language of St Jerome, " The brightest light of all
the world was extinguished ; the Roman empire lost its head ;
and, to speak more truly, in one city the whole world perished."t
Rome was taken by Alaric; the citizens were reduced, many
by slaughter, some by captivity, all by loss of wealth, and
there was neither time nor means to adorn the sepulchres or
even to pay the customary honours to the departed.
* Inscr. Christ, i. 117, &c.
t Hieron. Proleg. in lib. i. Kzech. v. 16, ed. Mignc.
Fig. 14. —Fresco in one of the oldest Cubicnla ofthe Crypts ofSt Lncinn.
CHAPTER IV.
FROM THE YEAR A.D. 4IO UNTIL THEIR FINAL ABANDONMENT.
a.d. 4IO. SERIOUS as was the ruin and damage done to the Eternal
Catacombs City by the Goths in a.d. 410, yet neither then nor at
abandoned as
burial-places. their second sack of Rome, in a.d. 457, do we find any record
of their having destroyed either the cemeteries or the basilicas
of the martyrs. Still the use of the subterranean cemeteries
as places of burial was never after this resumed, and the in
scriptions and notices which seem to refer to them will, on
closer examination, be found to relate to basilicas and ceme
teries above ground. The fossors1 occupation was gone, and
after a.d. 426 their name ceases to be mentioned. The
liturgical books of the fifth century refer constantly, in the
prayers for the dead and benediction of graves, to burials in
and around the basilicas, never to the subterranean cemeteries.
Still fre The Catacombs, however, though they ceased to be used
quented as for burial, yet continued to be frequented as shrines and places
shrines.
of pilgrimage. Occasionally, in times of popular tumult, they
seem to have been used also as places of refuge. Thus Boni
face I. was concealed for a time in the Cemetery of St Felicitas,
which he afterwards ornamented.* Pope Symmachus, towards
the end of the fifth century, is said, in one copy of the Liber
Pontificalis, to have restored and beautified the cemeteries of
a.i>. 537- the martyrs. The irruption of the Goths under Vitiges, in a.d.
Profaned by 537, carried havoc even into the peaceful sanctuaries of the
Goths under
Vitiges. saints.t As soon, however, as the storm passed over, Pope
* Lib. Pont.
t " Ecclcsite et corpora Martyrum cxtcrminata sunt a Gothis."- Lib. Pout.
The Catacombs Rifled and Abandoned. 105
Vi'gilius repaired the damage which, we are told, saddened
him to see, and replaced some of the broken epitaphs of St
Damasus by copies, often very imperfect, some of which still
remain.* About this time, when necessity had compelled the
citizens to relax the strictness of the ancient laws against bury
ing within the walls, cemeteries began to be formed on the
Esquiline and on the site of the old Praetorian camp. It was
becoming dangerous to venture far outside the walls.
The Pontiffs, however, continued their care for the ancient Repaired by
the care of
cemeteries. John III., about a.d. 568, "restored the cemeteries p°pes.
of the holy martyrs, and ordered that oblations, cruets, and JjJjJ^ saKl
candles [for the holy sacrifice] should be supplied from the-
Lateran Palace throughout the cemeteries every Sunday. "t
This was after the desolation of Rome by Totila. But the re
turn to the old custom of the priests of the city-title serving the
extra-mural cemetery every Sunday did not last long. It is re
corded in the seventh century, to the special praise of Sergius I.,
that, "during the time of his priesthood, he used diligently
to celebrate the solemnities of mass through different ceme
teries." i As titular of St Susanna, he would, according to the
ancient practice, have been confined to the cemetery belonging
to that title. Sixty years later, about a.d. 735, Gregory III.,
a zealous restorer and builder of churches, " instituted a body
of priests to celebrate masses every week, and arranged that in
* e.g., The inscription in honour of Eusebius in the cemetery of San
Callisto, presently to be seen. A copy of some verses of Pope Vigilius, refer
ring to this practice, may be seen in the third column of the collection
in the gallery at the Lateran. It runs thus :—
" Dum peritura Getae posuissent castra sub urbem,
Moverunt Sanctis bella nefanda prius.
Totaque sacrilego verterunt corde sepulcra,
Martyribus quondam ritesacrata piis.
Quos monstrante Deo Damasus sibi Papa probatos
Affixo monuil carmine jure coli.
Sed periit titulus confracta marmore sanctus,
Nec tamen his iterum posse latere fuit.
Diruta Vigilius nam posthaec Papa gemiscens,
Hostibus expulsis omnc novavit opus."
t Lib. Pont. t lb.
io6 Roma Sotterranea.
the cemeteries situated all round Rome, the lights for keeping
the vigils on the days of their natalUia, and the oblation for
the celebration of the masses, should be carried down from the
palace by the oblationarius, through whom the Pontiff would
name the priest who should officiate on the occasion."*
a.d. 756. There is ground for supposing that some few bodies of
firm of bodies samts nacl been in Rome, as we know they were in other
of saints from cities,t removed from their original resting-places to churches
Catacombs,
prepared for their reception, even as early as the fifth century. J
One of the itineraries, which describes the martyrs' shrines,
distinctly mentions the bodies of some saints being in basilicas
above ground, whom we know to have been originally buried
in the subterranean cemeteries. It was, however, with great
reluctance, and not until after the devastations and sacrileges
committed by the Lombards under Astolphus, a.d. 756, that
by Paul I. Paul I., elected in the following year, resolved upon translating
on a large scale the relics of the saints, in order to save them
from profanation.
In a constitution, dated June 2, 761, he complains that,
whereas, even before the siege of Rome by Astolphus, some of
these subterranean cemeteries had been neglected and ruined,
yet by the impious Lombards this ruin had now been made
more complete ; for they had broken open the graves and
carried off some bodies of the saints. " From that time for
ward," he says, " people have been very slothful and negligent
in paying due honour to the cemeteries ; animals have been
allowed to have access to them ; even folds have been pur
posely set up in them, so that they have been defiled with all
* Lib. Pont.
t e.g., Milan in the time of St Ambrose.
J Rom. Sott. i. 219. In the " Sacramentary of St Leo," in the Preface
for Saints John and Paul, it is said, " Of Thy merciful providence Thou
hast vouchsafed to crown not only the circuit of the city with the glorious
passions of the martyrs, but also to hide in the very heart of the city itself
the victorious limbs of Saints John and Paul." This looks as if these martyrs
were then the only saints whose bodies rested within the walls ; and they
had never been anywhere else.
sorts of corruption. Seeing, then, and deeply lamenting this

careless indifference to such holy places, I have thought it
good, with God's help, to remove the bodies of the martyrs
and confessors and virgins of Christ, and with hymns and
spiritual songs I have brought them into this city of Rome,
and I have placed them in the church which I have lately
built, in honour of St Stephen and St Sylvester, on the site of
the house in which I was born and bred, which has now
descended to me by inheritance from my father." Lists of
the saints, whose relics were thus translated, have come down
to us,* and there must have been more than a hundred in all.
The example set by Paul was not followed by either of his
immediate successors, Stephen III. or Adrian I. ; in fact, the
latter strained every nerve to bring back the ancient honour
and magnificence of the cemeteries. Nearly all of them bore
witness to his zeal ; and his restorations were continued by his
successor, Leo IH.t Notwithstanding all the efforts of these
Popes to revive the interest in these sacred crypts, Paschal I. Paschal 1. and
was constrained to imitate the example of Paul, because the
crypts of the martyrs were being destroyed and abandoned.
The inscription in Sta Prassede still attests how he translated
thither two thousand three hundred bodies on July 20, 817.
Sergius II. and Leo TV. continued the same work, for the
greater dignity of the churches which they had either built or
restored, viz., SS. Silvestro and Martino, and Santi Quattro
Coronati ; they also re-translated to these churches relics
which had already been removed from the Catacombs and
deposited elsewhere in Rome. To these times also doubtless
belongs the account of many cart-loads of relics of martyrs
being carried to the Pantheon ; a record which has been con
founded with that of the reliquia placed there by Boniface IV.
long before the tombs in the subterranean cemeteries were
touched.
* Mai. Script. Vet. v. 56.
t See the long enumeration of their works in Lib. Pont, xcvii. xcviii.
io8 Roma Sotterranca.
Final aban- All the documents which mention these translations assign
donment of . . , , , , , . , ,
Catacombs. the cause of them to the abandonment and ruin of the ceme
teries ; and, of course, the translations, in their turn, still further
hurried forward and completed the work of ruin and abandon
ment. The sacred treasures which had caused them to be
regarded with so much love and veneration having been
removed, there was no longer the same motive for protecting
or ornamenting them ; and thus the first half of the ninth
century may be said to have ended the history of the Cata
combs as shrines or places of pilgrimage, just as the beginning
of the fifth had ended their history as cemeteries. Pope
Nicholas I., a d. 860, is said to have visited them, and to have
restored in some of them the celebration of mass (quod multos
per temporum cursus ab eo discesserit) ; and in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries we still read of visits to the cemeteries, and
of lamps kept burning in some of them which were near to
monasteries. But these insignificant exceptions to the general
oblivion into which they fell are the last and only records
which remain to us of any attempt to keep up the ancient
glories of the Catacombs of Rome. Henceforward only those
in the vicinity of some church or monastery were visited out
of curiosity by occasional travellers, as we find the cemetery
of St Valentine, on the Via Flaminia, noticed by a pilgrim of
the eleventh, and again by a writer of the twelfth century.
Like the cemetery of St Agnes, it lay under property belong
ing to the Augustinian Order, and hence was not utterly lost
sight of. In a statistical account of the Roman churches and
clergy, written in the fourteenth century, only three of the
suburban churches attached to the cemeteries are mentioned,
viz., those of St Hermes, St Valentine, and St Saturninus.
When we come to the fifteeenth century even these disappear,
and only one subterranean cemetery remained always open
and frequented by pilgrims, the same which may still be seen
beneath the Church of St Sebastian, and which was called in
all ancient documents, ctxmcterium ad catacumbas.
This is an important fact to be noticed, because it accounts Origin of the

both for the use of this word, Catacomb, as applied to the comb." ^ *
Roman cemeteries, and also for the very grave topographical
error respecting the cemetery of St Callixtus, which has per
plexed and misled all Roman archaeologists until the present
day. The earliest document now extant in which the word
catacumbas is used as descriptive of the locality of St Sebas
tian's belongs to the sixth century, where we read in a list of
the Roman cemeteries cimeterium catecumbas ad St Sebastianum
Via Appia. But it was used before this, apparently, as the
name of that part of the campagna in which St Sebastian's is
situated, for the Roman circus built by Maxentius, and whose
ruins in this neighbourhood are so well known, was anciently
called the circus ad catacumbas. When, then, the locality of
the other Roman cemeteries was forgotten, and this alone
remained known, (because it was still open, and always
retained its place in the Libri Jndulgentiarum, composed at
various times and in different languages for the use of pilgrims,)
the names of all the other cemeteries, occurring so frequently
in the Martyrologies and Lives of the Popes, appear to
have been ignorantly confused with this particular spot ; a
visit to the cemeteries became synonymous with a visit ad
catacumbas, and the term Catacomb gradually came to be
regarded as the specific name for all subterranean excavations
for purposes of burial, not only in the neighbourhood of Rome,
but also in Naples, Malta, Paris, Sicily, and wherever else
similar excavations have been discovered.
Kit.- 15. — I'try ancient Sanephagns, found tu Crypt of St Liuinu.

BOOK III.
CATACOMB OF ST CALL IXT US.
CHAPTER I.
ITS DISCOVERY AND IDENTIFICATION.
Pre-eminence " T N the history of Pagan Rome," says Father Marchi,*

Appia, both in " t|ie Via Appia bears the proud title of Queen of
Pagan and Roman roads ; and it makes this boast with good reason,
Christian ' B '
Rome. both because of the grander scale on which it was constructed,
the greater magnificence of the buildings and sepulchres which
adorned it, the greater variety of conquered nations who used
it, and the number and celebrity of the events connected with
it. The history of Christian Rome gives to this same road
titles of glory incomparably more solid, just, and indisputable.
We are forced to acknowledge it as the Queen of Christian
roads, by reason of the greater number and extent of its
cemeteries, and still more for the greater number and celebrity
of its martyrs." And in another place t he speaks of one of
the cemeteries upon this road as standing to other cemeteries
much in the same relation as St Peter's to other churches ; he
says it is " the colossal region of Roma- Sotterranea, all the
others are only small or middling provinces." Unfortunately
* Monum. An Crist. Prim. 73. t P. 172.
Discovery and Identification of San Callisto. 1 1 i
the plan of his own work was complete, and most of it already
executed, before he effected an entrance into the cemeteries
which so strongly impressed his imagination ; and the won
ders we have now to narrate have been the discovery of De
Rossi. Indeed this has been the especial field of his labours,
and the two volumes of his great work already published have
not exhausted his narration of them. We shall not be doing
justice either to the subject or to our author, unless we enter
into the details of the cemeteries on the Via Appia at some
length ; and first, we will hear what our ancient guides of the
seventh and eighth centuries have to tell us upon the subject,
for so we shall be better able to follow the course of De Rossi's
investigations, and to appreciate both their ingenuity and im
portance.
One of these guides, then, the most ancient and accurate of
all, describing what he himself saw and visited at some time
between the years 625 and 638, writes as follows:—" After- Testimonies of
wards, you arrive by the Via Appia at St Sebastian, martyr, authors,
whose body lies in a very low spot ; and there are the sepul
chres of the Apostles Peter and Paul, in which they rested
forty years ; and you go down by steps on the western side
of the church, where St Cyrinus, Pope and martyr, rests. And
on the north side of the same road you come to the holy
martyrs, Tiburtius, Valerian, and Maximus. There you will
enter into a great cave, and you will find there St Urban,
bishop and confessor ; and in another place, Felicissimus and
Agapitus, martyrs, and deacons of Sixtus ; and in a third place,
Cyrinus, martyr; and in a fourth, Januaritis, martyr; and in
a third church again, St Zeno, martyr, rests. On the same
road, at St Cecilia's, there is an innumerable multitude of
martyrs : first, Sixtus, Pope and martyr ; Dionysius, Pope and
martyr; Julian, Pope and martyr; Flavianus, martyr; St Cecilia,
virgin and martyr. Eighty martyrs rest there below [in the
subterranean cemetery] ; Zcphyrinus, Pope and confessor, rests
[in a church] above. Kusebius, Pope and martyr, rests in a
I 12 Roma Sotterranea.
cave some way off. Cornelius, Pope and martyr, lies in an
other cave some way off. After this, you come to the holy
virgin and martyr, Soteris, whose body lies towards the north
side ; and then you leave the Via Appia, and arrive," &c.
The route described by the next witness5 proceeds in the
opposite direction. He has just described what was to be seen
on the Via Ardeatina, and then he continues: —" Near the Via
Appia, on the eastern side of the city, is the Church of St Soteris,
martyr, where she lies with many other martyrs ; and near the
same road is the Church of St Sixtus, Pope, where he sleeps ;
there also St Cecilia, virgin, rests ; and there St Tharsicius
and St Zephyrinus lie, in one tomb ; and there St Eusebius,
and St Calocerus and St Parthenius lie, each apart ; and 800
martyrs rest there. Not far from thence, in the cemetery of
St Callixtus, Cornelius and Cyprian sleeps [sic] in a church.
There is also near the same road a church of many martyrs,
i.e., of Januarius, who was the eldest of the seven sons of
Felicitas ; of Urban, of Agapitus, Felicissimus, Cyrinus, Zeno,
the brother of Valentine ; Tiburtius and Valerian, and many
martyrs rest there. And near the same road is the Church of
St Sebastian, martyr, where' he himself sleeps ; where are also
the burial-places of the Apostles, in which they rested forty
years. There also the martyr Cyrinus is buried. By the same
road also you go to the city of Albano," &c.
Division of Without entering into the minute details of any apparent
J" " discrepancies between these two accounts, their substantial
agreement is abundantly manifest. Nobody can read them
attentively without observing that they describe four distinct
groups, or centres, of martyrs' tombs on the Appian road.
One, the most distant from Rome, as you go towards Albano,
is the Church of St Sebastian, with the cemetery belonging to
it. Another, on the north side of the road, contained the
graves of St Cecilia's husband and brother-in-law, Valerian and
Tiburtius ; of Felicissimus and Agapitus, two of St Sixtus's
♦ These arc the two itineraries mentioned in pp. 22. 23.
Discovery and Identification of San Callisto. 1 1 3
deacons ; of Januarius, the eldest of the seven sons of St

Felicitas ; and of many other martyrs. The third is described
in still more glowing terms, as containing an " innumerable
multitude of martyrs ;" amongst whom are specified several
Popes, St Cecilia, St Tharsycius, and others. Lastly, there is
the church and cemetery of the holy virgin and martyr, St
Soteris, before you leave this road and cross over to the Via
Ardeatina. It is only with the third of these groups that we
are more immediately concerned ; nevertheless, it will be
necessary that we should begin by saying a few words about
the first*
The basilica of St Sebastian, built by Constantine over the St Sebastian's,
tomb where the body of this martyr still rests, is well known
to every visitor of Rome. It stands on the Appian road, be
tween two and three miles out of the city ; and a friar from the
adjoining monastery being always ready to act as guide and
descend into the extensive subterranean cemetery, this has
been more visited perhaps than any other portion of the
Roman Catacombs. He cannot, indeed, show you " the steps
on the western side of the church, whereby we descend to the
grave of St Cyrinus, Pope and martyr," though De Rossi is of
opinion that these also might now be found without much diffi
culty ; but we can still read the inscription with which Pope
Damasus adorned his tomb. We can also go round to the
back of the high altar and examine the semi-subterranean
building in which, according to a very ancient and authentic
tradition, the bodies of St Peter and St Paul once found a Temporary
temporary resting-place. The form of this building is so ofê^refkTof
irregular that it would never have been selected by any archi- Saints Peter
0 ana Paul,
tect for its own sake, bat seems manifestly designed to inclose
some particular point or points of interest, without interfering
more than was absolutely necessary with what lay around it.
* The second has been already spoken of, under the name of St Praetex-
tatus, in page 77; and the fourth will be described, as far as our present
knowledge of it extends, in the next chapter, page 128. t
H
ii4 Roma Sotterranea.
We cannot therefore assent to the theory which would recog
nise in it some ancient heathen temple ; but think it more
probable that it was erected merely for the sake of com
memorating a spot endeared to the Church by associations
connected with her days of persecution. It seems probable
that it was begun by Pope Liberius ; it is certain that Daniasus
provided a marble pavement for its floor, and otherwise adorned
it, at the same time setting up one of his usual metrical and
historical inscriptions, which may still be seen there.* A low
step, or seat of stone, runs round the interior, destined (Father
Marchi conjectures) for the use of those who recited here in
choir the psalms and public offices of the Church. In the middle
of the area is a small square aperture, widening at the depth of
about two feet into a large pit or double grave, measuring between
six and seven feet both in length, breadth, and depth. This pit
is divided into two equal compartments by a slab of marble ;
its sides are also cased with marble to the height of three feet,
and its vaulted roof is covered with paintings of our Lord and
His apostles. This, then, is the spot where, according to the
testimony of both our ancient witnesses, " the bodies of St
Peter and St Paul rested for a period of forty years."
Their first There is some difficulty in unravelling the true history of this
resting here, temporary translation of the bodies of the apostles. We have
seen that they were originally buried, each near the scene of
* " Hie habitasse prius Sanctos cognoscere debes,
Nomina qiiisque l'etri pariter Paulique requiris.
Discipulos Oriens misit, quod sponte fatemur,
Sanguinis ob meritum Christumque per astra sequuti,
Aetherios pctiere sinus et regna piorum.
Roma suos potius menr't defenders cives.
Hocc Daniasus vestras referat nova sidera laudes. "
" Here, you must know, that saints once dwelt. If you ask their names,
they were Peter and Paul. The East sent disciples, as we willingly acknow
ledge. The saints themselves had, by the merit of their bloodshedding,
followed Christ to the stars, and sought the home of heaven and the king
doms of the blest. Rome, however, obtained to defend her own citizens.
May Daniasus be allowed to record these things for your praise, O new
stars [of the heavenly host]."
Discovery and Identification of San Callisto. 1 1 5
his own martyrdom, the one on the Vatican Hill, the other on
the Ostian Way. But we learn from other equally authentic
sources, that as soon as the Oriental Christians had heard of
their death, they sent some of the brethren to remove the
bodies and bring them back to the East, where they claimed
them as their fellow-citizens and countrymen. These mes
sengers so far prospered in their mission as to gain a moment
ary possession of the sacred relics, which they carried off along
the Appian Way, as far as this spot which we have been just
now examining, adjoining the basilica of St Sebastian. This
was probably their appointed place of rendezvous before start
ing on their homeward journey by way of Brundusium ; for just
at this point a cross-road, coming directly from St Paul's, joins
the Appian and Ostian Ways, by which ways the bodies of St
Peter and St Paul respectively must have been brought.
What happened to them whilst they rested here we cannot
exactly tell. The language of Pope Damasus, which we have
given above, while it hints at the claim of the Orientals and
the successful opposition of the Romans, bears evident tokens
of reserve, and we can easily understand his unwillingness to
perpetuate on a public monument, which would be seen by
pilgrims from all parts of the world, a history that might here
after become a subject of angry and jealous recrimination
between the Eastern and Western Christians. But St Gregory
the Great, writing two centuries later, and only in a private
letter, had no such motive for reticence. A chapel having
been built in the Imperial Palace at Constantinople, to be
dedicated to St Paul, the Empress Constantina wished to
enrich the altar with some considerable relic, and begged from
the Sovereign Pontiff nothing less than the head of the great
apostle. St Gregory, in justification of his refusal to comply
with her request, relates the story of the attempt of the
Oriental Christians to carry off his relics soon after his martyr
dom, and says,— " It is well known that at the time when they
suffered, Christians from the East came to recover their bodies
1 16 Roma Sotterranea. .
as [the relics] of their fellow-citizens, and having carried them
as far as the second milestone from the city, laid them in the
place which is called ad catacumbas ; but when the whole mass
of them assembled together and attempted to take them up
from hence, a storm of thunder and lightning so greatly
terrified them and dispersed them, that after that they durst
not make any more attempts. The Romans, however, then
went out and took up their bodies, having been counted
worthy to do this by the goodness of the Lord, and laid them
in the places where they are now buried." * These last words
of St Gregory do not seem to be quite accurate. There is no
doubt that the Romans first buried them where they recovered
them, in or near the cemetery ad catacumbas, and there was an
old tradition, embodied in one of the lessons formerly used
on St Peter's Feast in the French Church, which said that they
were restored to their original places of sepulture after the
lapse of a year and seven months ; nor is there any reason to
suppose that the body of St Paul was ever again removed.
Second trans- Of the relics of St Peter there are faint traces of a second
Peter's°relics translation, which is assigned by some writers to the first half
of the third century. They are too indistinct, however, to be
depended upon, and we must be content to acknowledge our
ignorance as to the authority on which it was believed by the
writers of the itineraries in the seventh and eighth centuries,
that the bodies of the apostles had lain near the basilica of St
Sebastian's for a period of forty years.
Erroneous in- We have now seen all that the writers of those itineraries
nftcem'hcen- though' worthy of being mentioned in connexion with the
tufy- basilica of St Sebastian. A guide, however, of the present day
would certainly press us to descend also into the subterranean
cemetery which lies around and underneath the church, and if
we are persuaded to accept his invitation, we shall see there
inscriptions professing to point out to us other and yet higher
obiects ol interest. An inscription set up by one William,
* 0|>p. St lire)"., torn, it, lip. 3o.
Discovery and Identification of San Callisto. i 1 7
Archbishop of Bourges, in the year 1409, bids us venerate

here the tomb of St Cecilia ; other inscriptions also, of the
same or a later date, speak of the tombs of nearly half a
hundred Popes, and of several thousands of martyrs. Whence
is this? A glance at the ancient documents which we have
quoted is sufficient to arouse our suspicions as to the truth
fulness of these inscriptions, since the two authorities are mani
festly at variance with one another , and we can scarcely hesitate
in making our choice between them, when we remember that the
one was written whilst yet the bodies of the martyrs lay each
in its own sepulchre, and that the other belongs precisely to
that very age during which the Catacombs were buried in the
most profound darkness and oblivion. We have already ex
plained how it came to pass that whilst the other ancient
cemeteries were inaccessible and unknown, this one still
remained partially open ; and we can easily understand the
religious feeling which prompted the good Archbishop to make
an appeal to the devotion of the faithful not to lose the
memory of those glorious martyrs who had once been buried
in places like this, and even somewhere in this neighbourhood.
But whilst we admire his piety, we cannot accept his testimony
upon a topographical question, which he had no means of
deciding, and in respect to which recent discoveries, as well
as a more critical examination of ancient documents, have
proved to a demonstration that he was certainly wrong.
It was in the year 1849 that De Rossi found in the cellar Reasons why
of a vineyard on the Via Appia, but much nearer to Rome [heremetery6
than St Sebastian's is a large fragment of a marble slab, of Callixtus.
having on it the upper part of the letter R, followed by the
complete letters NELIUS . MARTYR. He immediately Kpitaph of St
divined that this fragment was part of the tombstone of St Cornellus-
Cornelius, Pope in the middle of the third century. He per
suaded Pope Pius IX. to purchase both this and the adjacent
vineyard ; and three years afterwards, during the excavations
of 1852, the other half of the same marble slab came to light
ri8 Roma Sotterranca.
in the depths of the subterranean cemetery which underlay
this vineyard. It was found at the foot of the grave, for which
it had evidently been made at the first. It contained the
other half of the letter R, preceded by CO, with the letters
EP on a lower line, so that De Rossi's happy conjecture was
thus crowned with the seal of absolute certainty. Moreover,

he had satisfied himself by a diligent study of all ancient
documents within his reach, that the tomb of St Cornelius
was very near, though not absolutely within the limits of, the
famous cemetery of St Callixtus, and that in this cemetery
there was a single chapel more famous than the rest, in which
had once been laid the bodies of many Popes of the third and
fourth centuries, and in another chapel adjoining it, St Cecilia.
Excavations having been made in accordance with his sugges
tions, a fragment of marble was at length discovered, bearing
on it three letters, or rather the same letter (H) repeated three
times, one over the other, as the beginning of three successive
Damasine in- lines.* His keen eye recognising the well-known beauty of the
scnption iii . . . .
the Papal Damasine characters, immediately fastened upon this as " a con-
crypt' firmation strong as text of Holy Writ," that this was the Papal
vault in which Damasus had set up one of his most celebrated
inscriptions. As the work of excavation proceeded, a hundred
and twenty other fragments of the same inscription were re
* See Plate T. at encl of volume. The fragment was the beginning of

lines 4-6.
Discovery and Identiflcation of San Callisto. 1 1 9
covered. These all have been put together, and the few missing
portions having been supplied in letters of a different colour, the
whole may now again be read, just where our forefathers in the
faith first read it fifteen hundred years ago. We shall have
occasion to examine it more closely by and by, when we meet
with it in its own place in the interior of the cemetery. We
appeal to it now as a decisive proof, from which it is impos
sible to escape, that the cemetery of St Callixtus has been
re-discovered, and that the mediaeval inscriptions underneath
the church of St Sebastian were set up in ignorance, and now
only help to perpetuate the memory of an error. They con
found the first and third of the cemeteries so carefully distin
guished in the itineraries, and which we ourselves also are now
happily able to distinguish again.
Fki. 16.. —A fresco representing the Baptism ofour Lord in one

ofthe cubicula in the crypt ofSt Lucinn.
CHAPTER II.
DISTINCTION OF ITS SEVERAL PARTS.
Distinct aw. S~\N the same side of the Appian Way as the chureh of
in each Cata- I I
comb. St Sebastian's, but about a quarter of a mile nearer to
Rome, a doorway, with the words Cmmeterium S. Callixti
carved above it, leads us to the vineyard beneath which lies
this celebrated cemetery. We call it indeed by this name for
convenience sake, and because the cemetery which Callixtus
made is really the centre and most important part of the vast
subterranean city on which we are about to enter. In truth,
however, it is made up of several distinct groups of excavations,
each having its own history, and still capable of being distin
guished, at least in outline, from one another, though now, and
for many centuries past, actually united. They may be dis
tinguished not only by their contents, certain peculiarities of
form, or different families of inscriptions, or other similar
tokens, but much more by the disposition of the main gal
leries, which was determined by the size and shape of the
area the fossors were at liberty to occupy, and the situation
of the roads or buildings which may have been in its imme
diate neighbourhood above ground.
Defects of for- This is almost a new branch of study in the subject of
mer maps. Roma Sotterranca, for which, as for so much else, we are in
debted to I)e Rossi. Indeed it was scarcely possible for
earlier writers to gain any clear notion of the manner in which
these cemeteries had been constructed, since their knowledge of
the plan of any one of them was very incomplete ; and of most
Distinction of A rese in San Callisto. 121
they never had an opportunity of seeing any plan at all. Bosio

himself had not lived to prepare that part of his work ; and of
the half-dozen maps which Cardinal Barberini procured at so
much labour and expense for the illustration of Bosio's book,
not one was really complete. For the main object in their
construction had been rather to show the sites of particular
monuments than to exhibit the interior arrangement of the
whole cemetery, either as designed by its originators or as
subsequently modified in execution. The four additional maps
supplied by Aringhi are mere fragments, and the only one
which is of any size is strangely inexact. To these, D'Agin-
court added another, but this also was too small to be of
much service in a scientific point of view. Finally, Father
Marchi produced a very valuable map of what he believed to be
about the eighth part of the Catacomb of St Agnes ; and the
only portion of his book which he completed was intended to
illustrate this particular branch of the subject, the architecture
of the first Christians in Rome. He never pretended, how
ever, to observe any chronological order, but pursued a simply
eclectic principle in his choice of specimens. The whole of
the Catacombs were for him a monument of primitive antiquity,
and his sphere of observation was too limited to allow of his
drawing any general conclusions from nice distinctions that
might be observed between one part and another of the exca
vations. Since his time a complete revolution has been effected
in this respect, by means of a most ingenious instrument, in
vented by Michele De Rossi, brother of the archaeologist, Important clis-
. .. . . . coveries from
which renders the process of surveying and mapping these Michele De
subterranean crypts far easier, as well as more accurate, than ^°*]S1„d"°efV
it was before. Under his auspices, we may hope by and by mapping sub-
terraneau gal-
to see the maps of the streets of subterranean Rome as com- leries.
plete as those of any modern city above ground. Already we
have entered into some fruits of his labours, and the value of
the light which they throw on the history of the Catacombs
can hardly be exaggerated. With his map of the Catacomb
of St Callixtus, for example, lying open before us, we are able
to trace with certainty several features in its growth and de
velopment which before it was impossible to detect. We dis
tinguish the boundaries of certain area, originally quite inde
pendent of one another, but united at a later period by paths
of more or less irregularity. We see the first galleries, follow
ing the form and respecting the limits of these nrea with
mathematical precision ; we mark others, after proceeding for
a considerable distance in one direction, turn abruptly into
another, or break off altogether ; and a glance at the condi
tion of the external soil at once explains the cause of the
digression. There are traces of some building, or the building
itself is still there, at that precise spot, which clearly must
have existed before the subterranean excavation, and which
the Christians dared not undermine ; or there was some cham
ber or gallery in this or an adjoining Christian cemetery, or
some Pagan hypogaum, which stayed their further progress.
In a future book we will set before our readers as minute
an analysis as our space will allow of one at least of the more
remarkable groups of galleries in the cemetery of St Callixtus.
which will enable them to appreciate the importance of M. De
Rossi's invention. At present we will only enumerate and
distinguish those groups, as far as we can, not so much by
reference to their construction, as by their inscriptions and
other contents.
Crypt of St The most ancient area included in the Catacomb we are
1 II 111 I
now examining is that which was once called " the crypt of
I.ucina, near to the cemetery of Callixtus." The original limits
of this area can be determined with the greatest precision, in
consequence of its having a small Pagan sepulchre on either
side of it. Like the tombs of the Scipios, of Cecilia Metella,
and other renowned sepulchres on the Via Appia, it occupied
a frontage of 100 Roman feet, and it extended 230 feet in
agro. Of these 230 feet, the first fifty appear to have been
originally left free, thus forming an area in front of 100 feet
Distinction of Area in San Callisto. 123
by 50, in the centre of which stood the monument* whose

vast ruins still form a striking object from the road. Behind
this area extended another (area ailjccta monumento), and it
was beneath this that the earliest Christian excavations were
made. The property belonged to some members of the Gens Originally l>e-
Caecilia. We know from Cicero that this was one of the Gens Cceeilia.
families who had their burial-places on this road ; and about
the beginning of this century, columbaria and inscriptions be
longing to other Pagan monuments of the Caecilii, were found
at no great distance from this precise spot. It cannot, then,
be considered a fortuitous circumstance that in the chambers
and galleries of this part of the Catacomb there have come to
light epitaphs and other memorials of several Caecilii and
Caeciliani, and these not mere freedmen who had adopted the
name of the gens, but real members of the family, as is dis
tinctly marked by the official adjuncts to their names, vir
elarissimus, elarissima famina or puella, hotusta faniua, &c.
Moreover, we note among the " illustrious dead " who lie in
this aristocratic cemetery certain descendants of the Antonines,
who were clearly connected with Annia Faustina, the grand
daughter of Marcus Aurelius, and the wife of Pomponius Bassus,
and afterwards of Heliogabalus. Now, it is known that these
Pomponii Bassi, towards the end of the first century, lived on
the Quirinal ; and it can be almost proved that they inherited
the house of the celebrated Atticus, the friend and corre
spondent of Cicero, of whom every classical scholar knows
that he certainly lived on the Quirinal, and that he passed
from the Gens Pomponia to the Gens Caecilia, when he was
adopted by his maternal uncle, Q. Caecilius. Hence it is easy
to account for the number of Christian epitaphs which have
been found here, exhibiting these names mixed in various
ways, e.g., more than one Caecilius Faustus, a Faustinus Atti-
* De Rossi considers it probable that even this was originally a Chris
tian monument (R. S. ii. 367), and quotes Tertullian (De Resurrect.
Carnis., c. 27) as a witness that Christians had monumenta et mausoltn
from the firr-t (R. S. i. 210).
124 Roma Sotlerranea.
cus, an Atticianus, a Pompeia Attica, an Attica Caeciliana, &c.

We have the gravestones also of some heathen members of
the same family, sawn in two or otherwise defaced, and used
to close some of the Christian graves. One of these was of a
Pomponius Bassus, who had lived in the third century, and
had filled some of the highest offices of the state, been twice
consul, prefect of Rome, &c., and another of L. Pomponius,
proconsul of Gallia Narbonensis.
From the union of all these names on the same spot, and
under these circumstances, I)e Rossi ventured to conjecture
that the Caecilii, to whom this property belonged and who
were certainly Christian, must have been intimately connected
with the Pomponii, Attici, and Bassi ; and that possibly the
Lucina, in whose property the ecclesiastical records state this
catacomb to have been excavated, may have been the very
Pomponia Grrecina of whose conversion to Christianity, in
the year 58, we have already spoken.* We need not say how
St I.ucina frequently this name of Lucina occurs in ancient ecclesiastical
prohahly the
Pomponia history ; it crops up in the history of every persecution, from
(jr.-vcina of the apostolic age to the days of Constantine, and has been the
a.I>. 58.
occasion of no slight confusion, and the subject of many
learned discussions, among students of hagiography. De
Rossi suggests that the name was a Christian sobriquet (alluding
to the illumination of baptism, &c.) rather than a real family
name, and that it may have been borne by many Roman
matrons in succession without any real connexion of relation
ship between them, these ladies being of course known in
society and among their heathen kinsfolk by their pioper
family names. When first he threw out the idea of Pomponia
Graecina and the first Lucina having been possibly one and
the same person, he spoke with extreme caution and reserve.
" It is a mere guess," he said ; t " I don't wash to claim for it
any value as an argument; perhaps it hardly even deserves the
name of a conjecture. But attempts of this kind, violent
* Page 39. t R- S. i. 319.
Distinction of A rese in San Callisto. 1 25
efforts of the mind, which arouses itself at the faintest glimmer

of light amid the thick darkness of antiquity, and seeks to rush
forward to the acquisition of new truth, may at least serve to
awaken attention, and to keep it keenly on the alert for every
scrap of additional information which future discoveries may
bring to light, and out of which prudent study may extract the
full knowledge of historical facts, now only guessed at and
offered i'/i confttso." De Rossi wrote thus in his first volume,
in 1864. In the middle of the second volume, written early
in 1867, he says, with reference to the same subject, that
" although his guess has been very favourably received by the
learned, yet it must not be taken for more than it is worth,
until new and more important monumental discoveries shall
place it on a more solid foundation." At the end of the
volume, however, he is able to explain what was the monu
mental evidence he desired, and to announce that he had
found it. He had no positive evidence either of the relation
ship between the Pomponii Bassi and the Pomponii Graecini,
or that the profession of Christianity had prevailed in either
family. He now publishes inscriptions, or at least sufficient
fragments of inscriptions, found in this cemetery, and belong
ing to the end of the second century, two of which testify to
the Christian burial here of Pomponii Bassi, and one of a
Pomponius Graecinus ; and although even now the argument
has not the force of demonstration, yet it is impossible to deny
that it has a great deal of probability in its favour, and im
possible not to admire the modesty, learning, and ingenuity by
which it has been supported.
We shall have occasion to return to these genealogical par
ticulars in a future chapter, as illustrating the fact of Pope
Cornelius having been buried here, apart from the other Popes,
his immediate predecessors and successors, in the middle of the
third century. But before the making of his sepulchre, which
involved considerable alterations in its immediate neighbour
hood, two floors of galleries had been already excavated and
1 26 Roma Sotterranea.
filled. The upper of these floors is not one sixth of the extent
of the lower ; indeed, it is unusually limited, from the necessity
of the case. It had been dug at a depth of not more than
twenty feet below the surface ; and as the hill slopes rapidly,
the galleries would have rnn out into the open air, had they
Characteris- continued far upon the same level. The general characteristics
tics of this ,. , . ,
area. 01 this primitive area of the cemetery are a certain marked
uniformity of plan in the form and decoration of the roof, the
unusual height of the galleries, and the frequent recurrence of
square, narrow chambers, not opposite one another on different
sides of the gallery, but opening one out of the other. Most
of these chambers are adorned with paintings of a very early
style. Only two instances of arcosolia occur, and both of these
are in portions of evidently late construction.
Cemetery of About the time of Marcus Aurelius, in the second half of the
St Callixtus , , , r , 1•
begun l>cforu second century, another plot of ground, at no great distance
200. from the crypt of St Lucina, was given (apparently by the same
family) for the same purpose. It bordered on a road which
joined the Via Appia and "Via Ardeatina, and its measurement
was 250 feet by 100. We shall not enter now upon any de
tailed description either of this or of the next area, as their con
struction and development will form the subject of the more
minute analysis already promised, and several of their chapels
are of sufficient importance to claim each one a chapter to
itself. It will be sufficient to mention here, that in the first
area, as in the crypts of St Lucina, there are no cubicula opposite
to one another, but five or six in a row, opening out of the
same side of a broad spacious ambulacrum, like so many bed
rooms out of the passage of a private house ; and most of
them very richly ornamented with symbolical paintings of
the highest antiquity and importance. This was the first area
of the cemetery of St Callixtus, properly so called, the crypts
of St Lucina having, as we have seen, once formed a cemetery
by themselves. It contains many tombs of a very peculiar form,
such as are to be seen only in one other part of the whole
Distinction of Area in San Callisto. 127
cemetery ;—graves having no more than the ordinary opening

on the outer side, yet so excavated interiorly, at the cost of
infinite labour, as to be capable of containing many bodies.
In a second area, measuring 150 feet in fronte by 125 in ngro,
and made not long after the first, we find large crypts on op
posite sides of the pathway, lit by the same htminare. Arcosolia
are here very abundant, both in the crypts and galleries.
There is not much painting in the chambers, but in some of
them we find for the first time traces of their having been
faced with slabs of marble. A third area, of the same dimen
sions as the last, seems to have belonged to the days of Dio
cletian, or perhaps a few years earlier. If we may conjecture Enlarged
from the family names which occur in this third area of St a °
Callixtus', we should be disposed to suspect that it had been
given to the church by Anatolia, the wealthy daughter of the
Consul /Emilianus. It is certain that he had property in this
neighbourhood, and we find here epitaphs of an yEmilius
Partenius, an Êmilianus, an yEmil ... a Tulinus, and a
Petronia, which names also belonged to the consul. Moreover,
Calocerus and Parthenius, whom /Kmilianus had apppointed
to be his daughter's guardians, were buried here ; and a paint
ing here, which seems to represent two martyrs or confessors
standing before the tribunal of the heathen magistrate, pro
bably has reference to their history. One of the peculiarities
of this area, which we do not find in either of those we have
described before, is a great variety of representations of the
cross, all more or less disguised, yet still to the eyes of the
initiated sufficiently significant ; but that which was afterwards
adopted as the monogram of Christ's name and the cross
combined (the well-known Chi and PJ10 —the Labarum of
Constantine) is not amongst them. This also seems exactly
to correspond with the age we have attributed to it ; indeed,
the question of chronology is clearly settled by the dates of
epitaphs found here,* belonging to the end of the third and
* The inscription of the Deacon Severns, p. 9,5, lielon^s to this area.
beginning of the fourth century. Once or twice we find here
three chambers united instead of two, all receiving light and
ventilation from the same luminare; clearly, for the sake of
assemblies, not of burials ; and although we do not see any
traces of the seats for the presbytery, or the episcopal chair,
hewn out of the rock, as in the somewhat analogous chambers
in the so-called cemetery of St Agnes, this is probably because
they were made of more costly materials, and moveable from
place to place.
Cemeteries of To the same date belongs also the adjoining cemetery of
' Sta. Soteris, a virgin of the family to which St Ambrose be
longed in a later generation. She had been buried in her own
cemetery (coemeterio suo) a.d. 304 ; and we have already seen
that the itineraries spoke of a separate church erected to her
honour somewhere in the neighbourhood of St Callixtus', yet
distinct from it. The two cemeteries really adjoined one
another ; not perhaps in their first beginnings, but in course
of time, as each attained its full development, a communi
cation was established between them.*
ami of The same is to be said also of another cemetery in this
Sta. a ma, ugigjjbourhood, that of Sta. Balbina, which is placed by some
of the old itineraries on the Via Appia, by others on the
Ardeatina, and really lies between the two. Uosio and
lioldetti erroneously fixed its locality as having been where
we have now found the Catacomb of St Callixtus. De Rossi,
following his usual guides, determined its situation long since.t
but was unable to recover it. His brother fixed his eye on
the ruins of an ancient building and some suspicious-looking
fissures in the soil, in the precise spot indicated by the archae
ologist ; but though he managed to effect an entrance, he
found nothing to reward his search. At last, not long since,
* The several areas of the cemetery of Sta. Soteris have not yet been
sufficiently explored to allow of their being described. De Rossi has only
mentioned that in the first area everything is on an exceptional scale of
giandeur, with double, treble, and even quadruple cuHcula.
t R. S. i. 265.
Distinction of Arese in San Callisto. 129
some unusually heavy rains revealed a new opening for him

into the bowels of the earth, and this time he was able to
wander about for an hour and more in the newly-discovered
Catacomb. The Commission of Sacred Archaeology are too
much crippled by want of means to be able to pursue the
investigation far. Enough, however, has been seen to enable
De Rossi to say that the size of the necropolis between the
Appian and Ardeatine roads is nearly doubled by the dis
covery ; that the proportions of this subterranean labyrinth
surpass all his imaginations founded on previous experience,
and fill him with amazement. It is not only of immense
extent, but it is excavated on several different levels, has many
large crypts, and is illuminated by shafts of grander proportions
and more highly-developed architectural forms than any he
has found before. In particular, he specifies one luminare,
not square, but hexagonal or nearly so, which opens on the
subterranean excavations with not less than eight rays of light.
Two serve to illuminate as many large rectangular chambers,
each ending in a circular apse ; two others, the adjacent galleries,
which here cross one another at right angles ; and the other
four descend upon four long and narrow openings at the
corners, which are not yet explored, but which he believes
will be found to end in an equal number of cubicula. Should
his anticipation be realised, this will be the largest and most
regular group of subterranean crypts that has ever yet been
seen. We must remember, however, that this cemetery was
considerably enlarged by St Mark, who was Pope a.d. 336,
and built a basilica here, in which he was himself buried.*
' Constantine endowed it with a fundus rosarius, and an adjoining
field. The Rosatio, or strewing with roses, was a rite observed at some
pagan tombs on the anniversaries of deaths, and funds were specially set
apart for celebrating this dies rosationis vel violationts, as it was called.
This particular fundus rosarius must have been for some reason confiscated
to the imperial fiscus, after which Constantine again devoted it to sepul
chral purposes, but in a Christian way.
I
CHAPTER III.
THE PAPAL CRYPT.
Entrance of /^\N entering the vineyard, over whose doorway we read

the papal I I ...
crypt. the words Cameteriwn S. Callixti, we come first to the
crypts of St Lucina. It will be more convenient, however, to
pass them by for the present, and to go forward to the more
modest building which stands before us in the interior of the
vineyard. Even of this, however, we do not intend to discuss
the history ; we will only remind our readers that whereas it
was supposed by Marangoni to have been the basilica which
St Damasus provided for the burial of himself, his mother, and
sister, and Father Marchi took it to be the Church of St Mark
and St Marcellinus (both of which are mentioned in the
Itineraries), De Rossi, as we have already had occasion to
notice, identifies it as the cella memoria, sometimes called of
St Sixtus, sometimes of St Cecilia (because built immediately
over the tombs of those celebrated martyrs), by St Fabian in
the third century.*
Graffiti on the As we descend into the interior, by means of an ancient
staircase restored, we are struck, at the bottom of the stairs,
and still more at the entrance of the first chapel we come to,
by the number of graffiti, as they are called, which cover the
walls. It is comparatively a new thing to pay any attention to
these rude scribblings of ancient visitors on the walls of places
of public resort, and to take pains to decipher them. But of
late years many valuable discoveries have been made by means
of them, and they have proved to be a most interesting subject
* See page S6.
The Papal Crypt. 131
of study, whether found on the tombs of Egyptian kings in

Thebes, on the walls of the barracks and theatres in Pompeii,
in the prisons and cellars of Pagan Rome, or, lastly, in the
Christian Catacombs. Here especially they have proved to
be of immense importance, being, as De Rossi justly calls
them, " the faithful echo of history and infallible guides through
the labyrinth of subterranean galleries." Those with which we
are at present concerned may be divided into three classes. Of three kinds,
They are either the mere names of persons, with the occasional
adjunct of their titles ; or they are good wishes, prayers, saluta
tions, or acclamations, on behalf of friends and relatives, living
or dead; or, lastly, they are invocations of the martyrs on whose
tombs they are inscribed. Numerous specimens of all of these
may be easily read on the spot of which we are now speaking.
Of the names we find two classes ; one, the most ancient 1. Names,
and most numerous, scribbled in the most convenient and
accessible parts of the wall, are names of the old classical
type, such as Rufina, Felix, Eustathius, Polyneices, Leo,
Maximus, Probinianus, and the like ; the other, belonging
manifestly to a somewhat later period, because written high
above the first, and in more inaccessible places, are such as
Lupo, Ildebrand, Bonizo, Joannes Presb., &c. &c.
Prayers or acclamations for absent or departed friends are 2. Prayers, or
, , . , „ acclamations.
mixed among the most ancient names, and generally run in
the same form as the earliest and most simple Christian epitaphs,
eg., Vivas, Vivas in Deo Cristo, Vivas in eterno, zhc en
0En, BIBAC IN ©Ell, Te in pace, &c. " Mayest thou live
in God Christ, for ever, Thee in peace," * &c. The feeling
which prompted the pilgrims who visited these shrines thus to
inscribe in sacred places the names of those they loved and
would fain benefit, is natural to the human heart : instances
of it may be found even among the heathen themselves.
* These simple forms have never yet been found on any epitaphs which
can be shown to be later than the days of Constantine. On rings and
articles of domestic furniture they are sometimes found, even as late as the
end of the fourth century.
Roma Sotterranca.
Thus, one Sarapion, son of Aristomachus, having visited the

island of Phyle in Egypt, writes there, that " having come to
the great Isis, Goddess of Phyle, he makes a remembrance there
of his parents, for their good." Just so, the Christian pilgrims
of the third and fourth centuries visiting all the holy places in
this Catacomb of St Callixtus, wrote the names of some dear
friend or relative, with some pious ejaculation, " for their
good."
Example. One of these it is specially interesting to track, after an in
terval probably of fifteen hundred years, along the precise path
of his pilgrimage. He had come with his heart full of the most
affectionate memory of one Sofronia—whether wife, or mother,
or sister, does not appear. Before entering on the vestibule
of the principal sanctuary, he wrote, Sofronia, vibas cum tn'is ;
then, at the entrance itself, Sofronia, vivas in Domino ; by and
by, in larger characters, and almost in the form of a regular
epitaph, he scratched on the principal altar-tomb of another
chapel, Sofronia duleis, semper vives Deo ; and yet once more
he repeats in the same place, Sofronia, vives* where we can
hardly doubt but that the change of mood and tense reflected,
almost unconsciously perhaps, a corresponding change of
inward feeling ; the language of fervent love and hope, fed by
earnest prayer at the shrines of the saints, had been exchanged
at last for the bolder tones of firm, unhesitating confidence.
3 Invocation Desides mere names and short acclamations, there are
of martyrs. a]s0 [n the same place, and manifestly belonging to the same
age, prayers and invocations of the martyrs who lay buried in
these chapels. Sometimes the holy souls of all the martyrs are
addressed collectively, and petitioned to hold such or such an
one in remembrance, and sometimes this prayer is addressed
to one individually; generally to St Sixtus II., whose name
always enjoyed a special pre-eminence in this Catacomb, e.g.,
* Sophronia, mayest thou live with thine own. Sophronia, mayest

thou live in the Lord. Sweet Sophronia, thou shall ever live in God.
Sophronia. thou shalt live.
Marcianum Successum Severum Spirita Sancta* in mente
havkte, et omnes fratres nostros. petite Spirita Sancta
ut verecundus cum suis bene naviget. t otia petite et
pro parente et pro fratribus ejus ; vibant cum bono,
Sante Suste, in mente habeas in horationes Aureliu
REPENTINU. AIONT2IN EI2 MNIAN EXETAI (for EXETE.)
" Holy souls, have in remembrance Marcianus Successus
Severus and all our brethren. Holy souls, ask that Verecundus
and his friends may have a prosperous voyage. Ask for rest
both for my parent and his brethren ; may they live with good.
Holy Sixtus, have in remembrance in your prayers Aurelius
Repentinus. Have ye in remembrance Dionysius."
There is a simplicity and a warmth of affection about these Their an-
brief petitions, which savours of the earliest ages ; they are tlcluUy"
very different from the dry and verbose epitaphs of the fourth
or fifth centuries ; indeed, there is something almost classical
about the third, reminding us, says De Rossi, of Horace's
Otium Vivos rogat in patenti prensus sEgao ; % and the phrase,
which is so frequently repeated in them, in matte habere, points
to the same antiquity. It is found on an inscription in
Pompeii, on two Christian epitaphs of the third and fourth
centuries, and is used by St Cyprian in one of his letters :
" have in mind," he says, " our brothers and sisters in your
prayers ;" fratres nostras ac sorores in mente habeatis in orationibns
vestris. These nameless pilgrims made the same petition to
the saints in heaven that St Cyprian made to the saints on
earth, and perhaps about the same time, or not much later.
For it is to be observed that many of these graffiti have been
spoilt, cut off in the middle, or rendered otherwise illegible,
by the enlargement of the doorway, the renewal of the stucco,
and other changes which were made in this chapel by St
Fabian, perhaps about the year 245, or St Damasus in 370.
* In epitaphs of the third century spiritual, instead of spiritus, is often
used for the soul or spirit of a man.—Insc. Christ., I. cxii.
t Optat sibi ut bene naviget is one of the graffiti at Pompeii, published
by P. Garrucci, S.J. % Od. ii. 16.
One of those that has been thus mutilated is undoubtedly the
most ancient of all, for it was written whilst yet the plaster
was wet, and it is an apostrophe to one Pontianus, whom De
Rossi believes to have been the Pope of this name, brought
back from Sardinia, where he had died in exile, and buried in
this very chapel by St Fabian.
There is yet one other inscription on the entrance of the
first chapel, of a somewhat different kind, but too remarkable
to be passed over. Unhappily the writer never finished it ;
but what he did write is easily legible, and abundantly suffi
cient to show the enthusiastic devotion with which his heart
was warmed towards the sanctuary on whose threshold he
stood. It runs thus, Gcrusale civitas et ornamentum Martyrum
Domini, cujus . . . The idea present to the writer's mind was
evidently the same as we find both in Holy Scripture and in
some of the earliest uninspired Christian writers, who not un-
frequently speak of the glory of the Church triumphant under
the title of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem.* He looked
upon the chapel he was about to enter as a type or figure of
the future Jerusalem. It was adorned and made venerable by
the remains of many martyrs of the Lord, which should one
day arise to receive new life and rejoice in His presence for
ever.
Examination The inspection of these graffiti, then, is enough to warn us
of papal crypt. t|lat we are Qn ^ threshold of a very special sanctuary of the
ancient Church, and to excite our deepest interest in all that
we may find it to contain. Our first impression on entering
will probably be one of disappointment. We were led to ex
pect that we were about to visit a Christian burial-place and
place of worship of the third or fourth century, but the greater
part of the masonry we see around us is manifestly of quite
recent construction. The truth is, that when this chamber
* See Psalm cxxi., Apoc. xxi. 2., Teitullian de Spectac., c. xxv This
same writer speaks also of the world as exfressns in ornament'im majestatis
Dei. —Apolog., c. xvii.
was rediscovered in 1854, it was in a complete state of ruin;
access was gained to it only through the luminare, which, as
usual, had served for many centuries as a channel for pouring
into it all the adjacent soil, fragments of grave-stones, decaying
brickwork, and every kind of rubbish. When this was re
moved, the vault of the chamber, deprived of its usual support,
soon gave way ; so that, if any portion of it was to be preserved
and put in a condition to be visited with safety, it was abso
lutely necessary to build fresh walls, and otherwise strengthen it.
This has been done with the utmost care, and so as still to
preserve, wherever it was possible, abundant tokens of the
more ancient condition of the chapel and of its decoration in
succeeding ages. Thus we are able to trace very clearly three Successive
stages or conditions of ornamentation by means of three dif- decoration,
ferent coatings of plaster, each retaining some remnant of its
original painting. We can trace also the remains of the marble
slabs with which, at a later period, the whole chapel was faced;
and even this later period takes us back to the earlier half of
the fifth century, when, as the Liber Pontiftcalis tells us, St
Sixtus III. platoniam fecit in Cawteterio Sti Callixti. The frag
ments of marble columns and other ornamental work, which
lie scattered about on the pavement, belong probably to the
work of St Leo III., the last pontiff of whom we read that he
made restorations here before the translation of the relics by
Pope Paschal I. Again, the raised step or dais of marble, Ancient altar,
which we see directly opposite to us at the further end of the
chapel, having four holes or sockets in it, suggests at once the
presence here of an altar in former times, supported on four
pillars ; but in the wall behind this platform we can still detect
the existence of an older and more simple kind of altar—a
sepulchre hewn out of the rock, the flat covering of which was
once the mensa whereon the holy mysteries were celebrated.
It was not a real arcosolium, however, but what we have called
a table-tomb ; moreover, the front of the sepulchre itself was
not a mere wall of the rock, so left in the original process of
excavation, but is an excellent piece of brickwork, precisely
such as we find in the crypt of St Januarius in the cemetery of
St Praetextatus, and to which we cannot assign a later date than
the earliest part of the third century—indeed, it might not im
probably have belonged to the end of the second. The presence
of these two altars seems to tell a tale, which is corroborated by
other indications also, too minute to be appreciated without a
personal inspection of the locality—viz., of some alteration in
this or the adjoining chapel made at a very early period, which
necessitated the translation of the martyr originally buried in
this principal tomb of the cubiadum ; and De Rossi's conjecture
is certainly most ingenious, that this martyr was no other than
St Zephyrinus himself, the original designer of the whole ceme
tery, for whom, therefore, the chief place in the first vault
might very naturally have been reserved ; and that the body of
this pope was translated at some early date, before the practice
had become common, is proved by what we have already read
in one of the old Itineraries, that his body lay in a church
abwe ground, and (as we learn from another source) St
Tharsycius in the same tomb with him.
Original epi- Thus, spite of the ruin and the neglect of ages, and spite of
of'third cen-KS tne worlc of restoration which has been thereby made necessary7
turv- in our own time, many clear traces still remain both of its
original condition and of the reverent care with which succes
sive generations of the ancient Church did their best to adorn
this chamber. The cause of this extraordinary and long-
continued veneration is revealed to us by a few grave-stones
which have been recovered from amid the rubbish, and which
are now restored, if not to the precise spots they originally
occupied (which we cannot tell), yet certainly to the walls in
which they were first placed. An exact copy of them is given
on the opposite page.
i38 Roma Sotterranea.
We have every reason to believe that these are the original
tombstones of St Anteros and St Fabian, who sat in the chair
of Peter from a.d. 235 to 250; of St Lucius, who reigned in
252 ; and of St Eutychianus, who died nearly thirty years later.
De Rossi says so most unhesitatingly, and his special familiarity
with ancient Christian epigraphy renders his verdict almost
conclusive. The objection that has been urged against them,
from their extreme brevity and simplicity, is itself a strong
proof of their great antiquity ; nor do we know a single argu
ment of any weight whatever that has been adduced against
the claim which De Rossi makes for them. At any rate,
whether originals or later copies, they are the epitaphs of four
Bishops of Rome in the third century.
Rarity of It is a remarkable fact, the full significance of which has only
bishops! °f lately been appreciated, that neither Bosio, Fabretti, Boldetti,
nor any other of the ancient explorers of subterranean Rome,
ever found an inscription bearing the title of Bishop. It is true,
indeed, that in the first age this title had not acquired that de
terminate ecclesiastical sense which it subsequently received.
The word had been in use among the Pagans in a wider and
more general signification. Among the Greeks, for example,
it was used for the president of the athletic sports and public
games, and this may have been a sufficient reason, perhaps,
for omitting the title on the grave-stones of the first bishops.*
By the middle of the third century, however, its ecclesiastical
sense was well defined, and accordingly we find it here on
three out of these four grave-stones of the Popes. The tomb
stones of St Cornelius, also, and of St Eusebius, popes and
martyrs, which we shall presently see in this cemetery, are
similarly marked ; and in the cemetery of St Alexander, dis
covered fifteen or twenty years ago on the Via Nomentana, at
least three epitaphs display the same title.
The fact that so many have been found in the same place,
whereas they have not been found elsewhere, might suggest to
* Sec page 65 on the tombstone of I.inus.
The Papal Crypt. 1 39
an intelligent student of archaeology that perhaps it was the

practice in the ancient Church to reserve some special place of
burial for those who had filled the highest rank in her hierarchy.
And this conjecture receives strong confirmation from the fact,
which we learn from various sources, that the earliest successors
of St Peter (with a very few exceptions, which can generally be
accounted for) lay buried each in his own sepulchre, " near Care in their
the body of blessed Peter in the Vatican,"* just as the bishops
of Alexandria were buried near the body of St Mark. More
over, it was an object of great jealousy to the several Churches
that their bishops should be buried in the midst of them ;
their tombs were appealed to as a testimony to the apostolic
tradition and doctrine having come to them through a legiti
mate succession of bishops. Thus Polycrates, Bishop of Ephe-
sus, writing to St Victor, carefully enumerates the burial-places
in different cities of Asia of the several bishops, " great pillars
of the Church " as he calls them, whom he alleges as witnesses
in his behalf, t Caius, in like manner, disputing against the
Cataphrygians at the end of the second century, appeals to the
tombs of Saints Peter and Paul; so also Optatus in his con
troversy with the Donatists. + Hence, if a bishop happened to
die at a distance from his own see, his body was ordinarily Their bodies
brought home, even at considerable inconvenience ; e.g., the home from ai
body of St Eusebius from Sicily ; of St Cornelius from Civita distance.
Vecchia ; and of St Pontianus from the island of Sardinia.
The bodies of all these Popes were brought back to Rome,
though two of them at least had died in exile ; for the law dis
tinctly allowed the bodies of exiles to be brought home for
interment, provided the Emperor's leave had been first ob
tained, and in the instances here alleged, the translation was
* See the Liher Pontificalis at the end of each pope's life ; also the
testimony of the Itinerary, which, after mentioning St Peter's tomb, imme
diately adds, " Et l'ontificalis ordo, excepto numero pauco, in todem loco in
tumbis propriis requiescit."— R. S. i. 141.
t Euseb. H. E. v. 24.
1 Euseb. II. E. ii. 25 : Opt. lib. ii. c. 5,
not made until a change in the imperial policy towards the
Church made it possible to obtain such leave. Nor was this
translation an honour peculiar to the bodies of deceased
Roman Pontiffs. On the contrary, the relics of St Ignatius
were restored to Antioch ; the body of Dionysius, Bishop of
Milan, was recovered by St Ambrose, and that of St Felix,
Bishop of Tiburtium, martyred at Venosa, was returned to Africa.
Perhaps, also, this practice furnishes the best explanation
which can be given of the attempt made by the Christians of
the East to recover the bodies of Saints Peter and Paul.
Many foreign There would be always, of course, some exceptions to the
fn'Rome'1"""1 practical observance of such a custom as this, and Rome was
likely to be the most frequent witness of these exceptions, for
bishops were constantly flowing thither from the earliest times,
propter potiorem principalitatem, as St Irenaeus says, and proofs
are not wanting that this was far more common, even in the
ages of persecution, than we should have been prepared to
expect. Thus we learn from St Cyprian that sixteen bishops
from other sees were present in Rome at the election of St
Cornelius in the year 251, of whom two at least were from
Africa, and two others arrived from the same country not long
afterwards ; and St Cornelius was able to call together no fewer
than sixty to take counsel about the system of discipline to be
observed in reconciling apostates. That some foreign bishops,
then, should have been overtaken by death during their sojourn
in Rome was nothing improbable ; and if their dioceses were
unwilling or unable to recover their remains, we may be
sure that the Roman Pontiffs would have made honourable
provision for their interment. * Hence we are not sur
prised at finding some traces of bishops, who certainly were
not bishops of Rome, even in this very chamber, which we be-
* It was a decree of the Council of Aries, A.n. 314, that foreign bishops
visiting Koine should have a church assigned them for the celebration of
the holy sacrifice.— Cone. Arel., can. xix., apud Collect. Reg. Max., i. 266.
Sec also Iiuseb. H. E. v. 24, in fin., on the respect shown to St l'olycarp
in Rome by St Anicctus.
lieve to have been specially prepared as a place of burial for
the popes from the date of its first commencement at the
beginning of the third century. Bosio, indeed, and some
others, following some editions of the Liber Pantificalis would
place the burials of St Anicetus and St Soter, popes of the
middle of the second century, in this Catacomb. But this is
certainly an error. In all the older recensions of that book
they are placed in the Vatican, where at that time all the
popes were buried. The mistake, with reference to St Soter,
originated very probably from some confusion of the name
with that of St Soteris, virgin and martyr, whose cemetery
has been already mentioned as being in this neighbourhood.
The first pope of whom it is distinctly recorded that he was Popes buried
buried in the cemetery of St Callixtus was St Zephyrinus, its J"rv"S Leme
chief author. His successor, St Callixtus, who so long pre- Zephyrinus.
sided over it, was not buried here, but this was owing to the
peculiar circumstances of his death. He did not suffer mar
tyrdom after a judicial sentence and under the penal laws of the
government, but privately, and as the result of a popular tumult.
He was thrown out of the window of his house in Trastevere,
and his body cast into a well, whence it was secretly removed
to the nearest cemetery, that of St Calepodius, on the Via
Aurelia, which has therefore been sometimes called another
cemetery of St Callixtus. Callixtus was succeeded by St Urban I.
Urban, and a broken tombstone was found in this very cham
ber, which had never belonged to a mere ordinary grave in
the wall, but had served as the mensa of an altar-tomb, and
bore the letters OVPBANOC E . . .; and although it is com
monly stated that St Urban was buried in the cemetery of
St Praetextatus, on the other side of the road, De Rossi be
lieves, as Tillemont, Sollier, and many other men of learning,
have believed before him, that there has been a confusion
in the old martyrologies, from a very early date, between two
bishops of the name of Urban—the one a martyr, who was
buried in St Praetextatus, the other pope and confessor, buried
Pontianus. in St Callixtus. The next in order of succession was St Pon-
tianus, who, having been banished to Sardinia, there resigned
his pontifical dignity,* and was succeeded by St Antheius or
Anteros. Anteros, whose monument we just now saw. He filled the
chair of Peter only for a few weeks, and because he diligently
sought out the acts of the martyrs in the official records of the
Praetor Urbanus, he suffered martyrdom before the death of his
Fabian. predecessor. His successor, St Fabian, brought the body of
St Pontianus back to Rome, and buried it in this chapel,
where its position, after that of St Anteros, caused some of the
early chroniclers to invert the true order of these two popes,
and so to introduce an element of endless confusion into the
history of those times. The inscription on St Fabian's tomb,
besides his name and title, exhibits a monogram, clearly
intended to denote the fact of his martyrdom. It will be

observed that this monogram is not cut nearly so deep as
the earlier part of the inscription, and it would seem as
though it had been added after the stone was fixed in its
place. This suppression of the title of martyr could hardly
have been necessary as an act of prudence, since neither the
tombstone of St Cornelius in this cemetery, nor that of St
Hyacinth in the cemetery of St Hermes, observed the same
reticence. De Rossi conjectures that perhaps already it was
not lawful to publish this claim on the veneration of the faith
ful without the sanction of the highest authority, which, in the
present instance, was delayed for eighteen months, in conse
quence of the Holy See remaining vacant during that period ;
in other words, though actually a martyr, St Fabian was not
* Distinct;.! is the word used used in the Liber Ponlificalis.
at once a martyr vindicatus.* Between St Fabian and St Lucius.
Lucius intervened St Cornelius, of whose burial we shall have
to speak in another chapter. Of St Lucius we have seen the
grave-stone, where, however, his name is written AOVKIC,
omitting the O. This elliptic form of termination of a Roman
name was one which belonged rather to private than public
use; yet it is found on a few Pagan monuments of about this
date, on many graves in the Jewish cemetery, and is quite uni
versal in the Catacombs. Another example of it may be seen
on a monument, still lying in its place in the pavement of this
very chapel, where AHMETPIC stands for Demetrius.
The next pope of whom the tombstone has been discovered Eutychianus.
among the debris of this chapel is St Eutychianus; nevertheless
it is recorded of the four who intervened between St Lucius and
himself that they also were buried here, and there is no reason
to question the truth of the record. Indeed, of one of them, St Sixtus II.
Sixtus, we have seen numerous and authentic memorials in the
graffiti already examined. He was, par excellence, the martyr
of this Catacomb, and of the Catacombs generally; for we have
the cotemporary evidence of St Cyprian t that he received the
crown of martyrdom in one of them on the 6th of August a.d.
258. Valerian and Gallienus had issued a decree in the pre
ceding year forbidding the Christians to assemble in the
cemeteries. In defiance of this prohibition, St Sixtus was
celebrating mass in the Catacomb of St Praetextatus—probably His martyr-
because it was less known and less narrowly watched than the £ataconil»i
Papal Chapel (so to call it) in St Callixtus'—when he was dis
covered and seized by the heathen soldiery, led into the city,
and after judgment, brought back again for execution to the
scene of his offence, where he was beheaded in his episcopal
chair, or at least so near it that it was besprinkled with his
blood. Many memorials of his martyrdom may be recognised
* Optat. de Sch. Don. i. 16.
t "Xistuin in cimitcrio animadversum sciatis octavo Iduum Augustarum
die et cum eo diaconos quatuor."—S. Cyp. Ep. lxxx., ad Suceessiim., ed.
Leipsic, 1858.
in the monuments of the Catacomb of St Praetextatus—as, for
instance, the figure of one sitting in a chair, with a deacon
standing by his side, holding a book in his hand, or elsewhere
of the chair only; paintings also of St Sixtus, with his name
appended. Moreover, a small basilica was built there to mark
the spot of his execution. Two of the deacons who suffered
with him, Felicissimus and Agapitus, were buried in this ceme
tery ; but St Sixtus himself and others of his companions were
buried in St Callixtus', where St Damasus afterwards celebrated
his memory by the following inscription :—
" Tempore quo gladius secuit pia viscera Matris
Hie positus rector crelestia jussa docebam ;
Adveniunt subito, rapiunt qui forte sedentem ;
Militibus missis, populi tunc colla dedere.
Mox sibi cognovit senior quis tollere vellet
Palmam seque suumque caput prior obtulit ipse,
Impatiens feritas posset ne lu-aVre quemquam.
Ostendit Christus reddit qut'/>ra?mia vita;
Pastoris meritum, numerum grcgis ipse tuetur."
•' At the time when the sword [of persecution] pierced the tender heart
of Mother [Church], I, the Pope buried here, was teaching the laws of
heaven. On a sudden came [the enemy], seized me seated as I happened
to be in my chair ; the soldiers were sent in ; then did the people give their
necks [to the slaughter]. Presently the old man saw who wished to bear
away the palm from him, and he was the first to offer himself and his own
head, that the hasty cruelty [of the Pagans] might injure no one else.
Christ, who renders [to the just] the rewards of life [eternal], manifests the
merit of the pastor : He Himself defends the mass of the flock."
Probably con- This inscription alludes to circumstances of the incident it
founded with recorf]s which were doubtless familiar to those for whom he
that of St '
Stephen. wrote, but the memory of which has now unhappily perished.
It does not even mention the name of the Pope whose martyr
dom it celebrates, and hence, the whole history has been trans
ferred in some of the spurious Acts of the Martyrs—for
Avhat reason we cannot now determine —from St Sixtus to his
predecessor, St Stephen. We cannot doubt, however, that De
Rossi is right in reclaiming it for St Sixtus, partly on the
strength of the cotemporary testimony of St Cyprian already
quoted, partly on that of the graffiti at the doorway and else
where in the neighbourhood of this subterranean sanctuary,

showing the marked pre-eminence in which the memory of St
Sixtus was held in reverence here from the very earliest times,
and still more, perhaps, after following him through a critical
examination of all the notices on the subject which have come
down to us in the martyrologies, itineraries, and other ancient
monumenta of Church history. These, however, are too
minute to be handled in this place. Nor is their testimony
really needed ; what has been already alleged, coupled with
the fact that this inscription of Pope Damasus was set up in
this very chapel, scarcely leaves room for doubt ; and that it
was so set up, two small fragments of the stone itself have
survived to tell us. It is true that they scarcely contain ten
perfect letters out of the three or four hundred which formed
the whole inscription—they are the few which we have printed
in italics—nevertheless, being of the peculiar Damasine type,
it is impossible to question their identity.
Next to St Eutychianus came St Caius in the list of Popes ; St Caius.
and though we have no monument to produce of his burial
in this cemetery, the ancient authorities have recorded it.
That St Marcellinus had especial charge over this same ceme
tery, and directed excavations that were made in it, we have
already seen very interesting proof;* nevertheless, neither he
nor his successor, St Marcellus, was buried in it ; they were
both buried in the cemetery of St Priscilla, on the Via Salara.
The cause of this change is at once explained by reference to
the history of the times. Diocletian had now confiscated all
the cemeteries that were known, and the fiscus had taken
possession of them ; access, therefore, to the most public and
notorious of all the Catacombs was no longer possible. Not
only would the Christians cease to assemble and to bury there, '
but it is probable also that precautions would be taken to pro
tect so precious a sanctuary as the sepulchre of the Popes from
falling into the hands of the heathen. It would have been
* See page 93.
K
easy to do this either by blocking up the approaches by means
of earth taken from the adjacent galleries, or in some other
way ; and it is at least a curious coincidence, if it be not
rather an almost convincing proof of the accuracy of this con
jecture, that Michele De Rossi has been persuaded —merely
by an examination of the monuments of the place, from an
architectural point of view— that all the galleries in the imme
diate neighbourhood of this sanctum sanctorum were actually
blocked up in this way, during some time or other in the ages
of persecution. He can even point to the staircase in the tufa,
whose lower steps were all cut off, thereby rendering the whole
inaccessible. Moreover, if we accept this theory, it is at once-
accounted for why the next two Popes, St Eusebius and St
Melchiades, though buried in the cemetery of St Callixtus
after its restoration to the Christians, yet did not occupy graves
in the Papal vault, but lay each in his own cubiculum apart.
Maxentius did not indeed restore the loca ecelesiastica until
after the death of Eusebius ; but that Pontiff died an exile in
Sicily, and his body was only brought back to Rome some
years afterwards by his successor, just as Pontian's had been
by Fabian. It was then buried in a very fine crypt, especially
prepared for it, of which we shall have to speak presently.
Melchiades, too, we are told by some of the ancient authori
ties, was buried in another separate crypt; and although we
cannot now with any certainty identify it, it seems extremely
probable that it is the one pointed out by De Rossi, and that
the top or cover of the sarcophagus in which he lay is that
which may still be seen on the floor of one of the crypts not
far from the Papal vault.
With St Melchiades, the long succession of martyred Popes
comes to a close ; and a new era opens in the history of Chris
tianity from St Sylvester. New customs are now of necessity
introduced, or old ones are at least considerably modified.
Christian sepulchres are made freely above ground ; small
basilicas or mausoleums are erected for the purpose ; and we
7 he Papa I Crypt. I 47
have already seen that St Sylvester himself, St Mark, St Julius,
and even St Damasus, were all buried in oratories of this kind,
placed near the entrance of the Catacombs, but not within
them. Our history, therefore, of the Papal Crypt, as a place
of burial, is now complete, and we shall not attempt to draw
out any history of the changes it underwent, either in its form
or its decorations, to fit it for its use as a sanctuary.
De Rossi has given his readers a beautiful sketch of the
chapel, as he believes it to have been after its completion
(Plate XV.) ; reminding them, at the same time, that this
" restoration " is no mere product of his own fancy, void of
all authority. On the contrary, it has been suggested in nearly
all its details—in some it is even required—by what may still
be recognised amid the wreck of its former splendour, e. g., the
bases of the pillars and the monuments at the sides remain in
their original places, portions of the columns and of the marble
lattice-work were found lying upon the ground, &c. &c.
But for these and many other particulars we must refer to De
Rossi's own work, which here, as often elsewhere, refuses to
be abridged.
We must not, however, take our leave of this most interest- Inscription of
ing chapel without making a few remarks on one part of the ^°jh^crypt"5
restoration at least, which is unquestionably correct—the
Damasine inscription. We shall find ourselves much better
able to appreciate its meaning now than when first we saw it
on our entrance into the atbiculum.
Hie congesta jacct quaeris si turba Piorum,

Corpora Sanctorum retinent veneranda sepulchre,
Sublimes animas rapuit sibi Regia Cceli :
Hie eomites Xysli porlant qui ex hoste tropxa ;
Hie numerus procerum servat qui altaria Christ! ;
Hie positus longa vixit qui in pace Sacerdos ;
Hie Confessores sancti quos Gra'cia misit ;
Hie juvenes, puerique, senes castique nepotes,
QuTs mage virgiileum placuit retinere pudorem.
Hie fateor Damasus volui mea condere membra,
Sed cineres timui sanctos vexare Piorum.
" Here, if you would know, lie heaped together a whole crowd of holy
ones.
These honoured sepulchres inclose the bodies of the saints,
Their noble souls the palace of Heaven has taken to itself.
Here lie the companions of Xystus, who bear away the trophies
from the enemy ;
Here a number of elders, who guard the altars of Christ ;
Here is buried the Priest, who long lived in peace ;
Here the holy Confessors whom Greece sent us ;
Here lie youths and boys, old men, and their chaste offspring,
Who chose, as the better part, to keep their virgin chastity.
Here I, Damasus, confess I wished to lay my bones,
But I feared to disturb the holy ashes of the saints."
Vast number In the first lines, the poet seems to allude to a number of
^probable"n' martyrs laid together in one large tomb, such as we know,
from Prudentius,* were to be seen in some parts of the Roman
Catacombs ; and it is a singular fact that whereas both of the
old itineraries which we quoted in the beginning of this book
speak, the one of 80, the other of 800, martyrs in imme
diate connection with this part of the cemetery, a pit of extra
ordinary depth is still to be seen in the corner of this very
chapel, before we pass on to St Cecilia's. Such a number of
concurrent testimonies make it worth while to pause and con
sider the subject somewhat more attentively. It is common,
indeed, with a certain class of writers, to set these statements
on one side as manifest and absurd exaggerations ; and yet the
language of Prudentius is precise, and an accurate knowledge
of the laws and customs of Pagan Rome predisposes us to
accept it as a literal statement of the truth. Prudentius sup
poses his friend to have asked him the names of those who
had shed their blood for the faith in Rome, and the epitaphs
(iituli) inscribed on their tombs. He replies that it would be
very difficult to do this, for that the relics of the saints in Rome
are innumerable ; that so long as the city continued to worship
their Pagan gods, their wicked rage slew vast multitudes of
the just. On many tombs, indeed, he says, you may read the
name of the martyr, and some short inscription, but there are
* Pcrisleph. \i. I 1 7.
The Papal Crypt. 1 49
also many others which are silent as to the name, and only
express the number. " You can ascertain the number which
lie heaped up together" (congestis corpora acervis), but nothing
more ; and he specifies in particular one grave, in which he
learnt that the relics of sixty men had been laid, whose names
were known only to Christ as being His special friends. Let
us put side by side with this a narrative from the Annals of
Tacitus,* and we shall be satisfied that such wholesale butchery
of those whom the law condemned was by no means improb
able. It appears that it had been provided by the ancient
law of Rome that, if a master was ever murdered by his slave,
all his fellow-slaves were to suffer death together with the
culprit. Such a murder happened in the year a.d. 62, of one
Pedanius Secundus, who had lately been the Prefect of the
city, and who was the master of four hundred slaves. The
innocence of the great majority of these slaves was notorious,
and this, coupled with the unusual number of the victims,
created a considerable excitement among the people. The
matter was discussed in the Senate, and some of its members
ventured to express compassion, and to deprecate the rigorous
execution of the law. It was decided, however, apparently by
a very large majority, that the law should take its course
(nihil mutandum), and when the people threatened violence,
the troops were called out, the whole line of road was guarded
by them, and the unhappy four hundred were put to death at
once. Tacitus has recorded the speech of one of those who
took the chief part in the debate, and his language and argu
ments are precisely those which we can imagine to have been
used again and again in the second and third centuries by
orators persuading a general persecution of the Christians.
" Now that we have nations amongst us," said Cassius, " who
have different rites and ceremonies, a foreign religion, or per
haps no religion at all, it is impossible to keep such a rabble
(conluviem islam) under restraint in any other way than by
* Tac. An., xiv. 4,5 45.
fear. True, indeed, some innocent persons will perish with
the guilty. But, wherever it is necessary to make some
striking example of severity for the public good, there will
be always incidental injustice to certain individuals." Nor
is this the only testimony that could be alleged upon this
point. We will only add, however, that of Lactantius, or the
author of De Mortibus Pcrsecutorum, who was at least a co-
temporary witness of what he describes, and who tells us
that when the number of Christians condemned was very
great, they were not executed singly, but surrounded by fire
on all sides, and thus burnt together (gregatim amburcbantur).*
This explains to us how it was possible for the relics of so
many to have been buried in one grave. On the whole, there
fore, we conclude that there seems to be no solid reason for
calling in question the truth of what ancient authorities gener
ally have told us on this subject, however difficult it may
be, in this or that particular instance, to verify the number
recorded.
Of the companions of St Sixtus, and of the many Popes who
had been buried in this chapel, and whom the inscription of
Damasus next commemorates, we have already given a full
account, nor will our readers have any difficulty in recognising
St Melchiades in the priest, or bishop (Sacerdos), " who had
enjoyed a long life of peace," after the persecutions had ceased.
" The confessors sent from Greece," are to be found in the
various martyrologies, and the names of some are enumerated
by De Rossi as Hippolytus, Adrias, Maria, Neo, and Paulina.
Of the remainder, their names are " in the Book of Life," but
no distinct memorial of them remains on earth.
* C. XV.
CHAPTER IV.
CRYPT OF ST CKC11.IA.
NARROW doorway, cut somewhat irregularly through Chapel of

Cecilia.
the rock in the corner of the Papal Crypt, introduces
us at once into another chamber. As we pass through this
doorway we observe that the sides were once covered with
slabs of marble, and the arch over our heads adorned with
mosaics. The first impression we receive from this chamber is
one of strong contrast with what we have just left behind us.
The room is much larger : it is nearly 20 feet square (the
other had been only 14 by 11); it is irregular in shape,
and has a wide luminare over it, completely flooding it with
light ; yet we see no altar-tomb, no cotemporary epitaphs of
popes or martyrs, nor indeed anything eUe which at once
engages our attention and promises to give us any valuable
information. Perhaps a more careful examination may detect
objects of interest still remaining on the walls; but if we would
understand and enjoy them when they are found, it is necessary
that our minds should first be stored with some knowledge of
the history of St Cecilia, before whose tomb we are. This
confident statement may perhaps provoke a smile in some of
our readers, who know that the sceptical criticism of the last
century endeavoured to throw a doubt upon the existence of
such a martyr ; or would insist, at least, on transferring the
scene of her history from Rome to Sicily. Moreover, we have
just now seen the announcement of a French archbishop in the
fifteenth century, bidding us venerate the grave of St Cecilia in
the cemetery .at St Sebastian's, more than a quarter of a mile
Roma Sotterranea.
off. What fresh knowledge, then, has been gained since that
time, which enables us not only to detect his error, but also to
insist with confidence upon the correctness of our own assertion
in its stead ? And is there no danger of later critics rising up
to set aside our judgment as peremptorily as we are setting
aside those of our predecessors ? We hope thoroughly to
satisfy our readers on these questions before we leave this
chapel; but first we must set before them, as we have said,
some sketch of the legend of St Cecilia.
History of St The Acts of her Martyrdom, as they have come down to us,
11 l cannot lay claim to any higher antiquity than the fifth century;
and yet, though their corruption and interpolation be freely
admitted, recent discoveries have proved that they are unques
tionably true in all their chief features, and in many even of
their minutest details. We shall, therefore, first give as much
of the legend as is necessary for our purpose, in its popular
form, and then point out the few but important particulars in
which sound criticism obliges us to correct them.
St Cecilia, then, was a maiden of noble blood, born of
parents of senatorial rank ; the language of the Acts is most
precise upon this point, using the exact technical words which
distinguished her rank—Ingenua, uobilis, tfarissima. She had
been brought up a Christian from her earliest infancy, having
probably a Christian mother. Her'father, however, must have
been a pagan, for the saint was given in marriage to a young
patrician of very amiable and excellent disposition^ but a
pagan, named Valerian. St Cecilia had already consecrated
herself by secret vow to the service of her Lord in the state of
virginity ; and on the day of her marriage she persuaded her
husband to visit Pope Urban, lying hid in a cemetery on the
Appian Way, by whom he was instructed and baptized. So
also was his brother, Tiburtius. These two were presently
martyred for refusing to offer sacrifice to the gods, and
Maximus, the officer who presided at their execution, was so
moved by their constancy, that he too was brought to the faith,
Crypt of St Cecilia. 153
and received the crown of martyrdom with them. These all
were buried in the Catacomb of St Praetextatus, where, as we
have seen, the ancient pilgrims thought them worthy of special
mention. Cecilia still lived, and as Almachius thought it best
that her punishment should be as secret as possible, he ordered
that she should be shut up in the Caldarium, or room of the
warm bath in her own palace, and that the pipes with which
the walls on all sides were perforated, should be heated to such
a degree as to cause suffocation. Instances of this kind of
secret execution are very common in Roman history, whenever
it was thought desirable, for any reason, to avoid publicity.
Cecilia entered the room appointed her; the furnace was
heated "seven times more than it was wont to be heated;"
she remained there for a whole day and night, yet at the end
of the time it was found that, as with the Three Children in the
fiery furnace, so now with this virgin, " the fire had no power
over her body, nor was a hair of her head singed, neither were
her garments changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on
her." No sweat stood upon her brow, no lassitude oppressed
her limbs, but she was sound and whole as at the beginning.
When this unlooked-for intelligence was conveyed to the pre
fect, he sent one of the lictors with orders to strike off her
head. He found her in the very room of her victory, and
proceeded at once to accomplish his errand. Three times did
the axe fall upon her tender neck, inflicting deep and mortal
wounds, but, whether it was that the sight of so young and
noble a victim unnerved the" heart of the executioner, or
whether his hand was supernaturally stayed by the hand of
God, certain it is that his work was not complete, and as
the law did not allow more than three strokes to be given, he
went away, leaving her yet alive, though bathed in her own
blood. The manner of death having been thus changed, it
was no longer necessary that the door of the chamber in
which she lay should be kept closed ; and as soon, there
fore, as the executioner had withdrawn, the faithful of her
!54 Roma Sotterranea.
house and neighbourhood flocked in to receive the last breath
of the dying martyr. They found her stretched upon the
marble pavement, calmly awaiting the moment of her release,
and as they crowded round her, dipping their handkerchiefs or
any other piece of linen they could find in her sacred blood,
that they might reverently collect it all as blood that had been
spilt for the love of Jesus, and was therefore precious in His
sight, she spoke to all according to their several needs.
For two days and nights she continued in this state, hovering,
as it were, between life and death ; and on the third morning
the venerable Pope Urban—it is necessary again to rem.nd
our readers that we are only repeating what is written in the
Acts—came to bid farewell to his beloved daughter. " I have
prayed," she said, " that I might not die during these three
days, until I had first had an opportunity of recommending to
your Blessedness"—the title by which the popes were then ad
dressed, just as we now address them as " your Holiness"—
" the poor, whom 1 have always nourished, and of giving you
this house, to the intent that it may be made a church for
ever." The bishop had no sooner signified his assent to her
dying requests, and given her his blessing, than, turning her
face towards the ground, and letting her arms and hands fall
gently together upon her right side, she breathed forth her
pure spirit, and passed into the presence of her God. That
same evening her body was placed in a rough coffin of cypress-
wood,* just in the attitude in which she had died ; and Urban
and his deacons bore it out of the city into the cemetery of St
Callixtus, where he buried her in a chamber " near his own
colleagues, the bishops and martyrs."
Body of St Such is the legend of St Cecilia's martyrdom. The history
Cecilia trans- . , , , ,,
lated by Pas- of her relics is still more remarkable and equally important to
chal I., a.i>. 0ur narrative. Pope Paschal I. succeeded to the see of Peter
* The use of a coffin was very unusual among the early Christians, at
least among those who were buried in the Catacombs ; nevertheless, there
are arguments which oblige us to believe that one was used on this occa
sion.
Crypt of St Cecilia. 1 55
in January a. D. 817, and in the following July he translated

into different churches in the city the relics of 2300 martyrs,
collected from the various suburban cemeteries, which at that
time were lying in a deplorable state of ruin. Amongst the
relics thus removed were those of the popes from the Papal
Crypt we have just described. He had wished to remove at
the same time the relics of St Cecilia, but he could not dis
cover her tomb ; so at length he reluctantly acquiesced in
the report that her body had been carried off by Astulfus,
the Lombard king, by whom Rome had been besieged and
these cemeteries plundered.* Some four years afterwards,
however, St Cecilia appeared to him in a dream or vision—it
is Paschal himself who tells us the story,t as well as his co-
temporary biographer, the continuator of the Liber Pontijicalis
—and told him that when he was translating the bodies of the
popes, she was so close to him that they might have conversed
together. In consequence of this vision he returned to the
search, and found the body where he had been told. It was
fresh and perfect as when it was first laid in the tomb, and clad
in rich garments mixed with gold, with linen cloths stained with
blood rolled up at her feet, lying in a cypress coffin.
Paschal himself tells us that he lined the coffin with fringed
silk, spread over the body a covering of silk gauze, and then,
placing it within a sarcophagus of white marble, deposited it
under the high altar of the Church of Sta. Cecilia in Trastevere.
Nearly eight hundred years afterwards, Cardinal Sfondrati, Found incor-
of the title of St Cecilia, made considerable alterations in the ruPtAJ>" i59'.
church, and in course of his excavations in the sanctuary, he
came upon a wide vault beneath the altar. Two marble sar
cophagi met his eyes. Trustworthy witnesses had been already
summoned, and in their presence one of these sarcophagi was
opened. It was found to contain a coffin of cypress-wood. The
* See page 106.

t This vision forms tile subject of an old fresco, some fragments of which
may still be seen at the end of the Church of Sta. Cecilia in Trastevere.
156 Roma Solterranca.
cardinal himself drew back the coffin-lid. First appeared the
precious lining and silk gauze with which Paschal had covered
the body nearly eight centuries before. Its colour had faded,
but the fabric was still entire, and through its transparent folds
could be seen the shining gold of the robes in which the martyr
herself was clothed. After pausing a few moments, the cardinal
gently removed this silken covering, and the virgin form of St
Cecilia appeared in the very same attitude in which she had
breathed her last on the pavement of the house in which the
spectators were then standing, and which neither Urban nor
Paschal had ventured to disturb. She lay clothed in her robes
of golden tissue, on which were still visible the glorious stains
of her blood, and at her feet were the linen cloths mentioned by
Pope Paschal and his biographer. Lying on her right side,
with her arms extended in front of her body, she looked like
one in a deep sleep. Her head, in a singularly touching
manner, was turned round towards the bottom of the coffin ;
her knees were slightly bent, and drawn together. The body
was perfectly incorrupt, and by a special miracle retained, after
more than thirteen hundred years, all its grace and modesty,
and recalled with the most truthful exactness Cecilia breathing
forth her soul on the pavement of her bath. *
A more signal vindication of the Church's traditions; a more
consoling spectacle for a devout Catholic, mourning over the
schisms and heresies of those miserable times ; a more striking
commentary on the Divine promise, " The Lord keepeth all
the bones of His servants; He will not lose one of them !"t it
would be difficult to conceive. One is not surprised at the
profound sensation which the intelligence of this discovery
created in the Eternal City.
Pope Clement VIII., at that time sick at Frascati, deputed
Cardinal Baronius to make a careful examination of the pre-
* De Rossi has himself assisted at the translation of a body from the
Catacombs to a church two miles distant, lying on the marble slab on
which it was found, without the least displacement of a single bone.- -
A'. .V. ii. 127. t Psalm xxxiii. 21.
cious remains, and both he and Bosio have left accounts of
what they witnessed. All Rome came to satisfy its curiosity
and devotion for the space of four or five weeks, during which
the virgin martyr lay exposed for veneration ; and when the
tomb was again closed, on St Cecilia's day, the Pope himself
sang the Mass. Cardinal Sfondrati erected the beautiful high-
altar which now stands over the saint's tomb, and beneath it
he placed a statue by Maderna, who had frequently seen the
body, as the inscription intimates.
" EN TIBI SANCTISSIM/E VIRGINIS C.ECILI/E IMAGINEM QUAM

IPSE INTEGRAM IN SEPULCHRE) JACENTEM VIDI, EAMDEM TIBI
PRORSUS EODEM CORPORIS SITU HOC MARMORE EXPRESSL"
" Behold the image of the most holy Virgin Cecilia, whom I myself saw
lying incorrupt in her tomb. 1 have in this marble expressed for thee the
same Saint in the very same posture of body."
Fig. 17.—Madertta'x Statue ofSi Cecilia.
An engraving also was published at the same time—a few

copies of which may yet be found in foreign libraries, (e.g., at
Carpentras, among the MSS. of Peiresc, a cotemporary)-—with
the inscription, Hoc habitu inventa est.
It has no special bearing upon our subject, yet we cannot
help adding that in the other sarcophagus which we mentioned
as having been found by Sfondrati, and which, according to the
tradition, ought to have contained the bodies of Saints Tibur-
tius, Valerian, and Maximus (translated from St Praetextatus'),
the remains of three bodies were seen, two of which, ap
parently of the same age and size, had manifestly been
beheaded, whilst the skull of the third was broken, and the
abundant hair upon it was thickly matted with blood, as
though the martyr had been beaten to death by those plumbata
or leaded scourges of which Prudentius and others tell us, and
of which a specimen has been found in the Catacombs even
in our own times,* and which the Acts of St Cecilia's martyr
dom distinctly state to have been the instrument of the death
of St Maximus.
Critical exami- And now we must confront the whole of this marvellous
nation of the . ., , , r
crypt, narrative with the actual monuments of the cemetery, so lar as
they still exist, and can be made to throw any light upon it.
We have seen that the Acts assert that Pope Urban had
buried the Virgin Martyr near to his own colleagues. Both
the itineraries which we quoted at the beginning t mention her
grave, immediately before, or immediately after, those of the
Popes. Pope Paschal says that he found her body quite close
to the place whence he had withdrawn the bodies of his saintly
predecessors. Are all these topographical notices true or
false ? This is the question which must have agitated the
mind of De Rossi when he discovered that there was a second
chamber immediately contiguous to that in which the Popes
Its discovery had been buried, and we may easily imagine the eagerness
and excavation , • -r. .. ,1 .
by De Rossi. wltn which he longed to penetrate it. Hut tins could not be
done at once. The chapel was full of earth, even to the very
top of the luminare, and all this soil must first be removed
through the luminare itself. As the work of excavation pro
ceeded, there came to light, first, on the wall of the luminare,
the figure of a woman in the usual attitude of p-ayer, but of
this both the outlines and colour were too indistiuct to enable
him to identify it. Below this there appeared a Latin cross
between two sheep. These also were much faded. Still
Paintings in lower down the wall— the wall, that is, of the luminare, not of
the lummare, ^ chamber itself—he came upon the figures of three saints,
executed apparently in the fourth, or perhaps even the fifth
* R. S. ii. 164. t See pages 1 1 1, 1 13.
century ; but they were all of men, and their names inscribed
at the side showed no trace of any connection with the history
of St Cecilia. They were Policamus, whose martyrdom was
proclaimed by a palm-branch springing up by his side, Sabas-
tianus, and Curinus, this last having his head tonsured with
the corona usually found on episcopal portraits of that period.
De Rossi had never had any reason to expect a representation
of either of these saints near the tomb of St Cecilia. It will
save us from some embarrassment, therefore, if we postpone
what we have to say about them for the present, and proceed
with our work of clearance of the whole chamber.
As we come nearer to the floor, we find upon
y the wall,. elose an<l °l1
. wall tne
of the
to the entrance from the burial-place of the popes, a painting crypt.
which may be attributed, perhaps, to the seventh century, of a
woman, richly attired, and ornamented with bracelets and
necklaces, such as might be looked for in a high-born and
wealthy Roman bride, and might well be intended to repre
sent St Cecilia. Still further down, upon the same wall, we
come to a niche such as is found in some other parts of the
Catacombs to receive the large shallow vessel of oil, or
precious unguents, which, in ancient times, were used to feed
the lamps burning before special shrines. At the back of this
niche is a large head of our Lord, represented according to
the Byzantine type, and with rays of glory behind it in the
form of a Greek cross. Side by side with this, but on the flat
surface of the wall, is a figure of St Urban, in full pontifical
dress, with his name inscribed.
Examination of these paintings shows that they were not the Signs of more
• • 1 ,• r.., - • ancient decor-
onginal ornaments of this place. I he painting of St Cecilia ations.
was executed on the surface of ruined mosaic work, portions
of which may still be easily detected. The niche in which our
Lord's head is painted bears evident traces of having once
been encased with marble, and both it and the figure of St
Urban can hardly have been executed before the tenth or
eleventh century. The continued renewal of ornamentation
in any part of the Catacombs, especially if prolonged beyond
the eighth and ninth centuries, is a sure mark of high religious
and historical interest attaching to that particular spot ; and
when we add that immediately by the side of these paintings
is a deep recess in the wall, capable of receiving a large sarco
phagus, and that between the back of this recess, and the back
of one of the papal graves in the adjoining chamber, there is
scarcely an inch of rock, we think the most sceptical of critics
will confess that we have here certainly recovered a lost thread
of tradition, and may claim to have discovered the original
resting-place of one of the most ancient and famous of Rome's
virgin saints.
Here was the It will be asked, however, if this is really the place where
original tomb . . . ... .
of St Cecilia. St Cecilia was buried, and if Paschal really visited the adjoin
ing chapel, how is it possible that he could have had any diffi
culty in finding her tomb ? To this we may reply by remind
ing our readers of the condition in which the Catacombs were
at that time. These translations of relics were being made,
because the cemeteries in which they lay were utterly ruined.
Moreover, it is possible that the doorway, or the recess, or
both, may have been walled up or otherwise concealed, for
the express purpose of baffling the search of the sacrilegious
Lombards. Nor is this mere conjecture. Among the debris
of this spot I)e Rossi has found several fragments of a wall,
too thin ever to have been used as a means of support, but
manifestly serviceable as a curtain of concealment ; and,
although, with that perfect candour and truthfulness which
so enhances all his other merits, he adds that these fragments
seem to him to bear tokens of a later date, this does not show
that there had not been another wall of the same kind at an
earlier period, and he is also able to quote from his own ex
perience the instance of an arcosolium in the Catacomb of St
Praetextatus thus carefully concealed by the erection of a wall.
Evidence of However, be the true explanation of this difficulty what
(his from in- . . .
seriptions. it may, our ignorance on this subject cnnnot be allowed to
outweigh the explicit testimony of Paschal, and the abundant

corroborations which it receives both from ancient and modern
sources. Not the least important among these is the number
of epitaphs that have been found here belonging to the Caecilii
and other noble families connected with them by ties of blood or
marriage. These are so numerous that we cannot doubt that
this cemetery was originally the private property of that gens,
and that the Saint herself belonged to it. There is a grave
stone even now lying in the pavement of this chamber, which
seems to offer some testimony on the subject. It is to the
memory of one Septimus Pretextatus Caecilianus, a " servant of
God, who had lived worthy [of his vocation] for three and
thirty years," and exclaims at the end of them, " If I have
served Thee, I shall not repent of it, and I will bless Thy
name." The names on this monument are very suggestive.
The Itineraries tell us that the husband and brother-in-law
of St Cecilia were buried in the Catacomb of St Praetextatus ;
and here we find a Praetextatus Caecilianus privileged to have
his place of burial close to that of the Virgin Martyr herself.
Does not this denote some connection between the families?
so that, whereas St Cecilia was privy to the movements of
Urban, lying hid in the cemetery under her own property on
one side of the road, she could also obtain burial for her hus
band and others in the cemetery of St Praetextatus on the other
side.
Again, De Rossi is of opinion that we have distinct—we From the
had almost said authentic and documentary — evidence of chapel lts<
the translation on the walls of the chapel itself. If we ex
amine closely the picture of St Cecilia, we shall find it covered
with a number of graffiti, which are easily divided into two
classes ; the one class quite irregular both as to place and
style of writing, consisting only of the names of pilgrims who
had visited the shrine, and several of these, either by name or
express title, confess themselves to be strangers. Thus, one is
named Udebrandus, another is a Bishop Kthelred, and two
L
others write themselves down Spaniards. The other class of
graffiti is quite regular, arranged in four lines, and containing
almost exclusively the names of priests ; the only exceptions
to this rule being that one woman appears amongst them, but
it is added that she is the mother of the priest who signed be
fore her, and that the last signature of all was of a scriniarius,
or secretary. There is something about this arrangement of
names which suggests the idea of an official act ; neither can
it be attributed to chance that several of the same names
appear on the painting of St Cornelius, presently to be visited,
in this same Catacomb, whence his body was translated about
the same time as St Cecilia's. Some of them appear also on a
painting lately discovered in the subterranean San Clemente ;
and others again in the subscriptions to the decrees of a Ro
man Council, held a.d. 826. Of course some of the names
are very common, such as Leo, Benedictus, or Joannes, and
the mere repetition of these would not suffice to raise a sus
picion of identity ; but when such names as George and
Mercury appear, and are signed in both instances with the
same peculiarity of writing, some letters having been made
square, others written in a running hand, it cannot be rejected
as an improbable conjecture that these men were among the
leading parochial clergy of Rome, who attended the Pope in
some official capacity, attesting the translation of relics in one
instance, or signing the decrees of a Council in another. No
graffiti of this kind appear on the picture of St Urbanus, which,
as we have already seen, is of a much later date than that of
St Cecilia, and was, in fact, only added as an ornament to her
sepulchre,—Decori Sepvlcri S. Gecim-'e Martyr is, says a
half obliterated scroll or tablet still remaining by its side,— after
her body had been removed ; for the crosses which appear on
the shoulders of the pallium were not in use before the tenth
or eleventh century.
Verification jt ,,et remains to say a few words about the history of St
and correction
of the Acts of Cecilia's martyrdom, with which we began. We have already
St Cecilia.
acknowledged that the Acts are not genuine, and yet we have
seen that in substance their accuracy has been marvellously
confirmed by all that has since been discovered. The truth is,
that the monuments discovered in the Catacombs almost enable
us to restore the Acts to their primitive form, by recalling the
probable occasion of some of their present errors. For the
chief difficulty that has always been urged against them con
cerns chronology. The Acts imply, or indeed directly assert,
that a furious persecution was raging at the time of St Cecilia's
death, and they speak of the edicts of the reigning princes as
though there were more than one ; yet the mention of Pope
Urban fixes the date to a time when Alexander Severus ruled
the empire alone, and the Christians enjoyed tranquillity. The
martyrology of Ado, however, whilst still retaining the name of
Urban, adds, with apparently unconscious inconsistency, that
the saint suffered in the times of Aurelius and Commodus, i.e., Firs<.
change of
nearly fifty years before that pope. Whence did Ado obtain date,
this particular item of his information, that the martyrdom of
St Cecilia belonged to the year 177 or thereabouts? This is
what we cannot now tell, but we may be very certain that he
derived it from some ancient authority which he trusted, and
if we trust it also, the difficulties it will solve are manifold.
The language of the Acts now becomes consistent with the
known facts of history. Not only were two princes reigning,
who hated and persecuted the Church, but the words of the
judge as he pronounces sentence upon the martyrs are pre
cisely equivalent to, are in fact a mere translation of, the very
words in which Eusebius * has reported the edict of those
Emperors, viz., that as many as should refuse to deny that they
were Christians, should be punished, but that if they denied
the charge they should be at once dismissed.
The chronological difficulty is now shifted from the emperors Secondly, in
. change ol
to the pope. If St Cecilia suffered a.d. 177, our readers will Bishop,
ask how she could have had anything to do with St Urban.
* II. E. v. 1.
But they can also answer this question at once, by calling to
mind what has been already alluded to, the existence of two
bishops of the same name at various times ; the one, Bishop of
Rome, the other, bishop of some unknown see ; the one, pope
and confessor, buried in St Callixtus', the other, a martyr, buried
in St Praetextatus'. We need only suppose that the earlier of
these two bishops was resident in Rome during the episco
pacy of St Eleutherius, and occasionally acted for him, as we
know that the Bishops Caldonius and Ercolanus acted at one
time in Carthage for St Cyprian.
And other q'he corruptions of ancient Acts are ordinarily in the way of
exaggerations.
exaggeration. As every magistrate becomes the chief magis
trate or prefect, so it was only natural that Urbanus, a bishop,
should become Urbanus, the Pope; and since the interpola
tions were made whilst yet the bodies, both of the pope and
the virgin martyr, lay each in their original tomb, and could
be seen in immediate proximity to one another, the connection
between them must have seemed obvious and certain, and the
copyist who transcribed or compiled the acts, had only to use
the license, common to all historians, of assigning the motives
or causes of effects which he had to record. St Cecilia and
St Urban were buried in adjoining chambers, and a bishop
of the name of Urban had been a friend of- hers during life;
therefore they were one and the same Urban, and the Pope had
given this honourable place of burial to the saint, because of
his affection for her, and admiration of her distinguished merit.
So argued the scribe of the fifth or sixth century, consci
entiously doing his best to chronicle the glories of the Church,
and to repair the injuries which she had suffered from the
wholesale destruction of her ancient records ; whereas we
of the nineteenth century, though removed to a greater dis
tance from the time of action, yet having a larger field of ob
servation, and exercising a sound criticism upon the multitude
of contradictory notices that have come down to us, venture-
to propose another mode of reconstructing the history.
We feel more disposed to believe that St Cecilia was buried
here, because the cemetery was her own property; that her whole
family, or at least several important branches of it, embraced
the Christian faith before the close of the second century (so
numerous are the Christian epitaphs of that period belonging
to them), and that they then transferred this cemetery, and a
considerable portion of the adjacent ground, for the general
use of the Church, to Pope Zephyrinus, who forthwith ap
pointed his deacon, Callixtus, to take charge of it, and it
became in time the most extensive and important of all the
subterranean cemeteries ; that St Cecilia's vault was origin
ally a very small and dark chamber,* but that Damasus opened
a new entrance into it by the staircase and vestibule which now
exist, and enlarged the chamber at considerable labour and
expense, as the large brick arches and walls abundantly prove;
and that this was doDe for the better accommodation of the
many pilgrims who flocked to visit it. Finally, we believe that
at a somewhat later period—probably in the pontificate of 4
Sixtus III.—the luminare was opened over it, and those figures
of Polycamus, Sabastianus, and Optatus, painted upon its sides.
We know of no other Sebastian that can be meant here but The saints on
the famous martyr, whose basilica is not far off. Cyrinus or accounted'for
Quirinus was a martyr and Bishop of Siscia in Illyria, who, in
the days of Prudentius,t lay in his own city, but when Illyria
was invaded by the barbarians, his body was brought to Rome
and buried in the basilica of St Sebastian about the year 420.
Of Polycamus the history is altogether lost; neither the mar-
tyrologies nor ecclesiastical historians have left us any record of
his life. Only this we know, on the authority of two ancient
witnesses, that among the rel cs translated to the churches of
* Ue Rossi suggests, as a solution of the difficulties which his brother's

architectural analysis throws in the way of this modification of St Cecilia's
history, that her body was probably placed in this chamber after the Papal
Crypt had been set apart for the burial of the Popes. This would account
for the coffin having been used in this instance, contrary to the usual cus
tom. See page 154, note. t Peristeph. vii.
1 66 Rovia Sotterranea.
Sta. Prassede and of San Silvestro in Capite, in Rome, in the
ninth century, were those of Polycamus and Optatus, and that
the tomb of Polycamus had been very near St Cecilia's.
Whether Rome had been the scene of his martyrdom, and
this Catacomb the original place of his burial, we cannot tell.
We think it more probable that it was not. Perhaps his relics
were brought from abroad, like those of St Quirinus, and
about the same time, and their figures may have been painted
in the interior of this luminarc merely by way of ornament,
and because their names were just then in men's mouths.
This seems also to be the only account that can be given of
the appearance on this wall of the third figure, Optatus. We
can only conjecture that he was the Bishop of Vesceter, in
Numidia, of whom we read that he was put to death by the
Vandals, and that his body was brought to Rome about
a.d. 430.
VLTIO FLORENTIO
BEXEMERENTI QVI
VIXIT ANN.OS LXXVII
DIES XI QVIESCIT IN
PACE III KAL IVNIAS
Fig. 18. Ou the mensa ofan Arcosolium in Crutetery ofSt Soteris.

CHAPTER V.
THE EPITAPH OF ST EUSEBIUS.
HE Itineraries, after mentioning St Cecilia and the popes, Crypt of St

-L and " the innumerable multitude of martyrs " that rest use >u "
near them, go on to say that Eusebius, pope and martyr, rests
in a cave some way off ; and St Cornelius, pope and martyr,
in another cave still farther off. That we may complete our
review of the historical monuments of the cemetery of St
Callixtus, it is necessary that we should visit both of these
caves or subterranean chambers ; and we will take that of St
Eusebius first, as being the nearest. It lies, in fact, just where .
our guides would have led us to expect, viz., between St Cor
nelius and the other popes ; not much more than a hundred
paces from the latter.
It was whilst searching for the popes' chapel, in the year Fragments
1852, that De Rossi came upon half a dozen bits of marble, uamasine
with letters in a character somewhat like the Damasine in inscription,
form, yet very inferior in execution. The only perfect words
were scinditur and seditio, and the fragments were eus,
exempl, and integ. Immediately he remembered the inscrip
tion about a certain Eusebius, which, having been found in
old MSS., without any indication of the place whence it had
been copied, had furnished a subject of much discussion to
Baronius, Tillemont, and others, as to its sense and author
ship. Some, like Tillemont and the Bollandists, had almost
taken it for granted that the Eusebius spoken of had been the
pope of that name, and had attributed the verses, therefore, to
Pope Damasus ; whilst others thought it incredible that history
should have been so absolutely silent about incidents of such
magnitude to the Church of Rome, and chose rather to refer
them to some priest or bishop holding a less exalted position.
We need not say towards which side leaned the opinion of
De Rossi, after finding these fragments just where he had
reason to believe Pope Eusebius had been buried ; and he took
the earliest opportunity of publishing the discovery in a lecture
before one of the learned societies in Rome. He had yet to
wait nearly five years before the work of excavation enabled
him to penetrate fully into the interior of the cemetery at this
place, and to set the question finally at rest. The labours of
the Commission of Sacred Archaeology had been employed
during the interval in disinterring those chapels of the popes
and St Cecilia which have been just described. But in 1856
they returned to this spot, and as they removed the soil
which here, as elsewhere throughout all the crypts of historical
interest, had been poured in for centuries through an open
luminare, De Rossi discovered forty other fragments of the
same inscription.
Importance of When the excavation was completed, it was easy to see the
this crypt. . .
importance which had once attached to the chapels that
were now recovered. Not only was there a staircase descend
ing to them from the upper air, but walls had been built in
the subterranean itself, to prevent those who entered it from
going astray, and losing themselves in the labyrinth of sur
rounding galleries. They were guided of necessity to two
chapels, opposite to one another, on different sides of the
path. One was about 9 feet by 1 2, the other considerably .
larger, 16 by 13. The smaller one had once been highly
decorated with paintings, mosaics, and slabs of marble. All
is now sadly ruined, but it is still possible to distinguish among
the mosaic work one of the most common Christian symbols,
a double-handed vessel, with a bird on either side of it ; and
among the paintings, the representations of the seasons (appar
ently) and other accessories of ornament ; but the main figures
The Epitaph of St Eusebius. 169
and general design have perished. The walls of the opposite
chamber were never cased with marble, so that the pilgrims
were able to leave here the same tokens of their presence as
they left at St Sixtus'. The graffiti are of the same general
character, only of a somewhat later date ; the old forms of
prayer, in mente habete, &c., have disappeared ; the inscriptions
are mostly in Latin, and among the few that are Greek, there
are symptoms of Byzantine peculiarities. On the whole, we
may say with confidence, that they belong to the fifth century
rather than to the third.
The interest of these chambers, however, is centred in the Inscription to
. • ,. , . , •,„ _ , ,, St Eusebius, a
inscription, which now occupies the middle of the smaller restoration of
room. Of course, this was not its original position : but it the s',xl'h or
01 ' seventh cen-
has been so placed, in order that we may see both sides of the tllry-
stone without difficulty. On the one side is an imperial in
scription belonging to pagan times ; on the other, a Damasine,
in honour of Eusebius. We call it Damasine, because it had
been published in the later editions of his works, evert before
its discovery in this place ; and also because it lays claim to
that title itself. But everybody can see at a glance * that it
was never executed by the same hand to which we are
indebted for so many other beautiful productions of that pope.
Whilst De Rossi had only recovered three or four fragments,
he was disposed to think that it might have been one of the
earliest efforts of the artist who subsequently attained such
perfection ; but as the number of specimens increased, he
became more and more convinced that it was a copy made
. in a later age—a restoration, as we should now say, and
partaking of the characteristics of many other modern restora-
' tions, which are not improvements. In his lecture to the Roman
antiquaries in the summer of 1856, he proclaimed his firm
persuasion that the stone, which he was then partially recover
ing, was not the original on which the epitaph of St Damasus
had been first engraved ; but that it had been set up by Pope
* See Plate II., at end of volume.
Symmachus, orVigilius, or John III. (a.d. 498-574), of all of

whom we know that they did their best to repair the damage
which had been done in the Catacombs by the Lombards and
others. We have already quoted * an inscription of Pope
Vigilius, in which he expressly mentions that he had restored
some of the tituli of Damasus, which had perished, or at least
the marble tablets on which they were engraved had been
broken; and De Rossi thought it very probable that this
might be one of them. He had also, 011 another occasion,
publicly hazarded a conjecture that the artist who had engraved
all the Damasine inscriptions was Furius Dionysius Filocalus,
the same who had illustrated the civil and ecclesiastical calen
dar, of which we have spoken elsewhere as being one of our
most valuable ancient Christian documents.t In course of
time, both of these conjectures of De Rossi have been estab
lished by most incontrovertible evidence. When all the
fragments that could be found were put together, there
appeared at the top and bottom of the tablet the following
title —
DAMASUS EPISCOPUS FECIT EUSEBIO EPISCOPO ET MARTYR!.
" Damasus, Bishop, set up this to Eusebius, Bishop and Martyr."
and on either side of the verses, a single file of letters reveals
to us
FURIUS DIONYSIUS FILOCALUS SCRIBSIT DAMASIS PAPP'E
CULTOR ATQUE AMATOT.
"Furius Dionysius Filocalus, a worshipper J and lover of Pope Damasus,
wrote this."
The inscription itself ran thus :—
" Ileraclius forbad the lapsed to grieve for their sins. Eusebius taught
those unhappy ones to weep for their crimes. The people were rent into
parties, and with increasing fury began sedition, slaughter, fighting, dis
cord, and strife. Straightway both [the pope and the heretic] were
banished by the cruelty of the tyrant, although the pope was preserving
* See page 105. t See page 19.
X Used, of course, in the old sense of worship, i.e.. honour. De Rossi
reads Dainasi sui Pafir, which is confirmed by other inscriptions.
The Epitaph of St Eusebius. 171
the bonds of peace inviolate. Me bore his exile with joy, looking to the
Lord as his Judge, and on the shore of Sicily gave up the world and his
life."*
Moreover, a diligent search among the minute fragments of Fragments ol
stone and marble lying amid the rubbish of the chamber stintobe seen,
brought to light several bits of the original Damasine inscrip
tion, executed with the same faultlessness as all the other
specimens of its class ; and amongst these bits were one or
two which had escaped the search of the man who attempted
to copy the whole in the sixth or seventh century ; as, for
instance, the word in, which the copyist entirely omitted from
the third line. He seems to have been an ignorant man, only
able to transcribe the letters which were before him, and even
leaving, occasionally, a vacant space where he was conscious
that a letter was wanting, which, however, he could not supply.
Our readers have an opportunity of comparing the original Former
. . . , its
- restoration
. ... Tr and, TTT , editions of this
inscription with in Plates II. III., at the mscription
end of the volume ; and although the task of correcting the
errors and supplying the omissions of the copyist may now
seem very easy to any scholar, we must remember that it was
much more difficult for those who saw it only on the stone
itself, where there is no separation of the letters of one word
from those of another. It is curious, therefore, to observe in
the MSS. which have come down to us (the writers of which
never saw the original stone) the fresh blunders introduced
by the ineffectual attempts at correction made in earlier ages.
The substitution of sua for sum in the second line, and the
insertion of in in the third, were too obvious to be overlooked ;
but seditiocaede of the fourth line was dissolved into sed et loca
ede in the MS. first adopted by Gruter ; whilst the word omino,
in the penultimate, is changed, in one MS., into komine, and
into omnino in another.
It is not without reason that De Rossi rejoices in the Importance of
recovery of this stone as one of the happiest fruits of his 'ion.""0"P
* The original can be seen in Plate III.
labours in this cemetery. It is, in fact, the recovery of a lost
chapter in the history of the Church. The scholars of Alcuin's
days, who had transcribed it, omitted its title or dedication ;
nor did they give any information as to where they had seen
it. Baronius, therefore, as we have said, refused to accept it
as belonging to Pope Eusebius. He could not believe that
the memory of so important an incident in the history of the
Roman Church, and the life of one of its chief pastors, could
have so entirely perished, as never to have come to the know
ledge of Eusebius the historian, for example, nor have left a
trace behind it in any other cotemporary records. Now,
however, that the identity of the person spoken of is put
beyond question, we are able to see how admirably it fits into
the circumstances of the times it belongs to ; and our readers
will be interested in studying this page of ancient history just
rescued from the devouring jaws of time.
Its interpret- Every student is familiar with one phase, at least, of the
tion.
disputes of the second and third centuries, as to the proper
discipline to be observed towards those unhappy Christians
who had denied the faith and relapsed into the outward pro
fession of paganism, under the pressure of persecution. The
schism of Novatian has impressed upon us the existence in
those days of a hard, proud, self-satisfied temper in many
members of the Christian flock, like that of the elder brother
in the parable of the prodigal son, which would fain close the
door of reconciliation against these miserable apostates. It
has brought out in bold relief to this hateful severity the
Mercy of the tender and merciful conduct of our trne mother the Church,
Church to- . , . . .
wards apos- ever ready to iollow the teaching and example of her Divine
tates, Head, to pour oil and wine into the wounds of bleeding souls,
and to welcome the penitent returning to his home. But we
had not been so conscious perhaps of another difficulty which
the Church had to encounter, about this same time, on the
other side. We had not watched so keenly her prudent firm
ness in imposing conditions upon her grant of forgiveness,
The Epitaph of St Eusebiics. 1 73
and exacting wholesome penance from those who would
obtain it. Nevertheless, there is not wanting in cotemporary tempered by
. . scvcr11 v
records very distinct testimony to her exercise of a divinely- '
inspired wisdom in this particular ; and the pontificates, both
of Eusebius and of his predecessor Marcellus, illustrate in a
most striking way this part of her character. The letters of
the Roman clergy to St Cyprian, written at a time when the
see of Peter was vacant, speak quite clearly as to the tradition
and practice of the Church. They show us the lapsi, armed
with letters of recommendation, which they had obtained from
martyrs or confessors of the faith, pressing for immediate
reconciliation ; and the priests and deacons insisting upon a
middle course, between too great severity and sternness, and
too easy an acquiescence with their demand (pronam nostram
facilitatem et nostram quasi duram crudelitatem). They say
that the remedy must not be less than the wound, and that if
the remedy be applied too hastily, a new and more fatal wound
will be created : " Let the groans of the penitents be heard,
not once only, but again and again ; let them shed abundant
tears, that so those eyes, which have wickedly looked upon
idols, may blot out before God, by sufficient tears, the unlaw
ful deeds they have committed : " and they repeat maxims of
this kind again and again. St Cyprian, too, in his own letters, Consequent
speaks of riots and disturbances having been caused in some <*';,turbances
towns of Africa by the overweening presumption and violence
of apostates, who would fain extort from the rulers of the
Church an immediate restoration to her peace and com
munion. After this date, we do not read of any more dis
turbances arising from this cause, until the persecution of
Diocletian. That persecution had been preceded by a long
term of peace, during which men's minds had somewhat
relaxed from their primitive strength and fervour. Many,
therefore, fell away ; but when the persecution ceased, they
Vvould fain return. Marcellus was firm in upholding the under Mar-
Church's discipline. He was resisted with violence, especially ceI us
i/4 Roma Sotterranea.
by one who, least of all, had any right to plead for a mitigation
of it, as he had denied the faith even in time of peace. Angry
passions were roused, and the public tranquillity was disturbed
by the violence of the contending factions, to such an extent
that Maxentius, who had no love for Christianity, and whose
edict of toleration was dictated by the merest political motives,
determined on sending the Pope into exile. This history is
contained in the epitaph with which St Damasus adorned his
tomb—
VERIDICUS RECTOR, LAF'SOS QUIA CRIMINA KLERE
PR/EDIXIT, MISERIS FUIT OMNIBUS HOSTIS AMARUS.
HINC FUROR. HINC ODIUM SEQUITUR, DISCORDIA, LITES,
SEDITIO, C/EDES. SOLVUNTUR FCKDERA PACIS.
CRIMEN OB ALTERIUS CHRISTUM QUI IN PACE NEOAVIT.
FINIBUS EXPULSUS PATRIAE F.ST FERITATE TVRANNI.
H/EC BREVITER DAMASUS VOLUIT COMPERTA REFERRE.
MARCELLI UT POPULUS MERITUM COGNOSCERE POSSET.
" The truth-speaking Pope, because he preached that the lapsed should
weep for their crimes, was bitterly hated by all those unhappy ones. Hence
followed fury, hatred, discord, contentions, sedition, and slaughter, and the
bonds of peace were ruptured. For the crime of another, who in [a time
of] peace had denied Christ, [the Pontiff] was expelled the shores of his
country by the cruelty of the tyrant. These things Damasus hav ing learnt,
was desirous to relate briefly, that people might recognise the merit of
Marcellus."
and Eusebius. ^ we compare this epitaph on Marcellus with the recently-

discovered one on Eusebius, it is easy to recognise a continua
tion of the same history. Perhaps the Heraclius, named in
the later inscription as the leader of the heretical faction, was
the very man whose apostacy during a time of peace is com
memorated in the former. Anyhow, the nature of the strife
in which Eusebius was engaged is clear ; and we learn with
much surprise that a strife of this nature was capable of
attracting the attention and drawing down one of the heaviest
punishments of the civil power, not out of any professed
hatred of the Christian name, but merely in the interests of
public peace.
chaptp;r vi.
THE SEPULCHRE OF ST CORNELIUS.
AS we leave the cubiculum of St Eusebius we observe how Inscription to

the ruined walls around us must once have shut off Iheniusiand
every gallery from the visiting of pilgrims, save only that to Calocerus.
the left, where we soon come upon another double chamber,
half being on either side of the gallery. At the entrance of one
of these is a graffito of insignificant appearance, yet really of
considerable historical importance. The words are these, tertio
Idus Fefrua Parteni Martiri Caloceri Martiri. The reader who
remembers the testimony of our ancient pilgrims, will not need
to be told that he has here a probable, if not a certain, indica
tion of the burial-place of the two martyrs, Parthenius and
Calocerus,* who are coupled by them with St Eusebius. If
he knows anything, however, of the old Church calendars, he
may wonder at the date assigned, since the Passio of these
martyrs was always celebrated on the 19th of May. The in
scription which records the translation of their relics to San
Silvestro in Capite, in the eighth century, names the same
date as is here written in the Catacombs, the nth of Feb
ruary, for their natale. So does the martyrology of Bede, and
others also yet earlier. This date, then, did not mark the
day of their martyrdom, for the calendars gave another, nor
yet of the translation of their relics from the Catacombs to the
Roman Churches, for it belonged to them before that transla
tion was made. Can the Bollandists be right in conjecturing
* See page 102.
176 Roma Sotterrcuiea.
that it refers to some earlier translation of their relics from one

place to another, within the Catacombs themselves, for pur
poses of greater security under some special danger ? * A
comparison of the statements by various ancient authors seems
to require it. Recent discoveries in the Catacombs give it
considerable countenance, and De Rossi does not hesitate to
adopt it. He places their martyrdom in the middle of the
third century, and believes this first translation to have been
made in the earliest years of the fourth, when all the loca
Ecdtsiastica were confiscated by the persecution of Diocletian.
The evidence in support of this theory is certainly very strong,
but its details are too minute for insertion in this place. We
must be content to have noticed it, and then pass on rapidly
in search of the tomb of St Cornelius.
Labyrinth con We need not tarry by the way, for indeed there is nothing
necting the
crypts of St to attract our attention. We are traversing that vast network
I.ucina with of galleries which intervenes between the cemetery of St Cal
those of St
Callixtus. lixtus and that of St Lucina. These galleries are of later date
than either cemetery. They are generally very narrow, cross
ing one another in all directions, and impossible to be reduced
to any regular plan. They observe, for the most part, the
horizontal level in each of the two stories in which they have
been made ; but as they come in contact with portions of
different area, their height is very variable. Each //at of this
labyrinth has its staircase, and the higher system of galleries
spreads over the whole Catacomb without any regard to the
ancient limits of the different area. The lower flat is chiefly
remarkable for the entire absence of every kind of ornament.
No painting nor slabs of marble, no cubiculum, nor even an
arcosolium, relieves the monotony of its long straight passages,
which we may therefore safely conclude belong to an age pos
terior to the regular construction of both the hypogaa. The
union of the different groups of independent cemeteries into
* This conjecture is not found in the Acta of the Bollandists ; but
Sollier gives it on the authority of Papebroch ill his notes on L'suanl's
Martyrology.
The Sepulehre of St Cornelius. 177
one vast necropolis was not effected without difficulty, owing

to the very different levels at which their principal galleries
had been excavated. The attentive observer who traverses
this portion of the labyrinth which lies between the Papal
Crypt and the tomb of St Cornelius, will not fail to recognise
the point of junction, and will have many opportunities of
appreciating the ingenuity with which the fossors accomplished
their task. He will, not improbably, also be set on thinking
whence it came to pass that St Cornelius should have been Family of St
buried at so great a distance from the other occupants of the Come lus '
Holy See ; and if he happens to know that learned men have
long since fancied that they could discover grounds for sus
pecting some relationship between Cornelius and the Gens
Cornelia, he will note this separate place of burial as a circum
stance seeming to corroborate that suspicion.
At first, perhaps, it may have been suggested by the fact that
this is the only Pope, down to the days of St Sylvester, who bore
the name of any noble Roman family, and it is certainly a re
markable fact that this relationship, supposing it to have existed,
would have connected him with the owners of the very ceme
tery in which, by a singular exception, he was buried, many
very ancient epitaphs having been found here of the Cornelii,
as well as of the Maximi Cacilii. Nor can it be considered
as altogether an unimportant circumstance that the epitaph of
St Cornelius should have been in Latin, whilst all the official his epitaph in
epitaphs, so to call them, of those who were buried in the J'r""^ "as*he
papal vault, were in Greek. It is now an acknowledged fact omcial la»-
guageofthc
that the earliest language of the Church was Greek. St Paul, a Church.
Roman citizen, writes in Greek to the Christians of Rome.
So does St James " to the twelve tribes which are scattered
abroad." The Apostolic Fathers, the apologists and histor
ians of the early Church, and her greatest theologians, wrote
and spoke Greek. The proceedings of the first seven Coun
cils were carried on in the same language. Nor did Western
Christendom lay it aside, even in her ritual and liturgy, as
M
soon as it ceased to be a generally-spoken tongue. Roman
sacramentaries, even of the seventh century, will be found in
which the responses are made first in Greek, and then repeated
in a Latin translation ; and to this day this ancient use of the
Greek language has left a deep impress on our own, in all
ecclesiastical terms, such as hymn, psalm, liturgy, homily,
catechism, baptism, eucharist, priest, bishop, and pope.*
Sepulchre of The Latin inscription, therefore, on the grave of St Cor-
St Cornelius. ,. ... ,
nehus was certainly a departure from the ordinary practice
of that age ; quite as much so as the fact of his burial in a
place apart from the rest of his order. And when we come to
examine the grave itself, we find this, too, was not of the usual
kind, nor was its position such as we should have expected for
the grave of a martyr pope. It was neither one of the com
mon loculi with which the galleries or the walls of the cubicula
are pierced, and which, as we have seen, served for the tombs
of most of the other popes, nor is it precisely an arcosolium
or altar-tomb of a chapel. Indeed, there is no regular chapel
here at all, but only a gallery of unusual width, in a corner of
which a large grave has been excavated, of dimensions suffi
cient to receive three or four bodies, and in shape not unlike
the grave of an arcosolium, but with the difference that has
been pointed out before as a token of greater antiquity, viz.,
that the space above the grave is rectangular, not circular.
There is no trace of any slab having been let into the wall to
lie flat on the surface of the grave. We may conclude, then,
that the body of the pope was buried in a sarcophagus which
once occupied this empty space, and that its top served as the
mensa or altar. A close examination, both of the architecture
and the inscriptions in the neighbourhood of this tomb, will
satisfy us that it was made on a lower level than that of the
surrounding galleries, and at a somewhat later period. Some
of the older tombs are partially blocked up by the pilasters
which flank the tomb of the pope, yet these pilasters are of
* History of Classical Education, p. 3.
The Sepulehre of St Cornelius. I 79
very great antiquity, probably of the same date as the tomb
itself. They are covered with the finest stucco, the same as
once covered the inner sides also of the excavation in which
we suppose the sarcophagus to have been placed ; much finer,
and much older, therefore, than that which appears above,
upon the arches made by Damasus to support the luminare.
Both above and below the opening of the tomb are frag- Fragments of
,, , , , ,, .,, „ . „ . inscriptions in
ments of large slabs of marble, still adhering to the wall, and crypt of St
containing a few letters of what were once important inscrip- (-'ornellus-
tions. The upper one was unquestionably the work of Dama
sus. The letters of the lower, though strongly resembling the
Damasine type, yet present a few points of difference, suffi
cient to warrant the conjecture of De Rossi that they were
executed by the same hand, designedly introducing slight varia
tions, to mark that it did not belong to the numerous class of
monuments set up by the devotion of that pontiff. Of the
upper inscription, eight or ten fragments remain, enabling us
to read with certainty the latter halves of seven hexameter
lines. Of the lower one, which was written in much larger
type, two fragments only remain, containing the first letter of
the first line, and the first two letters of the last two lines,
together with the bottoms of the six last letters of all. Of
the second line we have recovered nothing.
At first sight it might seem madness to attempt the complete Attempt to
restoration of these two inscriptions—certainly of the latter— vh^'^6
on the strength of such slender data as these ; yet the attempt
has been made by De Rossi, and the result is such as to com
mend itself with very great force to all who have given due con
sideration to the subject. We must not detain our readers by
repeating De Rossi's most interesting account of his many
and laborious efforts, which for so long a time proved utterly
fruitless, and of the happy inspiration which at length cleared
away all his difficulties, and furnished him with a clue deliver
ing him from the labyrinth in which he was entangled. But
we cannot resist the occasion of transcribing the epitaphs as
i8o Roma Sotterranea.
he supposes them to have been originally written. The differ
ence of type will distinguish the conjectured restorations from
the parts that are certain, and, in estimating their degree of pro
bability, the reader must remember two things ; first, that in
scriptions of this kind were engraved with such exquisite
mathematical precision that no emendations can be admitted
which would materially increase or diminish the number of
letters in each line : and, secondly, that Damasus was in the
habit of repeating himself very frequently in his epitaphs, and
that several of De Rossi's restorations reproduce some of his
favourite expressions and forms of speech. Had the following
epitaph been found in some ancient MS., we are confident
that no critic would have seen any reason to question its
genuineness—
" ASPICE, DESCENSU EXSTRUCTO TESEBRISQUE FVGATIS
CORNELI MONUMENTA VIDES TUMULUMQUE SACRATUM
HOC OPUS .BOROTI DAMASl PR.ESTASTIA FECIT,
ESSET UT ACCF.SSUS MELIOR, POPULISQUE PARATUM
AUXILIUM SANCTI, F.T I'ALEAS SI FUXDERE PURO
CORDE PRECES, DAMASUS MELIOR CONSURGERE POSSET,
QUEM NON LUCIS AMOR, TE.WIT MAGE CURA LA BORIS."
" Heboid ! a way down has been constructed, and the darkness dis
pelled ; you see the monuments of Cornelius, and his sacred tomb. This
work the zeal of Damasus has accomplished, sick as he is, in order that
the approach might be better, and the aid of the saint might be made con
venient for the people ; and that, if you will pour forth your prayers from
a pure heart, Damasus may rise up in better health, though it has not been
love of life, but care for work, thai has kept him [here below]."
If this reading be correct, it would follow that Damasus
made his usual additions of a luminarc, and a more com
modious staircase perhaps to this tomb of St Cornelius, at
a time when he was suffering from severe illness, so that his
life was considered in danger, and this harmonises exactly
with what De Rossi would suggest as a probable restoration
of the second epitaph, viz. :—
"SIRIUUS PERFECIT OPUS
CONCLUSIT ET ARCAM
JMATMORE CORNEL! QUONIAM
PIA MEMliRA tCE.TF.NTAT."
" Siricius completed the work, and enclosed the shrine with marble, for
it contains the sacred remains of Cornelius."
Of course, this restoration is much more purely conjectural

than the preceding one ; nevertheless, those who know De
Rossi best, will be the least inclined to pass over slightingly
even his very lightest conjecture. He is so modest in making
them, and so careful not to over-estimate them when made,
whilst yet subsequent discoveries have, in so many instances,
confirmed them to the utmost, that we feel almost the same
confidence in his hints and guesses at truth, as we do in the
most positive assurances of some other writers on similar
subjects.
This same tomb of St Cornelius will supply us with an Frescoes of St
example of his power of happy conjecture, confirmed with st°Cyprian."
certainty by subsequent discoveries. He had often publicly
expressed his confident expectation of finding at the tomb of
St Cornelius some memorial of his cotemporary and corre
spondent, St Cyprian. These two saints were martyred on the
same day, though in different years ; and their feasts were,
therefore, always celebrated together, just as they are now, on
the 1 6th of September, all the liturgical prayers for the day
belonging equally to both ; and the celebration was held at
this spot in the cemetery of St Callixtus, as the most ancient
calendars and missals assure us—e.g., in the Eucherian calen
dar, so often quoted, we read xviii. Kal : Oct: Cypriani,
Africa ; Roma celebratur in Callisti, and in an old codex of
the Roman liturgy, on the same day, Natale SS. Cornelii et
Cypriani, via Appia in Callisti* Now De Rossi had found
in one of his old guides, to which he had been so much
indebted, an extraordinary misstatement, viz., that the bodies
both of St Cyprian and St Cornelius rested in the same ceme
tery (of St Callixtus), though even this was told in such a way
as almost to betray the truth that the name of St Cyprian had
* Sec also S. Leo. M. Op. ed. Ballerini II. p. 96.

been added by a later copyist.* He was satisfied that this

blunder had not been made without a cause, but that the
pilgrim or copyist had been led into error by something lie
had seen at the tomb of St Cornelius. And here, on the
re-discovery of the tomb, the cause stands at once revealed.
Immediately on the right hand side of the grave are two large
figures of bishops,t painted on the wall in the Byzantine style,
with a legend by the side of each, declaring them to be St
Cornelius and St Cyprian. Of course this had not been the
first ornamentation which this wall received. It is still possible
to detect traces of more ancient painting, and even ofgraffiti
upon it, underlying this later work. When the later work was
executed, it is hard to determine with certainty. Each of the
bishops carries the book of the Gospels in his hands, and is
habited in pontifical vestments, even including the pallium,
which had not yet been confined as a mark of distinction to
metropolitans. If we compare it, however, with the other
specimen of a pallium which we saw at the grave of St Cecilia
on the figure of St Urban, we shall observe a difference, which
is of value as a note of chronology. Here there is but one
cross marked upon the pallium, and that on the lower extre
mity in front. On St Urban there are crosses also on the
shoulders, which are nowhere found on paintings or mosaics
earlier than the tenth century. Nor is this the only note of
higher antiquity which may be recognised on these paintings
at the tomb of St Cornelius ; the whole style of art is mani
festly superior to that at the tomb of St Cecilia. Indeed, the
force and dignity expressed in the head of St Cyprian would
lead us to assign to it a much earlier date, did not other
indications seem to point with some degree of certainty to the
beginning of the ninth century. These indications are chiefly
to be noted in the painting on the other side of the tomb, on
the wall at the end of the gallery. Here, too, are the figures
of two other bishops, executed in the same style, each having
* Seepage 112. " Cornelius et Cyprianus dormil." t Plate V.
The Sepulchre of St Cornelius. 183
been originally designated by his own proper name and title,
though only one can now be deciphered. That one stands
plainly scs xvstvs pp rom ; the name of the other began with
O. It is extremely probable that this was St Optatus, a saint
whom we have had occasion to mention before; whom we
know from other sources to have been buried in the same
cemetery with St Sixtus ; who was venerated in the Western
Church, on the 27th November, down to the ninth century or
later ; whose name may still be seen on the tablet recording
the translation of relics in the basilica of Sta Prassede, but of
whose real history nearly all traces have now been lost. The
scs xvsrvs is, of course, the second pontiff of that name, whose
connexion with this cemetery has been already explained ; and
the title pp rom is the same that we find given to other popes
down to the middle of the ninth century or later, the name
Papa not having been yet confined to the bishops of Rome.*
It is found, for example, in one of the pictures lately dis
covered in the subterranean of San Clemente, as the title of
Leo IV., a.d. 847 ; and in the presbytery of Sta Sabina, of
Eugenius II., a.d. 824. It is to Leo III., a.d. 795-815, that
we would attribute the paintings we are now examining. It is
expressly recorded of him in the Liber Pontificalis that " he
renewed the cemetery of Sts Xystus and Cornelius on the
Appian Way;" and the legend which runs round these por
traits has a singular significance, if we consider it as the work
of this pontiff. There is some difficulty in deciphering the
latter part of the legend ; but the earlier portion is clearly
taken from the 17th verse of the 58th Psalm, and runs thus—
" Ego autem cantabo virtutem t Tuam et exaltabo misericordiam
Tuam quia factus es et susceptor mens." . ..." I will sing Thy
strength, and will extol Thy mercy, for Thou art become my
support ; " and these words of thanksgiving would have been
* See Ducange, Gloss, in Verb.

t The Vulgate has here fortitudiium, hut the version used in the Roman
Church in older times had virtutem. See Tomasi Opp. t. ii. p. 108.
Roma Sotterranca.
specially appropriate in the mouth of one who had suffered

such extraordinary contradictions, calumnies, and misfortunes
as Leo had, and had then been almost miraculously delivered
out of the hands of his enemies, through the instrumentality of
the Emperor Charlemagne. We can hardly doubt, then, that
we have here some of that work of " renovation of the ceme
tery of St Xystus and St Cornelius," which his biographer
attributes to him.
Pillar in crypt The ]ow round block or pillar which stands by the side of
of St Come- . .
lius. Cornelius' tomb, and immediately before his picture, was much
older than the time of Leo III., though we cannot say with
certainty that it was made cotemporaneously with the tomb
itself, as we can of similar pillars in some other parts of the
Catacombs. For this is not made out of the natural rock, as
they are, but is a construction of masonry, covered with a
somewhat coarse cement. I)e Rossi conjectures that it may
at one time have supported the mensa, or altar, necessary for
the celebration of the holy mysteries, which (we gather from
Prudentius) * was not always directly over the body of the
martyr, but only somewhere in the immediate neighbourhood.
Ordinarily, however, no doubt, there was placed here, as else
where at the martyrs' shrines, one of those large shallow vases,
full of oil and precious unguents, with which the floating wicks
of papyrus were always fed in these holy places, and from
which the faithful were wont to carry off some few drops as a
precious relic of the saint. Among the relics collected by
John the Deacon, for the Lombard Queen Theodelinda, one
ex oleo S. Cornelii must have come from this very place ; and,
in fact, many fragments of a vase, saturated with some unctuous
substance, have been collected from among the rubbish accu
mulated at this spot.
Graffiti. Of the graffiti upon the painting of St Cornelius we have
nothing special to commemorate. They are not old and
affectionate prayers, but the mere record of ecclesiastical
* In Tlippolvt. 171 175. Sec Note E in Appendix.
names and titles, of men who either came here to offer the
holy sacrifice, or to assist those who did ; or, perhaps, once
for all, to take part in the translation of the sacred relics.
They are such as these, " Leo prb., Pctrus prb., Thcodorus prb.,
Kiprianus Diaconus," &c. &c. Another and far more ancient
graffito under the neighbouring archway runs in this wise, " Sctus
Cerealis et Sallustia cum xxi. ; " and although we know abso
lutely nothing of their history, yet it is interesting to have
recovered even this scanty notice of the existence of these
martyrs, thereby corroborating the statement of one of the
ancient guide-books, which placed their subterranean shrines
somewhere near to St Cornelius. This graffito is certainly of
great antiquity, though it is impossible to fix its precise date ;
were it not for the contracted prefix of Sctus, De Rossi would
have been almost tempted to look upon it as an original and
cotemporary memorial of the martyrdom.
KlG. 19. —Fwu' on -Mall ofancient crypt in Cemetery ofSt Lncina.

BOOK IV.
CHRISTIAN ART.
CHAPTER I.
THE ANTIQUITY AND ORIGINAL TYPES OF CHRISTIAN ART.

T he antiquity <T^HE subiect of early Christian art has been unhappily the
of ( hnstian |
paintings. -L battle-field of such violent religious disputes, that it is
hard to gain an impartial hearing for any history that may be
given of the ancient decorations of the Roman Catacombs.
And this difficulty has increased rather than diminished in the
last few years ; because the paintings that have been lately
discovered have obliged Catholic writers to claim still more
strongly than before the voice of antiquity as bearing un
equivocal testimony to their own teaching and practice upon
this important point.
Opinions of Up to the end of the last century, it had been generally
1) Aijineourt, .....
Kaoul Ro- supposed that Christianity in the first ages had looked upon
Tr^-6' j painting with a very jealous eye, because of its prostitution in
others. pagan hands to purposes of idolatry and licentiousness. And
when D'Agincourt, writing about the year 1825, ventured to
assign a few of the paintings he had seen in the Catacombs to
a very early date, they were considered rather as exceptions
than examples of the general rule. Twenty years later, Raoul
Rochette spoke more confidently. He averred that the lan
Types of Christian Art. 187
guage of Tertullian, always a violent and somewhat exagger
ated writer, had been misunderstood ; that, whereas he was
only censuring a particular abuse of the art which deserved
censure, he was generally quoted as having altogether pro
scribed it ; and he concluded by saying, that " the question
whether it entered into the views and principles of the primi
tive Church to authorise the execution of such paintings has
been long since decided,—for the Christian by the authority
of the Church, and for the antiquarian by the study of monu
ments." * Within the last few years, however, the standard
of knowledge respecting art and its history has been much
changed, and we may now claim with confidence almost
apostolic antiquity for some of the existing specimens of
Christian painting.
It was said by Niebuhr that ancient art had ceased before
Christianity began ; and it has been the fashion with most
writers upon the subject, to cry down the paintings of the
Catacombs as " poor productions, in which the meagreness of
invention is only equalled by the feebleness of execution." t
P>ut Niebuhr's dictum was certainly an exaggeration, and these
writers have generally shown that they are not very intimately
acquainted with what they so confidently condemn. Thus
Lord Lindsay himself, in the very passage from which we
have quoted, speaks of the Catacombs as " for the most part
closed up and inaccessible," and " the frescoes, obliterated by
time and destroyed." But this is by no means true of the
Catacombs as they now are ; and since the recent discoveries
in them, later writers have taken a higher and truer estimate
both of the antiquity and of the value of the specimens of art
they contain. Kugler, in the later editions of his " Handbook
of Painting," complains that the engravings taken of the
Catacomb pictures in former days give no adequate concep
tion of their style. He says that " as regards the distribution
* Tableau des Catacombs Romaines, 162, 1 76, &c., ed. Bruxelles, 1837.
t Lord Lindsay's Sketches of the History of Christian Art, i. 39.
Roma Sotterranea.
of the spaces and mode of decoration, they approach very near

to the wall-paintings of the best period of the empire ; that the
light arabesques remind us of the paintings at Pompeii, and
in the Baths of Titus," &c. * De Rossi, fully conscious of the
delicate nature of the subject he is handling, yet does not
hesitate to claim the first century, or the earliest part of the
second, as the true date of some paintings in the crypts of St
Lucina, in the cemetery of St Domitilla, and elsewhere ; others
again, he attributes to the middle and end of the second
century, or beginning of the third ; and he sets aside the
objections of Protestants or others, as being sufficiently dis
posed of by the facts of the case. " It may be asked," he
says, " whether it is credible that the faithful, in the age of the
apostles or of their disciples, when the Church, fresh from the
bosom of the image-hating synagogue, was in deadly conflict
with idolatry, should have so promptly and so generally adopted
and (so to speak) baptized the fine arts ? " And he answers,
that so grave a question deserves to be discussed in a special
treatise ; but that, for the present, he " will only say that the
universality of the pictures in the subterranean cemeteries, and
the richness, the variety, the freedom of the more ancient
types, when contrasted with the cycle of pictures which I
clearly see becoming more stiff in manner and poor in concep
tion towards the end of the third century,—these things prove
the impossibility of accepting the hypothesis of those who
affirm the use of pictures to have been introduced, little by
little, on the sly, as it were, and in opposition to the practice
of the primitive Church. "t And again, " The flourishing con
dition of the fine arts in the days of the Plavii, of Trajan, of
Hadrian, and of the Antonines, and the great number of their
professors in the metropolis of the empire, the conversion to
the faith of powerful personages, and even of members of
imperial families, such as Domitilla and Flavius Clemens,
certainly very much favoured the introduction and develop-
* Paj,'c 14, ed. Sir C. Eastlakc, 1851. + Roma Sou., i. 196, 197.
Types of Christian A rt. 1 89
ment of Christian pictorial art. And, on the contrary, the

decline of those same fine arts in the third and fourth cen
turies ; the increasing cost of the handiwork of the painter and
the sculptor, as their numbers diminished every day; the gradual
but continuous impoverishment of public and private fortunes,
which induced even the senate and the emperors to make their
new monuments at the expense of others more ancient, all
this could not much facilitate the multiplication of new works
of Christian art during that period ; so that, even if the faith
ful had gained in proselytes, in power, and in liberty, they lost
quite as much, if I may say so, in the conditions required for
the flourishing of Christian art.''
Le Normant, Welcker, De Witte, and other French and Protestant tes-
,, . . ,. .... . timony to the
German critics, confirm this judgment in the strongest same effect.
manner;* and even the most bitter anti-Catholic writers of
our own country have been obliged to yield to the weight of
evidence which can now be adduced in its support, though, of
course, they have their own way of accounting for it. " The
early Christians ornamented their subterranean cemeteries,"
writes one of these,t " not because it was congenial to the
mind of Christianity so to illustrate the faith, but because it
was the heathen custom so to honour the dead ; " that is to
say, the Pagans had been wont to ornament with painting their
vaults or sepulchral chambers, and the Christians did the same,
seeing no reason why they should not. The fact that these
sepulchral chambers were used also for purposes of religious
worship presented no difficulty to their minds. At first, they
even used many of the same devices for mural decoration as
the Pagans had used, always excepting anything that was
immoral or idolatrous ; introducing, however, here and there,
as the ideas occurred to them, something more significant of
* Le Normant considered some of the paintings in St Domitilla's ceme
tery to be of the same style w ith those in the well-known pyramidical tomb
of Caius Sextins. B.C. 32. Welcker attributed the paintings in the crypts
of St Lucina to the first century.— R. S. i. 321 ; Bullett. 1863, p. 3.
t Letters from Rome, by Rev. W. Buigon, p. 250.
their own creed, until by and by the whole was exclusively

Christian. Hence it is hardly an exaggeration to say, with
the same Protestant writer, that in some of the most ancient
chapels of the Catacombs " you are not certain for a few
moments whether you are looking on a Pagan or a Christian
work." There is the same geometrical division of the roof,
the same general arrangement of the subjects, "the same
fabulous animals, the same graceful curves, the same foliage,
fruit, and flowers, and birds in both ; " presently you detect
a figure of the Good Shepherd occupying the centre compart
ment of the composition, or the figure of a woman in prayer,
or of Daniel in the lions' den, (see Plate VI.) or some other
well-known Christian symbol, and you are at once satisfied as
to the religion of the art you are studying.
The birth and It is a remark of Raoul Rochette, that " un art nc s'improvise
growth of " , , , . . , .
Christian art pas" and that it was no more in the power of the early Chris-
natural. tians to invent a new imitative language in painting than it
was to produce at once a new idiom of Greek or latin. No
doubt this is quite true ; but just as new ideas require new
words to express them,—and in this way Christianity has
made most important changes in the language of every country
where it has gained a footing,—so they require new forms in
art, or at least modifications of old forms ; and these would
naturally go on increasing day by day until at length a whole
cycle of Christian subjects would be created, departing more
and more widely from those which were familiar to the
heathen, and finally, perhaps, excluding them altogether.
This seems to be the natural and necessary order of things ;
and it at once illustrates and explains an observation which
has been sometimes made, as though it were something
strange, that we do not recognise in the history of Christian
art the first efforts of imitation common to the nations of
antiquity,—beginning in rude and formless essays, the result
of indistinct notions, and advancing step by step towards
excellence ; but rather, on the contrary, find the earliest speci
mens of the art to be the best, if not always in conception, yet

certainly in execution. For the Christians were not a new
and distinct nation, either geographically or politically ; they
were indeed "a holy nation, a purchased people,"* knit
together by the closest bonds of a supernatural charity, but
they were made up of persons gathered out " of all nations
and tribes and peoples and tongues ;"t and they nowhere
refused to avail themselves of anything that was good, useful,
or beautiful, among the gifts or occupations of those amongst
whom they lived. Whereas, then, " the creatures of God had
heretofore"—(by painting as well as by other means) —" been
turned to an abomination to the souls of men, and a snare to
the feet of the unwise," % He, " who had now become visible
expressly that through Him we might be led to the love of
things invisible," § did not forbid His Church to avail herself
of the pictorial art as a means of rendering spiritual things
sensible, and thereby moving and instructing the minds of
men.
It is not necessary that we should suppose the action of
the Church in this matter to have been at first conscious and
deliberate. Rather, the birth and earliest growth of Chris
tian art was wholly spontaneous, the natural fruit of the cir
cumstances in which the Christians of those days found them
selves ; and it was only after the lapse of two or three centuries,
that the violent invasion of her sanctuaries, by pagan perse- its progress
cutors, obliged the Church to interfere by legislation with the perseTution^6
natural progress and development of the art. Then it was
that the famous canon of the Council of Elvira was passed, Canon of
which forbad || " pictures to be placed in a church, or that ^'î'ai>
which is worshipped and adored to be painted on the walls." 303, explained.
This disciplinary enactment was, as Raoul Rochette happily
* 1 Pet. ii. 9. t Apoc. vii. 9.
% Wisdom xiv. II. § Prcef. Missx in Nativ. Dom.
| " Placuit picturas in ccclesia esse non debete, nec quod colitur et ado-
ratur in parietibus depingatur."— Cone. 1Mb. can. 36. Count de Broglie
interprets this canon as forbidding any but symbolical paintings.
192 Roma Sotlerranca.
expresses it, " toute accidentelle, toute de circonstance" Not only
had the churches above ground been often violently entered,
and some of them destroyed by order of the emperors before
the time when this decree was made, but the heathen soldiery
had penetrated even the most hidden sanctuaries of the faith
ful in the depths of the earth ; and there was only too much
reason to fear that the sacred subjects painted on the walls,
often under almost unintelligible symbols, would be turned
into ridicule, after the fashion of the blasphemous caricature of
the crucifixion, lately found on the walls of Caesar's palace.
This explanation of the decree is naturally suggested by the
circumstances of the time when it was passed. It is also sup
ported in the most striking way by all the facts which recent
excavations in the Catacombs have brought to our knowledge.
Even thirty years ago, the same author from whom we have
just quoted could say with truth, " Le fait vient id a Vappui du
raisonnement;'' but he had not at his command a tenth part of
the evidence of this statement by which it can be now con
firmed. With our present increased knowledge as to the
chronological succession of the several parts of the Catacombs,
we are able to say with confidence, that whereas those Chris
tian paintings, which critics in art have agreed in considering
the most ancient, have always hitherto been found in the most
ancient parts of the excavations, those chambers (on the con
trary) which belong to the latest period of their history exhibit
but few and poor specimens of decoration, or often have no
vestiges of painting about them at all.
Means of dis- In the course of the following pages, we shall often have
tti'e^datcs'of occasion to speak of the date of this or that painting ; and
paintings. this is a consideration of the utmost importance in deter
mining the value of its testimony in matters of doctrine. It is
manifest, however, that this is a chronological question which
cannot often be brought within very precise boundaries.
Nevertheless, some paintings carry evidence of their chro
nology on their faces, or at least testify to their not having
Types of Christian A rt. 193
been executed previously to such or such a date ; as, for in
stance, all those which exhibit the nimbus, or circular aureole
of glory, round the heads of Christ or of His saints.
This ornament had been used by Pagan artists for the deco- The use o
r 1 <- 1 • • • • 1 nimbus in
ration of their false deities ; but with what meaning does not duced and
clearly appear. It is said to have been first invented among fjjjj"<!}lly
the Egyptians ; thence it passed to the Greeks and Romans,
who, in the days of the empire, placed it even on the heads of
their emperors, in that spirit of fulsome adulation which char
acterised both the art and literature of the period. Thus it
may be seen round the head of Trajan in the triumphal arch
of Constantine, and on a medal of Antoninus Pius. After
wards its use became yet more frequent and common, so that,
finally, it ceased to be looked upon as a token of divinity, and
was considered simply as an artistic ornament, proper to royalty
or other pre-eminence. Hence, in the Christian mosaics of
the fifth century, it was placed not only on the heads of Our
Lord, His Holy Mother, and the angels, but (at Ravenna) on
those of Justinian and his wife Theodora, and at St Mary
Major's in Rome (a.d. 433) even on that of Herod. It is
scarcely possible to define with accuracy the period at which
Christians first began to use it. In the glass cups or plates
found in the Catacombs, of which we shall have to speak later,
it is very rarely to be seen ; and it is generally allowed that
most of these glasses range from the middle of the third to the
middle of the fourth century. In many of them, crowns may
be seen by the side of the saints, being offered to them by
birds, or held in their own hands, but not placed upon their
heads ; in some also Our Lord is represented in the act of
crowning Saints Peter and Paul, or others ; but the nimbus itself
will scarcely be found on a dozen of them altogether. In the
mosaics, on the other hand, which belong to the later age, it is
far otherwise. In those of the church (or mausoleum, which
ever it should be rightly called) of Sta. Costanza, belonging to
the age of Constantine, Our Lord has the nimbus, the apostles
have not. A similar distinction is to be noted in the mosaics
of St Agatha in Ravenna, of the year 400 ; but here Our Lord
has it in its more modern form, enclosing a cross, and on the
head of the angels it is unornamented. The same decorated
form of the nimbus is used on the head of Christ in the mosaics
of Sta. Sabina (a.d. 424) and of St Paul's (a.d. 441), both in
Rome ; where the apostles, evangelists, and others either have
it plain, or none at all. It would seem, then, that it was first
used to distinguish the head of our Lord, then His Holy
Mother and the angels,* next, the apostles and evangelists
(as also the symbolical animals which represented them), and
lastly, the saints in general. Padre Garrucci, S.J., concludes
that in the fifth century Christian artists either used or omitted
it indifferently, but after that time its use became universal.
Martigny,t a more recent and cautious authority, distinguishes
with greater accuracy when he says that it was used for Our
Blessed Lord occasionally before the days of Constantine, and
constantly afterwards ; for the angels, from the beginning of
the fifth century, and universally before the end of the sixth ;
but that it was not till towards the end of the seventh that it
became the rule for all saints indifferently.
Whenever, therefore, we meet with any paintings in the
Catacombs which represent a bishop or martyr with a nimbus
round his head, we know with certainty that they belong to a
period later than the ages of persecution, and, in many in
stances, perhaps to a period considerably later; for as the
Church delighted in venerating the heroes of her past age of
struggle, it was only natural that she should continue to adorn
their tombs as long, at least, as their bodies still reposed in
them. After their translation, such ornamentation would pro
bably not, under ordinary circumstances, be renewed. We
* Dc Rossi says it began to be given to the Blessed Virgin and Saints
Peter and Paul in the fourth century. In the cemetery of St Domitilla, it
is only found on the heads of Christ and St Peter. —Butlctl. 1867, p. 44 ;
Marangani, Acta St Victorini, pp. 39, 40.
t Dictionnaire des Antiquites Chrctiennes, p. 436, in verb. Nimbus.
have already seen some examples of these later paintings at the
tombs of St Cornelius and St Cecilia ; and these may suffice
for specimens of their class.
Another chronological note of easy application, and of some Letters on
use in determining the age of the paintings in the Catacombs, monogram!*16
is the appearance of the letter 55, or of some other letter, or &c-
some form of the cross, on the border of the garments of the
principal figures. In older paintings, the vestments are either
quite plain, or with a few light purple stripes upon them ; and
the practice of ornamenting with these letters does not seem
to have become general until the beginning of the fourth cen
tury, or at least the end of the third.*
In other instances, the presence of the monogram -P, in one
or other of its manifold varieties, may suffice to assure us of
the comparatively recent date of a painting. For although we
do not believe that the invention of this tessera took its origin
from the famous vision of Constantine, yet no certain example
of its use in paintings has yet been discovered before that time.
It is not often, however, that there is need of such palpable Internal evi-
tokens as these to determine the period to which any particular styie. cn'°icc
specimen of ancient Christian art is to be referred. In most of sllh3ect' &c-
cases, its own internal evidence, whether of subject or of style,
is almost or quite sufficient to enable us to distinguish—if not
a work of the age of Trajan, for example, from one of the days
of Hadrian, yet certainly—a work of the first or second century
from one of the third or fourth. For the same differences
which characterise the works of art produced by Pagan hands
during those periods are reflected also, in their degree, in the
paintings of the Catacombs ; and there are not wanting co-
temporary examples which maybe compared with one another.
The skill of the Christian artist always bears a certain propor
tion to the general skill of his cotemporaries ; only the dark
ness of the place and other unfavourable circumstances would
naturally lead us to expect that the execution of his work
* Garrucci, Vetri, &c., p. 112, 113.
would be generally somewhat inferior to that of his fellow-
craftsmen, decorating under imperial patronage the palaces or
temples of the city ; and this expectation is usually, though
not always, justified by a careful examination of the two classes
of paintings.
We cannot, therefore, always trust to the mere internal
evidence of style and the degree of merit in the execution.
We must also take into account the place where the paintings
are found, and the epitaphs or other indications of time in the
neighbourhood. And it is in this respect that the researches
of De Rossi on the history and topography of the Catacombs
have thrown so much new light on the history of ancient
Christian art. Following his guidance, we are able to trace a
certain order and gradual development of Christian painting.
Sketch of the In its first beginnings, it was intent only on creating or select-
o"(Jhristian' mg certam necessary types or figures that might stand for the
art- religious truths it desired to represent. It did not concern
itself to make a complete provision of appropriate accessory
ornaments of its own, but borrowed these without scruple from
the works of the Pagan school, from the midst of which it was
springing forth. The principal figure in the composition, some
biblical or, at least, symbolical subject, gave the religious and
Christian character to the whole. The entourage was then
completed by an abundance of merely decorative figures, freely
imitated from the types of classical Roman art, such as birds,
garlands, vases of fruits or flowers, fantastic heads, winged
genii, personifications of the seasons, &c., and this is the
leading characteristic of the first age of Christian painting.
By and by the cycle of symbolical types grew more rich and
complicated by the addition of the mystical interpretation of
biblical stones, and was used with great skill and freedom
under the direction, it would appear, of learned theological
guides. By the end of the third century, this cycle had
received a fixed traditional form, and was constantly reiterated.
It had become, as it were, consecrated, and Christian art was
almost hieratic in its character, as in ancient Egypt or modern
Greece, so fixed and immovable were its types, "always like
one another, and always unlike nature." But the biblical
histories had now almost superseded the use of symbols.
These had already begun to decline from the middle of the
third century, when the formularies of Christian epigraphy
were gradually developing ; and in the next century, one
might almost say that they disappeared altogether. Towards
the end of the fourth or beginning of the fifth century, the
radical revolution which the conversion of Constantine had
effected in the social and political position of Christians had
set an equally distinct mark upon Christian art. The age of
symbolism has passed away. Scenes from real life are now
introduced. Even the details of bloody martyrdoms are
painted on the tombs or the walls of churches ; and the
liberty and publicity of Christian worship in the basilicas finds
a pleasure in the contrast, suggested by these harrowing repre
sentations.
Our sketch of the history of Christian art will not embrace In apostolic
this development at all ; we confine ourselves to that more
mysterious and interesting form of it which more especially
belongs to Roma Sotterranca, and which the progress of dis
covery enables us day by day more clearly to trace back to
the highest antiquity—almost, if not quite, to apostolic times.
De Rossi speaks of the painting of Our Blessed Lady with the
prophet Isaias in the Catacomb of Sta Priscilla (Plate X.), and
again of the vine on the roof of the entrance to St Domitilla,*
as being probably works of the first century ; the more regular
lines which mark the roof of St Januarius' t chapel in St
l'raetextatus, he attributes to the second, as well as certain
symbolical paintings of the fish carrying a basket,J and lambs
or sheep on either side of a milk-pail § placed on an altar,
which appear on the walls of a cubiculum in the crypt of St
" Fig. 9 in p. 72. t Fig. 1 1 in p. 79.
% Sec Plate XIV. § Fig. 13 in p. 103.
igS Roma Sotterranca.
Lucina, while the great bulk of the biblical paintings through

out the Catacombs are generally allowed to belong to the
third.
Refutation of Before examining these first efforts of Christian art in detail,
the°Pagant° a êw vvords must be said as to the models upon which they
models of were formed. We have already quoted Raoul Rochette's
early Christian
art. words, that no school of art can be created of a sudden,
springing into existence fully formed, like Minerva from the
brain of Jupiter. This writer, however, carried his theory
too far when he insisted that there had been always a direct
positive imitation by the Christians of pagan models, and that
this imitation could be clearly seen, not only in the general
distribution of the whole, but also in all the details of each
composition. He even imagined that they had been, guided in
their selection of subjects for painting by the fact that, of one
there were Pagan models that might be copied, of the other
there were none. The peculiarities of costume, and all the
minor accessories of the painting were, according to him, de
termined by the same cause. Nay, further still, he maintained
that the Christian artists were so servile in their imitation of
these Pagan models, that it even led them astray from the
teaching of their Divine Master, and caused them to introduce
false and unseemly details into their representations of the
most solemn subjects. Thus, they dared to paint a goat
receiving the caresses of the Good Shepherd ; and as this
animal had no place in the sacred parable, but, on the con
trary, was in another parable identified with the wicked, its
presence here could only be accounted for on the supposition
that the artist was imitating, consciously or unconsciously,
some Pagan composition. Again, they often put into the
hands of the same figure the shepherd's reed or pipe, and
this, too, could only be the effect of some reminiscence, at
least, either of the statue of Pan, or of some pagan shepherd.
The ability and pertinacity with which this author insisted
upon his theory, had gained for it a certain measure of accept
ance. Nevertheless, the principal arguments by which it was That theory

supposed to be confirmed being now destroyed, it has of late fr"s"^ °"
years fallen rapidly into disrepute. Raoul Rochette had been ^"°stlc ceme-
misled in part by certain paintings of a semi-Pagan character,
published by Bottari, and by him attributed to a Christian
Catacomb. It is now ascertained that this cemetery was the
work of one of the Gnostic sects, and we are no longer sur
prised at the mixture of Paganism and Christianity which it
exhibits ; e.g., Pluto and Proserpine, under the names of Dis-
pater and Abracura ; the Divine Fates, and Mercury as the
messenger of the gods, carrying off the soul of the deceased
in a chariot drawn by four horses, and descending with it into
some abyss in the middle of the earth. In the genuine paint
ings of the Christian Catacombs, nothing whatever of this
kind has ever been found. The only mythical personage who
appears there in paintings is the Thracian Orpheus,* charming Christ as Or-
the wild beasts by his lyre, a figure which was very popular in the The "hepheTd's
first centuries of the Christian era, being often repeated on PiPe of reeds-
medals of Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, which were
struck at Alexandria. Moreover, we are told that Alexander
Severus placed in his Lararium statues or pictures of Apol-
lonius of Thyane, and of Christ, of Abraham, and of Orpheus.
There was nothing far-fetched, then, in the resemblance which
some of the Fathers delighted to trace between Christ and the
Thracian bard. His taming of the wild beasts was taken as
a faint shadow of our Lord's softening the hard hearts of men
by the persuasive sweetness of His preaching.
It was precisely for the same reason that the syrinx, or pipe,
was placed in the hands of Christ as the Good Shepherd. It
was no thoughtless or profane adaptation of one of the insignia
of Pan. In fact, it very rarely appears in the most ancient
paintings, when such imitation, according to the theory we are
combating, was most to have been expected, but, being an
ordinary adjunct of all shepherds, it had a special significance,
* Sec Plate XI.
200 Roma Sotterrauea.
a certain dogmatic value, when applied to the chief " Shepherd
and Bishop of souls."* The pastoral staff itself was even
named by St Gregory Nazianzen i vwfittiti irjsiy? • and another
early Christian writer has said, " I know that shepherds who
are skilled in their art seldom use their crook or staff, but lead
their sheep by the pipe."t It was, in fact, only another way
of setting forth the same truth as our Lord expressed when He
said that " the sheep follow their shepherd because they know
his voice."J So far, then, from the presence of the pipe in the
hands of Christ being an anomaly, due to some Pagan artist
or model, and so requiring explanation, it denoted an essen
tial feature of the pastoral character, so that Christians could
hardly have failed to introduce it in process of time, even if it
had never been painted before. We need not pursue this sub
ject any further now, though it may be necessary to recur to it
again hereafter. At present we will only express our convic
tion that it would not be difficult to find similarly simple, yet
complete, explanations of every particular by which M. Raoul
Rochette seeks to confirm his theory. And, at any rate, it is
quite certain that, however closely Christianity may have imi
tated the traditions and examples of the Greco-Roman school
in which their first education had been received, their fidelity
to those traditions was united with a most scrupulous and en
lightened wisdom, for they never failed to eliminate from their
imitations everything which was really inconsistent either with
the doctrines or the convenances of the Christian religion. All
figures or scenes of a really polytheistic signification remained,
throughout the whole of the first three centuries, carefully
proscribed from all their monuments.
Division of The Christian paintings of that period have been divided
liaintinghito mto six classes ! an^ although these classes are of very unequal
six cla-ses. extent and importance, and it will be found practically impossible
to keep them quite distinct in treatment, yet the division is
worth remembering, and may serve to impress upon our minds
* I Peter ii. 25. t Sec (;arrucci, Vetri. &c., p. 63. % St John x. 4.
Types of Christian A rt. 20 1
the main characteristics of the subject. The first and largest

class of paintings, then, may be called symbolical, as merely
expressing, under pictorial emblems, religious thoughts or
ideas. The second we will call allegorical ; they represent,
more or less accurately, some of the parables of the Gospel.
The third is of biblical histories, either from the Old or New
Testaments. Fourthly, we will speak of sacred pictures of Our
Divine Lord, of His Holy Mother and the saints; then of
scenes from the lives of the saints, or the history of the
Church ; and lastly, of scenes from the Liturgy.
Such is L)e Rossi's division of this part of our subject, in
which, however, it must be remembered that we shall not
have the advantage of his direct and immediate guidance
so entirely as we have hitherto had. The main object of his
work is to give a topographical, historical, and chronological
edition of all the monuments of each Catacomb. It is not a
treatise on Christian epigraphy, nor art, nor symbolism, yet,
incidentally, it gives abundant valuable information on all
these subjects, and we shall seldom have occasion to quote
any other authority than his as to the teaching of Roma Sot-
terrarua upon any of them.
Fh 20 — The deed Shepherd in the centre ofthe eeiliue ofone ofthe most
mit lent cubieula in the t'lypts ofSt Luttna.
CHAPTKR II.
SYMBOLICAL PAINTINGS.
Symbolism Y symbolical paintings we mean those in which the object

explained.
set before the eye is not depicted for its own sake, but
in order to convey to the mind some further idea
beyond itself, yet connected with it either naturally or by
convention. The interpretation, therefore, of symbolical paint
ings is a work of care and delicacy. It requires both learning,
prudence, and integrity ; and it has been so often abused and
made a field for the unlimited indulgence of the imagination,
that many persons, not unreasonably, are inclined to listen
with profound mistrust to any specimen of it that may come
before them. It has even been wittily described as a system
in which " anything or nothing may be made to mean every
thing."
Nevertheless, it is quite certain that symbolism has always
held a very prominent place in the history of art, and not
least at the very period with which we are most concerned.
Kugler, in speaking of Roman art at this time, says, that
" instead of directly denoting the object represented, the
forms of art had now become the mere exponents of an
abstract idea ; in other words, symbols of a more compre
hensive character. Instead of influencing the feelings, they
now engaged the thought ; " and although we do not see
any authority for his statement that " it was the dread of
idolatry which introduced and consecrated in Christian art a
system of merely typical representation," yet he is certainly
Symbolical Paintings. 203
right in assigning this typical and symbolical character as the
leading feature of the earliest productions of that art. The
question then arises, What are the laws by which we must be
guided in our interpretation of ancient Christian symbols ?
Obviously the truest key to their meaning is to be found in Rules for
anything that will give us certain knowledge of the thoughts lnterPreta loa
and ideas of the artists themselves, or of those amongst whom
they lived, and for whom they worked. A single text from a
Father of the Church, writing about the same time that the
symbols were being painted, or not long afterwards, is infinitely
more valuable and trustworthy as a guide than a whole volume
of hypothetical suggestions, however ingeniously invented, and
speciously supported by the arguments of some modern com
mentator. And in proportion to the number and clearness of
the texts that can be quoted, or the position and weight of
their author, will be the certainty of the interpretation which
they support. For instance, an apparent agreement between
some passage in an obscure ecclesiastical author of the ninth
century, and some Christian painting of the second or third,
would not suffice to assure us of any real identity of meaning
between them ; the agreement might be merely fortuitous.
Kut if, on the contrary, a witness or witnesses can be pro
duced, cotemporary with the artists, or with their predecessors
perhaps, who had helped to form that school and atmo
sphere of thought in which the artists lived ; if it can be
shown that certain ideas and modes of thought and expression
were dominant in the Christian world at such a time, and
formed a part of the common intellectual property (so to
speak) of the faithful, we cannot hope to find a surer guide
in the interpretation of the works of art of the same period.
Thus, when an Anglican controversialist appeals to the picture Instance of
of a dove or doves drinking out of a vase, as an argument interpretation
from primitive antiquity against " withholding the cup from the
laity" in the administration of the Holy Eucharist, intelligent
and careful readers must feel at once that he is doing violence
to the monuments he is professing to interpret ; he is guilty of
a flagrant anachronism, carrying back to the early ages a
controversy which had not then been dreamt of. Contrari
wise, if a writer, interpreting the numerous paintings of the
Good Shepherd, should insist upon certain details in its
execution, such as the frequent introduction of a goat in
stead of a sheep, as having been intended to denote the
infinite mercy of Christ in receiving even sinners to repent
ance, his explanation receives immense support from the
well-known language of Tertullian and others of the Fathers,
and from the general testimony of history as to the earliest
subjects of dispute in the Christian Church.
The sense, then, of the various symbols used in the deco
ration of the graves and chambers of the Roman Catacombs
must be determined, not by the shrewd conjectures of the
learned, nor by the distorted reasonings of the controversialist,
but by the strictest rules of argument and testimony ; by a
comparison of the various ornaments, first with one another,
and then with inscriptions written only in words ; by appeals
also to Holy Scripture, and to the writings of the early Fathers.
Where these fail us, or seem to be inconsistent and therefore
inconclusive, we must be content to hold our judgment in
suspense, and to await the discovery of further monuments
which may throw fresh light on our obscurity. In the mean
while, there are at least some symbols on which we may speak
without fear of contradiction.
Anchor, Thus, St Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews,* and the instruction
hope °\ "{ of St Clement of Alexandria,t are sufficient to show us that the
anchor, a symbol almost more frequently used in the most
ancient parts of the Catacombs than any other, is a token
expressive of hope, as old as Christianity itself ; and it
confirms us in our belief that the early Christians used it
with this intention, when we observe how commonly it is
found on the gravestones of persons bearing the name of
* llct>. vi. 19. t PeMagog. iii. 106.
Hope, either in its Greek or I-atin form, such as Spes, Elpis,

Elpidius, Rlpisusa, &c., &c. Sometimes the anchor is so
formed, evidently by design, as to suggest to the Christian
eye the idea of the cross,* the very foundation of all
Christian hope ; and this suggestion is still more apparent,
where the trident is substituted, as it sometimes is, for the
anchor.
It cannot be necessary to appeal to any authority beyond
the discourses of our blessed Lord himself, to justify us in say
ing that a lamb or sheep represented one of Christ's fold A sheeP a'lJ .
dove, of living
dove also was often used to denote a Christian soul ; but the and deceased
bird seems more especially to have denoted the soul after it t-hristlans-
had been released from its earthly tabernacle and had entered
into its rest; the sheep, a soul which still "goes in and out
finding pasture " in this life. Of course, the dove was primarily
a type of the Holy Ghost, and we have already seen it so used
in a painting of Our Lord's Baptism. t But this did not in any
way militate against its use in the secondary sense we have
assigned to it. On the contrary, we find not only the same
symbols, but even the same words, used in these two senses.
The Holy Ghost is Spiritus Sanctus, and the same title appears
as the designation of the departed souls of the just man, and
in the plural number, of the saints generally.^ The Holy
Ghost is also called by the Fathers§ a dove without gall, Palum-
bus sine felle; and again and again we find on the gravestones
of the Catacombs the very same words applied to the souls of
the deceased ; especially, in a diminutive form, palumbulus sine
felle, to the souls of young children. Sometimes the dove
itself is engraved side by side with this title, or with others
which resemble it, Anima innocens, auima simplex, " Innocent
soul, simple soul," &c. ; and in one epitaph belonging to a
bisomum, the names of the two deceased are written over the
* See, for example, fig. 12 in p. 82. t See fig. 15 in p. 119.

t In>cr. Christ, ex.
S St Cyprian de Unit. Eccl. ix. ; Tertull. De Baptismu, viii.
heads of two doves, Beneria and Sabbatia.* We must not

however, conclude too hastily, that every bird, either painted
on the walls or carved on the gravestones of these cemeteries,
was meant to represent a dove. Some birds seem to have
been introduced merely as ornaments in the corners of the
vaulted roofs of the chapels, just as they were used by cotem-
porary Pagan artists ; others again, especially those bearing a
palm-branch in their mouths, seem not improbably to have
been intended for the phoenix or " palm-bird," t the well-known
emblem of immortality. The phoenix, however, was never in
such common use in Christian art, especially of the second and
The dove third centuries, as the dove. Sometimes the dove is drinking
oTherisymbols. out of a vase' or pecking at grapes, as though to denote the
soul's enjoyment of the fruits and refreshing draughts % of
eternal happiness ; still more frequently it bears an olive-
branch in its mouth, and then, as Tertullian says, it is a
symbol of peace, even older than Christianity itself, " the
herald of the peace of Cod from the very beginning.'' § Some
times also the word itself Pax is added, thereby marking the
sense beyond all possibility of dispute; viz., that it is meant
to assert of the soul of the deceased, that it has departed in the
peace of Cod and of His Church.
Sometimes two or more symbols are found united on one
monument, as for instance in fig. i2,|| where the union of
the cross-shaped anchor, the sheep and the dove on the tomb
stone of Faustinianus, seem to proclaim a Christian redeemed
by the cross of Christ, and placing all his hope in it, now
released from the chains of this earthly coil, and in possession
* Ir.scr. Christ, i. 421 ; Bullett., 1864, p. 11,

t The Greek name for this bird and the palm-tree is the same.
J See St Aug. Conf. ix. 3. Speaking of his deceased friend Nebridius, he
says, " Jam ponit spirituale os ad fontem Tuum Domine, et bibit quantum
potest," &c. HIE EN OES2, Drink in God, is found in some epitaphs,
and on diinking-glasses.
§ Adv. Valent. ii., in Jin. ; and I>e Baptismo, c. viii.
|| See page 52.
of the hoped-for peace. Sometimes the symbol was engraved
even after the tombstone was in its place, as in the annexed
figure—
Fig. 21.—Epitaphfrom very ancient part ofCatacomb of St Priscilla.
where perhaps the dove was added by way of correcting, in

some respect, the blunder of the fossor, who had. fixed the
stone with its written name upside down.
The use of the dove as a symbol still remained in the This symbol
r 1 t- i-i • 1, nevei'dropped.
mosaics of the fourth, ruth, and sixth centuries, with the same
mystical meaning, as we learn both from the letters of Paulinus,*
and from some of the monuments themselves which survive,
and in which we see twelve doves sitting in or around the
cross, to represent the twelve Apostles. At a much later period,
in a Spanish MS. of the twelfth century, in the British Museum,
birds flying under the blue vault of heaven have the legend,
Anuna interfectorum$ " the souls of them that were slain.''
Indeed, we may venture to say that this fragment of the
alphabet of Christian symbolism has never been wholly for
gotten or fallen into disuse.
This cannot be said of the fish, which is the next sacred The fish : when
symbol we would mention ; the most important perhaps of all, {Li . as a sym"
and certainly as ancient as any, but whose use grew gradually
less frequent, even as early as in the first half of the third
century, and may almost be said to have ceased altogether .
as soon as the ages of persecution had ended, and the disci
pline arcani was relaxed. This question of the period during
which the symbol was used being of some importance, we will
* S. Paulin. Ep. xii. ad Severum, p. 152, ed. 1622.
t Apoc. vi. 9.
208 Roma Sotterra nca.
say a few more words about it in this place before we go on to

inquire into the mystical meaning of the fish. It appears, then,
that there is no instance of a single fish being used with any-
theological sense on a Christian monument later than the fifth
century. Fishes, indeed, may be found carved at the bottom
of fonts, or on the ambones of Ravenna, in the sixth century.
They also form a part of the mosaic pavement of a Baptistery
at Pesaro, of the age of Justinian, where both the artistic
representation and the legend accompanying it * clearly attest
an allusion to the sacrament of Baptism. But in these and
any similar instances that might be adduced, they seem to be
used chiefly for ornament's sake, and are placed among other
Christian emblems which are quite clear, and not symbolical
at all. But in the older Christian epitaphs and paintings, the
fish stands alone as a manifest token of the Christian faith ;
and we find it so used much more frequently in the second
and third than in the fourth and fifth centuries. Of all the
epitaphs from the Catacombs having dates, it is found on one
only after the date of Constantine, and on one before it.t a.d.
400 and a.d. 234. But it is found on nearly a hundred other
epitaphs which, from various indications, we can refer with
confidence to the first three centuries ; so that, on the whole,
De Rossi considers it quite proved that, whereas we cannot
say how early the mystical use of this emblem began, we are
sure that it had almost, if not altogether, ceased by the begin
ning of the fifth century. It had become extremely rare by
the latter end of the fourth, so that, whereas nearly two thou
sand inscriptions subsequent to Constantine are ornamented
with palms, crowns, birds, sheep, crosses, and monograms,
not one is to be found amongst them bearing the symbol of a
fish.
* " Est homo non totus, medius sed piscis ab imo."
t In estimating this statement, we must remember that we have not
more than thirty dated epitaphs prior to Constantine, and more than
thirteen hundred after him. In the inscription of 234, the fish and the
anchor are found together.
It follows next to inquire in what sense the symbol was used. A symbol
The thoughts of most of our readers would naturally recur to an<j °r a
the parable in which our Lord compares the kingdom 0fchrlstlan-
heaven to a net cast into the sea, and gathering together of
all kinds of fishes ; or again, to the words with which He
called Simon and Andrew to the apostolate, saying " Come
ye after me, and I will make you to be fishers of men." The
idea, however, suggested by these passages, though not un
known either to the Christian liturgies or to Christian art,* was
certainly not the leading idea which directed the use of this
symbol in the early Church. The fish entered into the cycle
of Christian thought and art in primitive times chiefly for two
reasons : first, because Christians owed their new and spiritual
birth to the element of water ; and secondly, because Christ
Himself was commonly spoken of and represented as a fish.
The precise origin of this latter representation may admit of Origin of its
some doubt, but the universality of its use is unquestionable. ™f Christ!"°°'
It can be established by a catena of Fathers, beginning from
St Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Tertullian, in the
second century, down to St Peter Damian, in the eleventh.
It is even believed that it was in use in apostolic times, and
suggested that famous acrostic quoted by Eusebius t and St
Augustine { from the so-called Sibylline verses, which gives
us, by taking the initial letters of so many successive lines,
the Greek words IHSOTC XPEI2TOC ©EOT TIOC 2I1TIIP,
" Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour ;" § and then the initials of
• Nearly all the hymns provided in the Greek Liturgy for the various
feasts of the apostles make some allusion to their vocation as fishers of men ;
they speak of the rod of the cross, the hook of preaching, the bait of charity,
of nations caught likefish. &c., Ike. : and some medixval artists have even
represented a hook and line proceeding from the very Body of our Lord as
He hung upon the cross.— Cahier, Melanges d'Areheol. iv. p. 118.
t Oratio Constant, ad Ccet. Sanct. § 1 8.
* De Civ. Dei, xviii. 23. We know from the testimony of Cicero (De
Divin. ii. c. 54) that acrostics were a characteristic of the Sibylline verses.
§ In the original, the initials of the next lines give the word 2TATPOC,
viz., " Cross." In olden times it was customary in the Church of France tg
O
2 IO Roma Sotterranea.
these several words taken together make up the word IX0T ,

or " fish." We have already said that St Clement of Alexandria
is the earliest witness to the use of this symbol ; and it is by
no means improbable that the schools of Alexandria were
really the first to originate it. The Church of that city was
composed largely of converts from Judaism ; and we know
that nothing was more familiar to the Jews than the habit
of coining names for their leaders or other great men, by means
of a combination of the initial letters of some other names, or
legend, or motto, closely connected with them. The name of
Macchabees, for instance, is said to be made up of the initial
letters of the motto which Judas Macchabeus is supposed to
have ever had upon his lips or on his banners, " Who is like to
Thee among the strong, () Lord ? " *
Instances of Whether, however, the Sibylline verses received their inspira-
its use by the tion from Alexandrine Christians, or whether these verses
rathers in this
sense ; themselves first originated the idea, at any rate we cannot
wonder that when once a mystical meaning had been sug
gested for the word fish, it gained general acceptance in the
Church. It became a sacred tessera, embodying, with wonder
ful brevity and distinctness, a complete abridgment of the
Creed—a profession of faith, as it were, both in the two
natures, and unity of Person, and in the redemptorial office
of Our Blessed Lord. " It contains in one name, by means of
its single letters,'' says Optatus.t "a whole multitude (turbam)
of holy names." Hence St Clement names the fish as one of
several figures that might very properly be used on Christian
seals. Origen speaks simply and without explanation of our
Lord as " figuratively called the fish ; " and in every story of
sing these Sibylline verses in church at Christmas with all the solemnity
they could.—Martenc, De Ant. Ecel. Rit., lib. iv. c. xii. 13.
* Exodus xv. II. See Grotius, Critic. Sac. t. iii. c. 2695. The interpre
tation given in the epistle of Barnabas of the number 318, the servants
born to Abraham in his house (Genesis xiv. 14), is only another example of
the same kind. See a very interesting paper by V. Cahier in his Melanges
d'Archcol. i. 192. t Adv. Parmen. lib. iii.
sacred writ connected with a fish, the early Church recognised
some Christian figure or allusion. " We little fishes," says
Tertullian,* " are born in water after the example of Jesus
Christ our fish." " He descends," says Optatus,t " in bap
tism, in answer to our prayers, into the baptismal font, so that
what before was water is now called from the fish piscina
(a piscc)." "The fish which is first taken," says St Jerome,
" in whose mouth was the coin which was paid as the tribute-
money to those who demanded it, was Christ, the second
Adam, at the cost of whose blood both the first Adam and
Peter, that is, all other sinners, were redeemed." " By that
fish whereof we read, which was caught in the river Tigris,
whose gall and liver Tobias took for the protection of his wife
Sarah and the enlightenment of the blind Tobias, we under
stand Christ." "By the interior remedies of that fish," says
St Prosper of Aquitania,} "we are daily enlightened and fed;"
—words which contain a manifest allusion to the two Sacra
ments of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist.
It would be easy still further to multiply quotations from
the Fathers, showing how familiar to them was this identifica
tion of the fish, wherever it might be found, with Our Blessed
Lord. But such an accumulation of proof is unnecessary.
The important thing to observe is already sufficiently clear,
viz., that all these hidden meanings of Holy Scripture were
derived from the simple fact tacitly assumed by them all, viz.,
that the fish was the recognised conventional sign for Christ.
Hence we find a multitude of little fishes, in crystal, ivory, aml ln monu
ments of art.
mother of pearl, enamel, and precious stones, in the graves of
the Catacombs ;§ some of them with holes drilled through the
head, to be worn round the neck-; one with the word SflCAIC
(" Mayest Thou save us") engraved upon its back ; once, also,
we find a tombstone with a Pagan inscription on either side, but
* Dc Baptismo. t Lib. iii. Adv. l'armen.
t Or the author of the book De /'remiss, et Prcedie. Dei, which goes by
his name, ii. 39. § Bullelt. 1863, p. 38.
2I2 Roma Sotterranea.
now used to close a Christian tomb, and, besides chipping
and cancelling the Pagan epitaph, a fish was roughly cut upon
the stone, as sufficient to claim for it a Christian sense.
The fish sel- Hence, also, we can interpret with certainty a number of
alone various complications of artistic symbols into which the fish
enters. And this is an important test of the truth of our
interpretation. For it is comparatively easy to assign a mean
ing to a single symbol standing alone, since any isolated fact
will often lend itself to several different interpretations. But if
this symbol be found united with others of a similar character,
springing from the same source, but taking a different form,
and if this same meaning suffices to explain them all, it receives
and communicates a light and force quite irresistible, wresting
conviction even from the most unwilling mind. The differences
of the symbols thus brought together mutually illustrate and
perfect one another, and prove as fruitful of instruction as
their resemblances. Together they fix and establish with
certainty, what each, taken separately, may have left only
undetermined and probable. It is in this way that innumer
able questions have been decided in the interpretation of
profane antiquities, and the process is as legitimate and as
successful when applied to Christian antiquities.
Moreover, this test is the more easy of application here,
because it happens that the fish is rarely found quite alone
(either the word or the symbol) in the monuments of the
Roman cemeteries. In more than two-thirds of the numer
ous instances in which it is repeated, it is found in union with
other symbols, and so intimately united with them as mani
festly to have been intended as a part of one whole. Thus, it
is sometimes found in connexion with a ship. In three or four
Used together instances the fish is bearing a ship on its back ; and this com-
with a ship, a , . . „ " „, . • ,,..,.t.„.,
<love, or an bination naturally suggests to us Christ upholding His Church.
anchor. Much more frequently,—in more than twenty epitaphs, for
example, to say nothing of gems, in which these two symbols
arc almost inseparable,— it is found in conjunction with the
anchor; and we understand at once, as plainly as if it had

been written in ordinary letters of the alphabet (as indeed it
often was), Spes in Christo, Spes in Deo, Spes in Deo
Christo, " Hope in Christ," &c. Another combination of the
symbol of the fish is with the dove. This we meet with in nearly
Fig. 22.—Gravestonefrom most ancient part ofSt Priscilla.
twenty instances ; and as we have already seen that this bird

with its olive branch, when found on a Christian gravestone, is
only another mode of expressing the mast common of all
ancient epitaphs, Spiritus [tuus] in pace, " Thy spirit [be, or
is] in peace," so, when the fish is added, we recognise the same
inscription in its longer and fuller form, as we sometimes find
it written also, In pace et in Christo. On some ancient rings
or seals, a lamb or a dove may be seen standing on a fish, repre
senting a Christian soul supported by Christ through the waves
and storms of this world. The fish is found also, either in
figure or in word, with the name of Jesus, or Christ, or the
monogram, or with the Good Shepherd.* These all speak
for themselves and require no comment.
There is another combination, however, of the fish with bread, Fish and
which is the most interesting and important of all Christian
symbols, and it deserves the most careful study. Probably it
will at once occur to the reader to connect these representa
tions with the miracles of multiplying the loaves and fishes,
and sometimes, indeed, there is certain evidence that the
artist intended to allude to those incidents. Even then, how
ever, he nearly always violated the literal truth of the Gospel
* e.g., Fig. 7 in page 55.
story, for the express purpose (as it would seem) of showing

his intention to go beyond the letter, and to penetrate to the
hidden meaning of the text ; to idealise the history, as it
were, and raise it to the height of a symbol. Were it other
wise, we should have no right to speak of it in this place,
but ought rather to reserve the whole subject till we come to
speak of the paintings which represent biblical histories.
But what biblical history can suffice to explain such paintings
as these ?—a fish swimming and carrying on its back a basket
of bread ?—a three-legged table with a large fish and two or
three loaves lying upon it ?-—or the same again, with a man
standing before the table, apparently in the act of blessing
what is upon it, whilst a woman stands opposite, with her
hands expanded in prayer?* If these are not mere caprices
of the artist, it is clear that they must have been intended to
render sensible some doctrine rather than to represent any
fact, since there is no history to which they correspond ; they
were signs of religious ideas and truths, rather than faithful
imitations of facts ; in a word, they were symbolical, or as
Raoul Rochette calls them, ideographical paintings, not histo
rical ; and therefore they find their most fitting place in this
division of our subject. Nevertheless, it will be necessary, for
their full and complete elucidation, that we should first speak
of a painting which is of frequent recurrence in the Catacombs,
and which may be said to be partly historical and partly
symbolical. Its interpretation is provided by the Fathers
themselves.
A particular On the walls of several subterranean chapels there is a
instance of ..... , , , ,,
these symbols painting in which seven men are represented seated at a table,
united (St with bread and fish before them ;t and there is a history in the
John xxi.) '' '
last chapter of the Gospel according to St John, of which it might
be taken as a literal representation. Jesus was manifesting
Himself to His disciples for the third time after His resur
rection, and the evangelist has recorded the circumstances of
* See Tlate XIV. i. 2, 3. t See Tlatc XIII.
the manifestation with great minuteness. Of ourselves we

might not perhaps have noted anything very special in these
circumstances, of such a character as to lay a singular claim
upon the Christian artist above all other manifestations ; never
theless we find, that as a matter of fact it did claim their
attention and occupy their pencil in a pre-eminent degree>
and even to the exclusion of every other history of the same
class. The details of the incident, which it is important for
us to observe, are these. Seven of the disciples had spent
the night in fishing, but had caught nothing. But when the
morning was come, Jesus stood on the shore, and bade them
cast the net on the right side of the ship. They cast there
fore, and were rewarded by a miraculous draught of fishes.
And as soon as they came to land, they saw hot coals
lying, and a fish laid thereon, and bread. And Jesus bade
them bring also of the fishes which they had themselves
caught. And when they had done so, He invited them to
come and dine, and " Jesus cometh and taketh bread and
giveth them, and fish in like manner.*
All thoughtful students of Holy Scripture can hardly fail to Explained of
recognise in this miraculous draught of fishes a prophetic type Eucharist ;
of the success which should attend the labours of the Apostles,
when engaged as fishers of men. Most of them also will pro
bably suspect some connexion between the giving of bread by
Christ to His apostles (not on this occasion only, but on
others also, of His manifestation after His resurrection) with
the taking of bread and giving it them in the institution of the
Holy Eucharist ; more especially, since on one of these occa
sions it is expressly mentioned that " He was made known to
them in the breaking of bread." t The following commentary,
then, of St Augustine on the narrative of St John, ought not to by St Augus-
appear strange or fanciful to any one, even though, in some of
its details, it may chance to be new to many of our readers.
He says that " in the dinner which the Lord made for those
* St John xxi. i j. t St Luke xxiv 35.
seven disciples, of the fish which they had seen laid upon the
coals, to which He added of the fish they themselves had
caught, and of bread, Christ who suffered was really the fish
that was broiled (Pisa's assus, Christus passus) ; He is also the
bread, ' the bread which came down from heaven.' The
Church is the fish caught by the Apostles, which must be
incorporated into Christ, for the participation of everlasting
happiness ; we ourselves, and all true believers to the end of
time, are represented by those seven disciples " (the number
seven being often used in Holy Scripture for completeness or
universality), " that so we may understand that we too have a
share in so great a sacrament, and are associated in the same
happiness." And he concludes—" This is the dinner of our
Lord with His disciples, with which St John finishes his Gospel,
though he had many other things to say about Christ, magna
ut existimo et rerum magnarum contemplationc ;"* as though
he would say, This history forms a suitable conclusion to the
whole Gospel, because it " exhibits a kind of link or transi
tion from Christ's earthly to His heavenly kingdom ; " t inas
much as it sets forth under a veil, or in a mystical manner,
the union of all Christian souls with Christ their Head, first,
by means of the bread from heaven, the Holy Eucharist, in
this world, and then in that yet more intimate enjoyment of
Him in the next world, whereof the sacrament of the altar is
, , at once a pledge and a foretaste. J
and the rest of
the Fathers. We have said that no thoughtful student of Scripture can
justly object to this interpretation of St John's words by the
great Doctor of the West, as though it were the mere fruit of
his own imagination, since it rests upon principles which are
even now universally acknowledged ; but this is far short of
what might have been said. For the truth is, that in the early
ages of the Church no other interpretation of the narrative was
* In Joann. Ev. Tract. 123, sec. 2, tom. iii. p. 2460, ed. Gaume.
t Keble on Eucharistical Adoration, c. ii.
* "In captura piscfum commendavit Ecclesia? Sacramentum, qualis
fulura est ultima resimectionc morluoium."— St dug. uH supra.
' Symbolical Paintings. 217
ever dreamt of. So unanimous is the consensus of the Fathers

in seeing here a mystical representation of the Holy Eucharist,
that Cardinal Pitra can only find a single ancient writer (the
pseudo-Athanasius) who does not so interpret it. We shall
content ourselves with quoting but one testimony. Prosper
Africanus, commenting upon this same part of the Gospels,
speaks of our blessed Lord as " that great Fish who satisfied
from Himself (ex Se Ipso) the disciples on the shore, and
offered Himself as a fish (IX0TN) to the whole world." *
And we must remember that this is not the only passage of
Holy Writ in which the Fathers recognised the Blessed Sacra
ment of the altar under the same symbol. We have already
quoted one who speaks of Christ as " that fish from whose
interior remedies we are both enlightened and fed ;" referring,
of course, to the history of Tobias on the one hand, and to the
two sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist on the
other. St Augustine t also, speaking of the authority given to
man at the creation over the fishes of the sea, is immediately
reminded of these same sacraments, which he describes as
"that solemnity of sacraments whereby those whom God's
mercy seeks out amid many waters are first initiated, or that
other solemnity wherein that fish is manifested, which, when
it has been drawn forth from the deep, pious mortals eat."
These words would be absolutely unintelligible, unless we sup
pose that to the writer himself, as well as to his readers, the
idea of the fish as a symbol of the Holy Eucharist were per
fectly familiar.
This familiarity is still further remarkably attested by two This intcrprc-
most ancient epitaphs ; one, of St Abercius, Bishop of Hiera- ^ ^" epT-
polis, in Phrygia, towards the end of the second century ; the ,aPh of -St
Abercius,
other, of one Pectorius (as it would appear), who was buried
in the cemetery of St Pierre d'Estrier, near Autun, probably
during some part of the third century. The first of these
epitaphs has been long known, but was only imperfectly under-
* De I'romiss. ii. 39. t Confess, xiii. 23.
stood, until recent discoveries of Christian monuments had
thrown fresh light upon its mystical language* The only part
of it which concerns our present subject is contained in a few
lines towards its conclusion. Abercius has been describing
his many and distant travels through Syria and to Rome, and
he says—
Kai 1rapiOTjK( rpotpTjp lÔilv re /utjs awd Tr1jyijs
wa/if4fyiOji, KaOapbv, &v iSpiâro rapdeVot ayvrf
Kal tovtov TrapttibtKe <pl\ols ttrdeiv 5ia irairds,
olvov yjniarbv eôiraa, icipacrpxt Sidovaa fxcr dprov
Tau$' 6 vowv e0£curo inrkp pu>v was 6 ffvvtpdbs.
" Faith led me on the road, and set before me for food
fish from the one fountain, the great and spotless fish which
the pure Virgin embraced ; and this fish she gave to friends
to eat everywhere, having good wine, giving wine mixed
with water, and bread. May he who understands these things
pray for me." The allusion contained in the words, " the one
fountain," will be better explained at a future time,t when we
come to speak of the representations of Moses striking the
rock, and the fountain flowing forth ; but all the rest is easily
understood when once we recognise that the fish was used as
a symbol of Christ and of the Holy Eucharist ; then bread and
wine and the fish come naturally together as the visible and
invisible parts of one great mystery,
and another The second epitaph we have spoken of was only discovered
at' Amun°Und about thirty years ago in the place already mentioned ; and its
chronology has been made the subject of much critical dis
cussion, some placing it as early as the time of the Antonines
in the second century, others as late as the middle of the
fourth. Cardinal Pitra, P. Secchi, P. Garrucci, and other
* Spicil. Solesm. iii. 533 ; Acta SS. Bolland. Oct. tom. ix. p. 491.
t Chapter VII. of this Book. The bread and the fountain are also
brought together in a line of the Sibylline verses, vi. 15. f1t Si purjs ryyrjs
iprov Kopos taotTai avhpCiv. And bread and the blessed Virgin in i. 359.
Fitra quotes an ancient title of our blessed Lady, foris Frfhlemicus ; and
Bethlehem mean? the House of Bread.
learned authorities, assign it with more probability to the
earlier part of the third.* There is a flavour of antiquity
about it which cannot be mistaken, so that even those who
think it may have been put together in its present form in the
fourth century, do not hesitate to say that the particular part
of it which has reference to the fish, may have been as old as
the days of St Irenaeus. In it Christians are called " the
divine children of the Heavenly Fish," and after an allusion to
their new and immortal life, received in the sacred waters
which enrich the soul with wisdom, it goes on to bid them
"receive the sweet food of the Saviour of the saints;" '" E;it
and drink," it says, " receiving and holding the fish in your
hands."
Ixfuos ovpaviov Biiov y4vos,
SotTrjpos 5' c^taw <<• \^/.>< a \dpftave fipCxriv'
"Ecfltf, trtvf, $voiv IxOvv txav iraXd/4aty.
No one can doubt what is here alluded to, and no one, we and by
think, can call in question our right to attribute to the early "J°numents °'
Christian artists the same thoughts on this subject as were so
manifestly familiar to Christian writers. Nevertheless, that we
may satisfy the most sceptical of readers, we will add yet other
particulars, taken from the monuments of Christian art them
selves, which, even if they stood alone, would in our opinion
abundantly justify the interpretation we have put upon this
ancient and popular symbol of the fish, when found together
with bread. These particulars are twofold ; first, there is the
fact that in all, or nearly all, the paintings of this dinner of Miracles of
our Lord to seven of His disciples, there is added some repre- {^"ofthe'' a
sentation, either of the miraculous multiplication of the loaves io:lves and
fishes, and of
and fishes, or the changing of water into wine at Cana in Galilee, the changing
events which had absolutely no connexion with it, or with each °
other, historically, though mystically they are all most intimately
united. It can hardly be necessary to make many citations
• See Cahier, Mel. d'Arch. iii. 156, iv. 118; Spic. Solesm. i. 560.
from the Fathers, to prove that they saw in both these
miracles foreshadowings of the great mystery of the Holy
Eucharist ; and when they are brought together in the monu
ments of art, the allusion to the two species in the Blessed
Sacrament is too transparent to be denied. We are all
familiar with the argument urged by St Cyril of Alexandria,
that since our Lord once turned water into wine, which is
something akin to blood, it ought not to be counted an in
credible thing that He should also have turned wine into
blood ; and St Ambrose, commenting on the other miracle as
recorded by St Luke,* says distinctly, " In the ministry of the
Apostles on this occasion, the future distribution of the Body
and Blood of the Lord is foreshadowed ; " and in another
place he brings the two miracles together, and makes the same
application of them both ; or rather, he quotes Pope Liberius
as having done so in a homily delivered on Christmas Day in
St Peter's, t
The Christian artists could not have been ignorant of this
spiritual interpretation of our Lord's miracles, and for this
reason they united in one scene events that were really very
distinct in time and place. Thus, a number of baskets of
bread always forms the foreground of the picture we have
described of the feast of the seven disciples. Moreover, be
cause they desired that the minds of those who saw their
paintings should not rest in the outward semblance of the
scene, but be carried forward to its hidden and mystical mean
ing, they always departed, more or less, from its literal truth ;
e.g., we never find seven or twelve baskets of bread, but eight ;
nor six water-pots of wine, but seven. It was the symbolism
of a religious idea they aimed at, and not the representation
of a real history.
Similar paint- The second item of artistic evidence is still more conclusive.
ings in a Cata- ^n an<.;ent christian cemetery has lately been discovered in
comb at Alex- J J
andria. Alexandria, subterranean, and in other respects also bearing
' Comment, in S. Luc. c. ix. lib. vi. 84. t De Virginibus, iii. 1.
a certain resemblance to the Ro

man Catacombs. In one of the
chapels, and precisely over the altar
where the sacred mysteries would
have been celebrated, there are the
remains of a painting, belonging (De
Rossi believes) to the fourth century,
in which all these various scenes are
brought together, and their interpre
tation given in writing. That is to
say —In the middle is our blessed
Lord, with Peter on His right hand
and Andrew on His left, holding a
plate with two fish, whilst several
baskets of loaves lie on the ground
before Him. Further to the right
is the miracle at Cana, our blessed
Lady and the servants having legends "to
over their heads,- H AHA MAPIA
— TA I1AI4IA — "Holy Mary"
and " The Servants ; " and in the
corresponding compartment on the
other side are a certain number of
persons seated at a feast, with a le
gend over their heads, TA2 KTAO-
TIA2 TOT XT E20IONTE2,—"Eat
ing the benedictions of Christ."
Now, this same word, which we
have here translated benedictions, is
the word used by St Paul* when
speaking of the communion of the
Body and Blood of Christ. The
verb belonging to it is used by the
Evangelists indifferently with the
* I Cor. x. 16.
corresponding verb of the Eucharist, both in their account of

the miracles of multiplication, and also of the institution of
the Blessed Sacrament.* Lastly, it is the very word always
used by St Cyril of Alexandria (in whose city this painting is
found) to denote the consecrated bread and wine ; and when
the devotion of the faithful waxed less fervent, and com
munions became more rare, the same word was naturally
retained, and has ever since remained, to denote the blest
bread which was now received, instead of It. Here, then, we
have the evidence of the Christian artist himself, that the two
miracles we have referred to were understood and used as " a
kind of sacramental anticipation" (to use the words of St
Maximus) " of the chalice of the New Testament.''
Summary of We fear tnis discussion may have appeared somewhat long
evidence, and anc] tec];ous perhaps, to some of our readers, or at any rate
importance of ' r r ' ' J
the conclusion, out of place, yet it was not possible to avoid it if we desired to
show that we are building on solid foundations. For we have
been accused of wishing to force upon the paintings of the
Catacombs a meaning they will not bear, whereas we most
sincerely desire to ascertain what their meaning really is ; and
we have thought the best means of doing this is to compare
them with the literary and biographical details which have
come down to us with reference to the thoughts and feelings
of those who executed them, or for whom they were executed.
We have been accused of " attempting to connect the fish with
the doctrine of Transubstantiation." What we have really
done is to prove by abundant testimonies that when fish and
bread were represented together on ancient Christian monu
ments, there was meant a secret reference to the Holy Euchar
ist, of which the bread denotes the outward and visible form,
the fish the inward and hidden reality, viz., Christ Jesus Our
I ,ord.
Before the recent discoveries, this was only a conjecture of
* St Matt. xiv. 19; xv. 36; xxvi. 26, 27. St Mark, vi. 41 ; xiv. 22.
St Luke ix. 16 ; xxii. 19. St John vi. II.
acute and learned antiquarians, but the pictures discovered in

the cemetery of St Callixtus set before us most plain and un
questionable representations of the Eucharistic table, side by
side with pictures recording the Gospel histories of the repasts
on bread and fish, and the baskets of multiplied loaves, and
thus they put in the strongest light the symbolical link which
united those repasts and miracles with the Holy Eucharist.
The secret of this connecting link was no less illustrated and
confirmed by the celebrated epitaph of Autun, where the
hieroglyphic of the fish is openly applied to the bread of the
Holy Table. From the first moment of the discovery of that
venerable monument, Cardinal Pitra—-then a professor in a
neighbouring seminary—invited the attention of the learned
to the light which it threw on this instance of ancient Chris
tian symbolism ; and the monuments of various kinds which
have since been brought to light, together with many others
which had been known indeed long before, but not fully un
derstood, provide so complete a demonstration of that secret
symbol, and of its gradual development in the hands of Chris
tian artists, that it is no longer possible for any reasonable
man to refuse his assent to the interpretation, or to make
a demand for more abundant evidence. It is quite certain
that these figures, however unmeaning they might have been
to strangers, were as perfectly intelligible to cotemporary
Christians as the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt to those who
used them, or the letters of the English alphabet to ourselves.
When, then, we see on a Christian tombstone, as on a very Examples.
^YNTRoTHIojy
Fig. 24.— Tombstonefrom an ancient Christian Cemetery at Modcna.

ancient one found at Modena, and represented in this figure,
a couple of fish, each holding a loaf of bread in its mouth, and
five other loaves between them, we feel certain that the sur
vivors of Serapion, whose tombstone it is, intended a symboli
cal representation of the Holy Eucharist, that blessed sacra
ment which had, doubtless, been his strength in life, and now
gave the sure hope of his resurrection to everlasting life. * In
Fish carrying like manner we have no difficulty in giving a Christian mean-
ti Ijtiskct of •
bread. inS t0 tnat strange-looking ornament which is twice repeated
in one of the most ancient cubicula in the crypts of St Lucina,
and of which the reader will find an accurate copy in Plate
XIV. A fish, apparently alive and swimming, bears upon its
back a basket of bread. This bread is not of the ordinary
kind, but of a gray ashen colour, such as was used by the
people of the East, and especially by the Jews, as a sacred
offering of the first fruits to the priests, and was known to the
Romans by the barbarous name of mamphala. The bread
lies on the top of the basket, but in the middle of it, in both
pictures, may be clearly distinguished a something red, a some
thing that seems best to represent a glass containing red wine;
and De Rossi produces a text from St Jerome, of which he
says he was irresistibly reminded as soon as he saw this paint
ing. St Jerome is speaking of Exuperius, Bishop of Toulouse,
who had spent all his substance for the relief of the poor, and
he goes on to remark that "nothing, however, can be richer
than one who carries the Body of Christ in a basket made of
twigs, and the Blood of Christ in a chalice of glass." t In the
painting before us the basket is precisely of this kind, and it
was already known from other sources that baskets of wicker-
work were used in the sacrificial rites both of the Jews and
Gentiles, and that the Christians also had continued the use
of vessels of the same material for carrying the Blessed Sacra
ment, where gold or silver could not be had. \ We cannot
doubt, therefore, that this singular painting—at once the most
* St John, vi. 55.

t Ep. 125, alias 4, ad. Rusticum. tom. i. 10S5, cd. Migne.
J See Marini, Fratr. Arvali, 396. 425.
ancient and the most simple that we know, of the fish united
with bread—was intended to refer to the mystery of the (Holy
Eucharist.
Probably the painting also on the opposite wall of the same
cubiculum is another symbol of the Holy Eucharist, though this
is less obvious and certain. A milk-pail rests on a kind of Lamb carrying
altar between two sheep,* and the same instrument may be m' k 1>011 '
seen in the next chamber, on the right-hand side of the Good
Shepherd. Elsewhere it appears also in his hands. In these
latter instances, it might not unreasonably be taken as merely
one of the ornamental accessories of pastoral life, inserted
without any religious signification, but its position in the pre
sent example seems to indicate something more important.
So also when we find it, as in some most ancient pictures in the
cemetery of St Domitilla, suspended from the pastoral staff
and by the side of the lamb ; or, as in a later painting in the
Fie 25.—Lamb carrying the milk- |

pailfrom Catacomb of SS. Peter \ 1]
and Marccllinus.
Fig. 26.—Milk-pailandshtphc.rd's
crook by side of lamb from
Catacomb ofSt Domit<lla.
cemetery of SS. Peter and Marcellinus, resting on the back of
the lamb itself, we are reminded of the undoubted fact that
* See fig. 14, page 103.
P
226 Roma Sotierranea.
milk was often used as a symbol of the Holy Eucharist.* In

deed, the lamb carrying the milk-pail on its own back seems
exactly analogous to the picture we have just been studying
of the fish carrying the bread,
interpreted The Acts of St Perpetua—generally acknowledged as a
St Perpetual genuine document of the beginning of the third century—
describe, as a part of the vision by which that saint was con
soled and strengthened in prison, the Good Shepherd appear
ing to her, milking His flock, and giving her to eat some of the
curds of the milk which He had drawn. " She received them
with hands crossed upon one another, and all the people
answered, Amen,"—just the word and the action then used in
partaking of the Holy Eucharist, of which it was here evi
dently intended to be a symbol. Something of the same kind
also occurs in other ancient Acts ; and some of the old com
mentators point out that the good things of the Gospel are
sometimes prophesied and foretold under the figure of flesh,
sometimes of mixed wine, sometimes of milk. It may not be
out of place also to call to mind the primitive practice of
giving milk and honey to infants after baptism,—a practice
borne witness to by Tertullian and St Jerome as one of those
things which were handed on by tradition to the Church, and
which was continued, at least on Holy Saturday, as late as the
ninth or tenth century.t
and by the It is still more to our purpose to quote the language of St
Itiniruiipe of
St Augustine, Augustine in his commentary on one of the Psalms ; % and the
whole sermon in which it occurs is so remarkable, and bears
so directly upon the question of symbolism with which we are
engaged, that we are sure our readers will need no apology if
we quote from it at some length. The Doctor is commenting
on the title of the 33d Psalm, which refers to an incident in
* Buonarroti, Vctri, 32 ; Garrucci, Vctri. 62, 63, ed. 2da.

t Tertullian, De Cor. Militis, c. 3 ; Ilieron. Dial. adv. Lucit See
Martene, De Ant. Eccl. Rit. lib. i. c. i. xv. 16.
X Enarr. ima in Ps. xxiiii. torn. iv. p. 301, ed. Gaume.
the life of David, not exactly as it is recorded in the historical

books : that is to say, in the Book of Kings the incident is
told of one person, and in the title of the Psalm it seems to
be attributed to another. And the Saint argues that this
change of name has not been made without a reason. He
inquires, therefore, into the mystical meaning of the whole
incident, which he maintains it certainly must have, whether
we can discover it or not ; because every other part of the
history of the Jewish people has such a meaning; and he
appeals to his hearers as knowing this fact as well as he does.
He specifies amongst other details of Jewish story, which fore
shadowed mysteries of the Christian Church, the manna, the
passage through the Red Sea, and the striking of the rock.
He then speaks of David slaying the giant Goliath, as a type
of Christ killing Satan :—" But what is Christ who slew Satan?
It is humility slaying pride. When then I speak to you, my
brethren, of Christ, it is humility that is specially commended
to you. For He made a way to us by humility. . . . God was
made humble, that so the pride of the human race might not
disdain to follow the footsteps of God." And he continues
immediately as follows :—" But there was, as you know, in
former times a sacrifice of the Jews according to the order of
Aaron, with victims of cattle ; and this, too, was in a mystery,
because, as yet, there was not the sacrifice of the Body and
Blood of the Lord, which the faithful know and those who
have read the Gospels; which sacrifice is now spread (diffusum)
throughout the whole world. Put then before your eyes those
two sacrifices ; the former one according to Aaron, and this one
according to Melchisedec. For it is written, 'The Lord swore,
and will not repent ; Thou art a priest for ever according
to the order of Melchisedec' Of whom is this said, ' Thou
art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedec?'
Of our Lord Jesus Christ. But who was Melchisedec?"
Then, after giving the history of Melchisedec, and calling
particular attention to his priesthood, to the blessing which
he gave to Abraham, and to his having brought forth bread

who speaks and wine, he continues, " The sacrifice of Aaron, then, is
of the liody taken away, and the sacrifice according to the order of Mel-
ClfrUtl0°d °f chisedec has begun to be. . . . Our Lord Jesus Christ has
willed our salvation to be in His Body and Blood. But
whence has He commended to us His Body and Blood ?
From Hiss humility ; for except he were humble, He would
not be eaten and drunk. Consider His greatness : ' In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God.' Behold this everlasting food ; but food
for Angels. Angels eat of it, and the powers above, and
heavenly spirits ; and eating, they are filled and satisfied ; yet,
that which satisfies and gladdens them still remains whole.
But what mortal could approach that food ! Whence could
he have a heart suitable for such food? It was necessary that
that food should be made milk (mensa illa lactesceref), and so
and the Holy come to little ones. But how does meat become milk ? How
denheTymbol is meat changed into milk, unless it first be passed through
of milk. flesh? And this is done by the mother. What the mother
eats, the same is also eaten by the infant ; but because the
infant is not fit to eat bread, the mother changes the bread
into her flesh (ipsum panem mater incarnaf), and so feeds the
infant on that very bread, through the lowliness of the breast and
the juice of milk. How then has the Wisdom of God fed us
on bread ? ' Because the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in
us' (in nobis). Behold then I lis humility ; for man has eaten
the bread of Angels, as it is written, ' He gave them the bread
of heaven ; man ate the bread of Angels;'* that is, man has
eaten of that Word whereon the Angels feed, and which is
equal to the Father ; for, ' being in the form of God, He
thought it not robbery to be equal with God.' The Angels
feed on him, but ' He debased Himself,' that man might eat
the bread of Angels, ' taking the form of a servant, being made
in the likeness of men and in habit found as a man, He
* Ps. lxxvii. 24.
humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the

death of the cross,'* in order that from the Cross might be
commended to us the new sacrifice, the flesh and blood of
Christ."
Manifestly, then, it is by no means improbable that the milk-
pails to which we have called attention in early Christian monu
ments may have had a religious symbolical meaning, though
we do not by any means pretend to put it on the same level
with the symbol of the bread and the fish. The examples of
the one symbol are comparatively rare, and its interpretation
is borrowed from the language of a few ; the other was inces
santly repeated in every variety of combination, and is attested
by a great multitude of authorities.
Some of our readers may be surprised that nothing should Different
have been yet said about the cross or the monogram, which J."™* °f '
by some writers are stated to have been the earliest and most
common of all Christian symbols. This statement is not, how
ever, borne out by archaeological facts. We have already spoken
of the anchor being, in some instances, so formed in Christian
epitaphs as naturally to suggest the thought of the cross ; and
we need not quote the well-known passages of Tertullian and
others, which show the love of the early Christians for this
sign of salvation, and their frequent use of it. Christians were
cruris religiosi;\ the cross was the signum Christi, ro xuj/axi*
er,niiov.\ Nevertheless, there were obvious reasons why this
sign should not be freely exposed to public gaze ; the famous
caricature of the Crucifixion, found on the Palatine, is a sufficient
proof of this. In the most ancient part of the lowest piano
of the crypt of St Lucina, we meet with a loculus with the
inscription
POTttlNA
EIPHNH
with a simple Greek cross beneath the latter name. But
* Philip, ii. 6-8. t Tertull. Apol. i(>.
+ St Clem. Alex. Strom, vi. It.
most of the earliest forms of it that we can discover are

more or less disguised. It is contained, for instance, in the
monogram (Fig. 26, b), which occurs on an inscription of the
+ «f f •? X
ah c d t / 9 h i i
Fig. 27.—Differentforms ofthe Cross and Monogrntu.
year 268 or 279, as well as upon others not bearing certain

dates. It seems to have been intended to combine the first
letters of IHCOTC XPICTOC, and may be considered rather
a compendious form of writing than a symbol properly so
called. Tertullian quotes Ezech. ix. 4. Signa Tau super
frontes, &c., and says : " Now the Greek letter Tau and our
own T is the very form of the Cross, which he predicted
would be the sign on our foreheads in the true Catholic
Jerusalem."* The number 300 being expressed in Greek
by this letter, Tau, came itself, even in apostolic times,
to be regarded as equivalent to the cross.t We see examples
of this in the inscription ireTne, lately discovered in a part
of the Catacomb of San Callisto, belonging to the third cen
tury ;\ and also in the monogram of Tvranio (Fig. 27, p. 232),
in both of which the T is made prominent, evidently with a
symbolical meaning. We even find the letter itself inscribed
alone, or in combination with the letter P, on a tomb
stone. §
The Constantinian monogram, as it is called (Fig. 26, c),
is formed of the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ,
the X with the P. It is not easy to fix its date with any
certainty, but it was known to the Christians long before the
triumph of Constantine, although the few dated inscriptions
* Contr. Marc. iii. 22.
t See Barnab. Kp. C'ath., c. 9, ed. Hcfele., p. 22.
X Bullet.. 1863, 35.
§ Rom. Sott., tom. 2, xxxix. 28.
before that event do not supply us with any specimen of it.

It has been found scratched on the plaster, side by side with the
earlier forms (a and b), both in San Callisto and the Catacomb
of St Agnes, in galleries which bear every sign of being prior to
the time of Constantine. This monogram, and also the simple
Greek cross, appear on the coins of that emperor, and shortly
after his time we meet with the modifications of it (d and e).
The tail of the P is sometimes prolonged, as in f; in other
cases the same letter is reversed as in g, or the whole is placed
obliquely as in h and i. A form of the Cross, k, is sometimes
found on the garments of some of the figures painted in the
Catacombs during the fourth century, which is composed of
a fourfold repetition of the Greek r ; and because the symbol
thus formed was in use among the Buddhists and in other
Oriental superstitions, some French writers have attempted to
establish an historical connexion between them and the
Christian religion. It has been demonstrated, however, by
De Rossi, that this crux gammata, as it was called, was of
comparatively late introduction into the Christian Church.
It was no spontaneous invention of the early Christians, no
fruit of early tradition; but rather was borrowed by the
Christians from some other source, and adopted for a while
for concealment's sake.
It may be remarked that the form -f- is an extremely slight
modification of a mode of writing the Greek P, with a transverse
line across it, not unfrequently met with in ancient Greek in
scriptions, and to be seen on some of the coins of Herod the
Great. This also, like the crux gammata, was afterwards
studiously adopted by the Christians and supplanted the
original Constantinian monogram which that emperor com
manded his soldiers to inscribe on their shields.* The plain
Latin cross seems to have been used much earlier in Africa
* " Fecit ct jussus est, ut transversa x littera, summo capite circumflexes
Christum in scutis notat."— Lactam de mort. persec. c. 44. See P. Gar-
rueet, Vctri Ornati, &c., where he describes and discusses all the coins of
Constantine.
232 Roma Solterranea.
than in Italy;'"' indeed, it was used more frequently in that

country than any form of the monogram. In Italy it began
about the beginning of the fifth century, and by the end of
the sixth century was very common everywhere. Once or
twice also we find on tombs in the Catacombs a monogram
formed from the union of -f- and the letter N, being intended,
apparently, for the initials of the words XPICTOO NIK A, Christ
conquers, and belonging, of course, to post-Constantinian
times.
* De Rossi de Titul. Carlhag. apud Spic. Solesm. iv.
Fig. Sarcophagusfound in Crypt ofSt Lucina, representing Ulysses and the Siren.
CHAPTER III.
ALLEGORICAL PAINTINGS.
HE second class of paintings in the Catacombs of which Parables not
at least by some of our Lord's parables, though they can ancient ar

hardly be said really to reproduce them, and therefore we
have called them allegorical. In truth, they are but a parti
cular application and a further development of the same
principle which has been already described under the name
of symbolism. They proceed from hieroglyphic writing to
artistic composition. Instead of a single symbol, or combina
tion of symbols, they are whole scenes, inspired or suggested,
as we have said, by our Lord's parables, and themselves sug
gesting the truths which He thereby designed to teach. We do
not, however, wish to be understood as saying that the first
Christians composed these scenes as a careful statement of
doctrine, and painted them on the walls of their cemeteries or
chapels with a distinct dogmatic purpose, for the sake of
teaching. Rather, we believe, that their minds and souls
being full of certain ideas, they naturally gave expression to
those ideas in corresponding artistic forms, which forms again,
when seen by others, necessarily revived and strengthened the
impression of the truths they typified. The teaching was real,
but unconscious.
Among the parables or parabolical instructions of our Lord, The vine,
that of the vine and grapes was certainly adopted by His
disciples during the first century ; * and the illustration we
* Pitra, Spicil. Solesm. ii. 449 458.
have given in page 72, from the most ancient part of the
Catacomb of St Domitilla, is probably an example of it. The
presence of little winged /i///i' amongst the branches does not
militate in any way against its Christian sense, though we
cannot agree with those who consider that those little figures
were intended to represent either men or angels. It seems
more probable that they were used as mere ornaments, pretty
but senseless accessories, according to the custom of the
classical school of art, from which the Christian school had
sprung and necessarily drawn some of its first inspirations.
The wise and The parable of the wise and foolish virgins appears occa-
foolish virgins. siona]iv in some 0f tne cubicula ; at ieast the wise virgins are
to be seen, not the foolish ; * and even these have not lamps
in their hands, but burning torches, according to the Roman
fashion with which the artists were more familiar. On a grave
stone, a man is represented in the act of sowing seed ; but it
is impossible to say with certainty that any allusion was here
intended to the parable. The scene may have had reference
to the occupation of the deceased, or to something else which
we cannot now discover.
The Good The parable, however, of the Good Shepherd is one which
essentially'1" cannot De mistaken. Raoul Rochette, indeed, has made such
Christian su!>- a display of the old heathen representations of Mercury carry
ing a ram, of the Fauns, of shepherds and other young men
carrying a lamb, a sheep, or a goat on their backs, that it
would almost seem as if he doubted whether the Good Shep
herd were a certain sign of Christianity, or, at any rate, that
he supposed the first Christians had taken the idea of their
Shepherd from the traditions of Pagan art rather than the
Gospel. Yet, in truth, these naked young men in the tomb
of the Nasones and elsewhere have very little in common
with what we see on Christian monuments. Sometimes, but
* The fnolish virgins have been lately found painted in a cuhiculum in

the Catacomb of St Cyriaca ; but the painting is of a later date ; it belongs
to the time of the first Christian emperors.—Rullett., 1863, p. 77.
Allegorical Paintings. 235
very rarely, we find in Pagan tombs a shepherd dancing with

a lamb or goat on his neck. The only one we know which
could at all be compared * with those in the Catacombs, is
represented quite naked, among a lot of other figures, mani
festly alluding to the seasons, and is essentially different from
the grave picture of the Good Shepherd, which occupies the
principal place in the roof or on the walls of so many Christian
chapels. Once, in St Domitilla's cemetery, both the Good
Shepherd and the dancer are to be found in the same chapel ;
but no one could pretend that there was no difference between
them, or that one could be mistaken for the other. Of course
it is not unlikely that, amid so frequent a repetition of pastoral
scenes both by Pagan and Christian artists, there should be
an occasional resemblance, possibly even a direct imitation,
of some ancient and classical type ; but if so, Christian artists
have at least departed from the Pagan type in a thousand
different ways.
It seems to have been quite their favourite subject. We of very fre-
cannot go through any part of the Catacombs, or turn over ciuen use'
the pages of any collection of ancient Christian monuments,
without coming across it again and again. We know from
Tertullian that it was often designed upon chalices. We find
it ourselves painted in fresco upon the roofs and walls of the
sepulchral chambers ; rudely scratched upon grave-stones, or
more carefully sculptured on sarcophagi ; traced in gold upon
glass, moulded on lamps, engraved on rings ; and, in a word,
represented on every species of Christian monument that has
come down to us. Of course, amid such a multitude of
examples, there is considerable variety of treatment. We
cannot, however, appreciate the suggestion of Kiigler, that this
frequent repetition of the subject is probably to be attributed
to the capabilities which it possessed in an artistic point of
view. Rather, it was selected because it expressed the whole
sum and substance of the Christian dispensation. In the
* Bellori, p. 58; Picture Ant. Crypt. Rom., cd. Boltaii, p. 58.
language even of the Old Testament, the action of Divine
Providence upon the world is frequently expressed by images
and allegories borrowed from pastoral life ; God is the Shep
herd, and men are His sheep. But in a still more special way
our Divine Redeemer offers Himself to our regards as the
Good Shepherd. He came down from His eternal throne in
heaven into the wilderness of this world to seek the lost sheep
of the whole human race, and having brought them together
into one fold upon earth, thence to transport them into the
ever-verdant pastures of paradise. Moreover, in this work He
vouchsafes to receive some of His own creatures as coadjutors.
His gospel was committed to the ministration, not of angels,
but of men, and the commission was given to the Prince of
the Apostles, and in him to all His ministers, to " feed His
ami variously sheep." Hence He is sometimes represented alone with His
represented.
flock ; at other times accompanied by His apostles, each
attended by one or more sheep. Sometimes He stands
amidst many sheep ; sometimes He caresses one only ; but
most commonly— so commonly as almost to form a rule to
which other scenes might be considered the exceptions— He
bears a lost sheep, or even a goat, upon His shoulders ; and
we cannot doubt that He was painted in these various atti
tudes, not for artistic effect, but for their spiritual sense.
Reasonablyso. Of course, since Jesus Himself had vouchsafed to assume this
name and title of a Shepherd, it was natural and lawful for
Christian artists to represent Him in all the attitudes, and
with all the instruments, of the pastoral profession, such as
the crook, the pipe of reeds, the milk-pail, &c. ; but even these,
as we have seen, are each capable of receiving a very apposite
Christian interpretation. And although it may please some
writers to turn into ridicule any attempt to affix a Christian
sense to every detail of an ancient fresco, it is hard to see upon
what principle such objectors rely, which would not absolutely
debar us from attempting to interpret the "motive" of any
painting whatever, of which the artist did not happen to have
Allegorical Paintings. 237
left his own explanation in writing. If it he attempted to put

a sense upon a painting, which it cannot be proved was ever
known to the age in which the artist lived, the attempt is
likely both to provoke and to deserve contempt ; but where it
is certain, on the contrary, that the sense suggested must
have been quite familiar to the artist, either from its being
contained in the broadest outlines and leading features of his
religion, or from its having been pressed upon his notice by
the controversies of his age, it seems reasonable to conclude
that such sense was intended ; as, for instance, that the Good
Shepherd leading or caressing a goat was intended to be a
protest against the hateful severity of the Novatians and other
heretics refusing reconciliation to penitent sinners. So again,
when we find on either side of the Good Shepherd, other men
busying themselves about other sheep, and those sheep all
disposed in various attitudes, it is natural and legitimate to
conclude, first, that those men are the apostles and ministers
of God's word and sacraments, whose duty it is to carry on
the work of the Good Shepherd ; and, secondly, that the various
attitudes of the sheep denote the various dispositions of those
to whom they are sent. And this is precisely what we see
in Plate XVI., which represents a painting over an arcosolium
in the Catacomb of St Callixtus, that was afterwards cut
through in very ancient times for the sake of making a grave—
a sure sign of the high antiquity of the painting thus damaged.
On either side of the Good Shepherd, who occupies the centre, Explanation of
Plate XVI.
we see two men, probably SS. Peter and Paul, " representing
the whole Apostolate from the beginning to the end, hasten
ing away from Christ, as sent by Him to the world. On either
side, before each of the two, there rises a rock, which is Christ
himself, the true Rock * of the desert, pouring down streams
of living waters.t These waters include all the sacraments and
graces of Christianity. The apostles are seen joining their
hands to catch this water, in order to turn it afterwards on
* 1 Cor. x. 4. t St John iv. 10, 13, &c.
our heads, i.e., in order to communicate it to the world.
The world to which they are sent is represented by two sheep
standing before each of them. On one side, one of the sheep
is listening attentively, not quite understanding as yet, but
meditating and seeking to understand ; the other turns his
tail ; it is an unwelcome subject, and he will have nothing to
do with it. On the other side, one of the two sheep is drinking
in all he hears with simplicity and affection ; the other is eating
grass ; he has something else to do ; he is occupied with the
cares and pleasures and riches of this world."* Moreover, the
artist has so distributed the streams of water as they flow forth
from the rock, that they fall in exact accordance with the
spiritual condition we have supposed the artist to have intended
by the various positions into which he has placed his sheep ;
for, whereas a perfect torrent is falling on the head of the
animal that stands with outstretched neck and head lifted to
wards the apostle, the other, which has turned its back, is left
without any water at all.
* Palmer's Early Christian Symbolism, p. 3.
CHAPTER IV.
BIBLICAL PAINTINGS.
WE have found it impossible, as we anticipated, to Even the bibli-

keep inviolate that distinction between the several sj-mboHcaL^
classes of paintings in the Catacombs with which we set out.
The classification itself is just, but there is such an intimate
relation between the several members of it, and they are so
frequently intermixed, even in the same composition, that in
treating of some, it became necessary to anticipate our explana
tion of others, if we did not wish to leave our whole commen
tary incomplete and unsupported by its legitimate proofs. We
are forcibly reminded of this, now that we come to treat of the
paintings which represent histories from the Bible.
This class is far more rich and varied than that of the
parables ; yet, when compared with the abundance of the
source from which they are taken, even these seem poor and
limited. If we had been told that the early Christians were in Their limited
the habit of decorating their burial-places and places of '
assembly with paintings of subjects taken from the Bible, and
had been invited to speculate on the probable subjects of their
choice, we should certainly not have confined the range of
Christian art within those narrow limits which we find from an
examination of its existing monuments that it really observed.
Nor is it easy, at this distance of time, to discover the causes
which led to so great a restriction of the artists' liberty. The
fact, however, is plain and undeniable. Out of the infinite
variety of histories in the Old and New Testaments, which
seemed to offer both fitting subjects for the pencil and useful
lessons of instruction or consolation to the faithful, only a few
were taken ; nor did either painter or sculptor often venture
to transgress the boundaries assigned to them. " The inci
dents that exemplified the leading dogmas of faith were chosen
in preference to others," says Kiigler, " and thus the arts
become the index of the tenets that were prominent at differ
ent periods."
and fixed char- Not only were the artists limited within a narrow cycle of
subjects; even in their mode of treating these, they were not
left wholly to themselves. They did not treat them either
accurately as facts of history, nor freely as subjects of the
imagination, but strictly with a view to their spiritual meaning ;
and since this is always the same, religious dogma imparted
something of its own fixedness of character to the art which it
vouchsafed to employ. We may apply almost literally to the
state of Christian art as exhibited in the Catacombs, the same
language that was used so many centuries afterwards during
the Iconoclast controversy :—Non est imaginum structura pic-
torum inventio, sed ecclesia Catholicaprobata kgislatio ci traditio*
The details only of the execution belonged to the artist ; the
choice of subjects, the general design and plan .of the whole
was more or less under the control of authority. And this or
that story was selected, not at all for its own sake, but for the
sake of what was associated with it in the mind of the Church ;
in other words, even the historical paintings were essentially
symbolical.
"The symbolical system of this hieratic cycle," says De
Rossi, " is established beyond all dispute, not only by the
choice and arrangement of subjects, but also by the mode of
representing them, and, in a few instances, even by inscriptions
Noe in the accompanying them." Take the history of Noe, for example : of
baptism"1 °f wnat an endless variety of compositions is not this subject cap
able, and how variously has it not been treated in all the schools
* Cone. Nic. III. Actio vt. Collect. Labbe, tom. vii. fol. 831, 832.
Biblical Paintings. 24 1
of modern art ? Yet throughout the whole range of the Roman
Catacombs we find but one type of it, and that removed as
far as possible from historical truth. Instead of a huge ark
riding upon the waves, and containing eight persons, together
with a vast multitude of living animals, we have a single indi
vidual almost filling the small box in which he stands, whilst a
dove, bearing an olive-branch, flies towards him.* Some
persons have supposed that this scene was a direct but imper
fect imitation of the famous coins of Apamea, belonging to not copied
the reign of Septimius Severus, on which a man and his wife Aptunea!"
stand in a similar box, with a raven perched behind them, and
a dove flying towards them : and however difficult it may be
to account for this representation on a heathen coin struck in
Phrygia in the beginning of the third century, the letters
NO or NflE, which appear on the front of the box, leave us
no choice as to referring it to the history of the patriarch.
Nevertheless, De Rossi claims for some paintings of the same
subject in the Catacombs, particularly for those in the entrance
to the Catacomb of St Domitilla, referred to in a former
chapter,t an undoubted priority in point of time. Moreover,
as he justly remarks, there is no proof of any community of
idea between the Christian and the Pagan artist, except as to
the form of the ark, and this was in a manner forced upon
them both, by the conditions of space within which they
worked ; in all other parts of the composition there are many
differences. In the Christian paintings, the raven never
appears, nor is there any legend identifying the person as
Noe. On the contrary, it is often not a man but a woman ;
and once her name is added.— the name of the deceased on
whose grave it was painted, Juliana. We have not far to seek
for an explanation of this painting. St Peter, in one of his
Epistles.J had spoken of a certain figurative resemblance
between those eight souls who were " saved by water in the
* See Plate VIII. 2. t See page 73 ; and Bullctt. 1865, p. 45.
X I Peter iii. 20, 21.
242 Roma Sotterrauea.
days of Noe, when the ark was a-building," and those Chris
tians who are now " saved by baptism, being of the like form ;"
and some of the most ancient commentators on Holy Scrip
ture draw out the resemblance in all its details. As the waters
of the deluge cleansed the earth from all its iniquities, so the
waters of baptism cleanse the soul ; as those only were saved
who took refuge in the ark, so now also the Lord " adds daily
to the Church such as should be saved ; " * and these are
taken from among " all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and
tongues," even as the ark also contained " of every living
creature of all flesh, wherein was the breath of life." We must
confine ourselves to a single witness, Tertullian, who has
expressed this doctrine with his usual terseness in the follow
ing words :t— " As after the waters of the deluge, in which the
old iniquity was purged away, as after that baptism (so to call
it) of the old world, a dove sent out of the ark and returning
with an olive-branch, was the herald to announce to the earth
peace and the cessation of the wrath of heaven, so by a similar
disposition with reference to matters spiritual, the dove of the
Holy Spirit, sent forth from heaven, flies to the earth, i.e., to
our flesh, as it comes out of the bath of regeneration after its
old sins, and brings to us the peace of God ; where the Church
is clearly prefigured by the ark." When, therefore, we find
this scene of a man inclosed in an ark, and receiving the olive-
branch from the mouth of a dove, painted upon the walls of a
chapel in the Catacombs, we cannot doubt that it was intended
to express the same general doctrine, viz., that the faithful,
having obtained the remission of their sins through baptism,
have received from the Holy Spirit the gift of Divine peace,
and are saved in the mystical ark of the Church from the
destruction which awaits the world. And if the same picture
be rudely scratched on a single tomb, it denotes the sure faith
and hope of the survivors that the deceased, being a faithful
* Acts ii. 47. T Lib. dc Baptismo, vii.

Biblical Paintings. 243
member of the Church, had died in the peace of God, and had
now entered into his rest.
This picture of Noe and the ark is not unfrequently placed Jonas and the
very near to the history of Jonas ; indeed, in one instance,* the resum?"-'
dove which belongs to Noe is represented on the poop of the tlon-
vessel which is carrying off the prophet. The history of Jonas
having been put forward so emphatically by our Lord Him
self,t as a type both of His own and of the general resurrection,
it is not to be wondered at that it should have held the first place
among all the subjects from the Old Testament represented
in the Catacombs. It was continually repeated in every
kind of monument connected with the ancient Christian
cemeteries ; in the frescoes on the walls, on the bas-reliefs of
the sarcophagi, on lamps and medals, and glasses, and even
on the ordinary grave stones. Christian artists, however,
by no means confined themselves to that one scene in the
life of the prophet in which he foreshadowed the resurrection,
viz., his three days' burial in the belly of the fish, and his de
liverance from it, as it were from the jaws of the grave. The
other incident of his life was painted quite as commonly, viz.,
his lying " under the shadow of the booth covered with ivy on
the east side of the city " for refreshment and rest ; or again,
his misery and discontent, as he lay in the same place, when
the sun was beating upon his head and the ivy had withered
away.
We speak of the ivy, because it is so called in the Vul- The ivy or the
gate; but all scholars are familiar with the dispute between5
St Jerome and St Austin as to the right translation of the
Hebrew word used in this place ; and although the language
of Ruffinus in his invectives against St Jerome for his new trans
lation of the Scriptures % would seem to imply that the learned
Saint had appealed to the pictures in the Catacombs in defence
of his own rendering of the word, their authority certainly
* Bottari, Tav. cxxxi. t St Matt. xii. 39.
* Op. S. Ilicvon., vol. ii., p. 663, ed. Vallas, 1735.
appears to us to be all in favour of St Austin and the gourd.

However, this is unimportant ; the real point of present
interest to us, in this matter, is that the paintings in the
cemeteries should have been appealed to at all in the course
of a religious controversy before the close of the fourth
century, and appealed to as already an ancient witness (in
veterum sepulehris), by one whom we know* to have been a
frequent visitor to them in the days of his youth. No direct
Patristic testimony is at hand, showing the particular intent
with which this part of the history of Jonas was so frequently
set before the eyes of the faithful : it is not difficult, however,
to see how salutary a lesson of patience and encouragement it
could be made to preach to the poor persecuted Christians,
whose lot, as witnesses to God's truth, was cast in a city both
more populous and more wicked than that to which the pro
phet had been sent. The four scenes we have described
sometimes occupy the four highest spaces on the walls of a
cubiculum; sometimes only two are given, opposite to one
another ; and occasionally even the whole history is crowded
together into one compendious scene, the prophet being cast
out by the great fish so as to fall immediately under the booth
covered with the gourd.t The fish is quite unlike any real
inhabitant of the deep ; it resembles only some of those marine
monsters, sea-horses or cows, with which the Pagans delighted
to ornament the walls both of their drawing-rooms and of their
sepulchres, either as mere freaks of the imagination, or as the
conventional representation of the beast in the fabulous tale of
Andromeda. Even the Christians, too, used the same figure
as a mere ornament in their most ancient decorations, but
finally it was confined to the history of Jonas ; a monstrous
dragon, with a very long and narrow neck, and a large head
and ears, sometimes also with horns. Perhaps it was repre
sented in this way as a type of death, by way of distinguishing
it from the real IXOTr, or Saviour.
■ Sec page 97. t Sec Plate VII.
Daniel in the lions' den is usually represented in the Daniel in the

paintings of the Catacombs as standing naked * between [he Three ChU-
two lions, with his arms outstretched in the form of a "ren \n the
fiery furnace.
cross.t History may have been intended either as a figure
of the resurrection, J or as a source of encouragement to
the Christian flock under the extraordinary sufferings and
dangers to which they were exposed at the command of
idolatrous rulers. St Cyprian, writing in the midst of
persecutions, § makes this use of the history, and also of
the history of the Three Children (as we are wont to call
them) who were cast into the fiery furnace for refusing to
worship the golden image set up by Nabuchodonosor. He
quotes them as signal instances of the greatness of God's
mercies and the power of His protection ; these men having
all acquired the merit of martyrdom through the boldness of
their confession, yet being delivered by His might out of the
hands of their enemies, and preserved for His greater glory.
By others of the Fathers,|| these same histories find their place
among the numerous symbols of the resurrection from the
dead, " whence also they were received as in a figure ; " If
and of course either interpretation is equally legitimate.
Indeed, these various interpretations, taken from the writings
of men who themselves lived during the ages of persecution,
are a sufficient proof of the kind of use which was then made
of the Old Testament histories, and of their application to the
circumstances of the day : and since it is only natural to suppose
* Le Blant (Inscriptions, Chretiennes de la Gaule, tom. i. 493) is only
able to quote five examples of ancient Christian art in which Daniel is
clothed, and all of these are of much later date than the paintings of the
Catacombs. See, however, our Kip. 1 1 in page 73. If historical truth had
been the artist's aim, the prophet should have been painted sitting, and
with seven lions (Dan. xiv. 39V
t See centre of roof in Plate VI., also centre of sarcophagus in Plate
XIX.
J S. Ilieron. in Zach., lib. ii. c. ix. 864.
I Ep. lxi. or lviii., ed. Baluz.
I St Irenaeus, lib. v. c. 5, 2; Tertull. De Resurrect.
T Heb. xi. 19.
that the very same purpose animated the artist when he

represented to the eye, and the preacher when he addressed
himself to the ear, we are not arbitrarily imposing a sense of
our own upon these paintings, but only seeking to discover,
by sure rules of interpretation, what meaning was really present
to the mind of their authors, and what lessons they conveyed
to the minds of those who saw them. In the writings of later
Fathers, such as St Augustine, St Chrysostom, and others, the
history of the Three Children is used as a type of the history of
the Church ; at first forbidden by the rulers of this world to
worship the true God, and suffering all kinds of persecution
because she will not heed the prohibition, then triumphing
over her enemies, and persuading even her very persecutors to
become her children and protectors. And it would almost
seem as if the early Christians, even in their darkest hours of
trial, had enjoyed some prophetic anticipation of this blessed
Adoration of change, and looked upon the adoration which the infant
M Saviour had received from the Wise Men of the East as a kind
of foretaste and first-fruits, as it were, of the homage which the
whole world should one day give Him, since we find them
repeatedly bringing together, in the most marked way, these
two histories, the Three Children refusing to adore the image of
Nabuchodonosor from the Old Testament, and the three Wise
Men adoring the infant Jesus from the New. The juxtaposi
tion of these two subjects is far too frequent to allow us to
look upon it as fortuitous.* It should be mentioned that this
history of the Three Children is usually represented with more
truth and literal accuracy than most others ; at least, we find
them always " with their coats, and their caps, and their shoes,
and their garments,"t just as the sacred text describes them ;
and these garments are always of an Oriental character, the
Phrygian tiara, tunics, and the saraballi, or trousers, just as
•
* They are found together, not only in the Catacombs, but also in a
•.nrcojihagus at Nismes, and other Christian monuments at Milan. &c.,
Bull. Arch. 1SO6, p. 64. t See Plate IX. 2.
the worshippers of Mithras or other Easterns are represented
on Pagan marbles.
Another pair of subjects which seem in like manner to be Moses stiiking
,. the rock, and
studiously brought together from the two 1 estaments, are t]le resurrec-
Moses striking the rock and the resurrection of Lazarus. * tion rus.
of I.aza-
Sometimes they are found in the same compartment of a paint
ing : sometimes roughly sketched side by side on a grave
stone ; still more frequently they are together on a sarcophagus.
Some antiquarians consider the point of connexion between
them to be the display of Divine power in bringing living water
out of a dry rock, and a dead man to life out of his rocky
grave ; but this analogy hardly seems to be sufficiently close :
any other of the miracles of Our Blessed Lord might have been
selected with almost equal propriety. Others, therefore, prefer
to look upon these two subjects as intended to represent the
beginning and end of the Christian course ; " the fountain of
water springing up unto life everlasting ; " t God's grace and
the gift of faith being typified by the water flowing from the
rock, " which was Christ," and life everlasting by the victory
over death and the second life vouchsafed to Lazarus. And
this interpretation seems both more probable in itself and is
more confirmed by ancient authority ; since Tertullian % dis
tinctly identifies the water which flowed from the rock with the
waters of Baptism, which is the beginning of the Christian life,
as a resurrection is unquestionably the end. St Cyprian also
agrees with Tertullian, saying § that it was foretold that if the
Jews would thirst and seek after Christ, they should drink with
us Christians, i.e., should obtain the grace of Baptism. "If
they should thirst in the desert," says Isaias (xlviii. 21), " He
will lead them out : He will bring forth water out of the rock
for them, and cleave the rock, and my people shall drink."
" And this was fulfilled in the gospels " (he continues) " when
* Marligny, Diet, lies Antiq., artic. Lazare, p. 361.

t St John iv. 14. X l'<; Baptismo, § ix.
§ Kpist. lxiii. 8, tom. ii. 151, ed. Fell.
Christ, who is the rock, is cleft with the stroke of the lance in
His Passion ; Who, reminding them of what had been foretold
by the prophet, cried aloud and said, ' If any man thirst, let
him come and drink ; he that believeth in me, as the Scripture
saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.'* And
that it might be made still more clear that the Lord spoke
here about Baptism, the Evangelist has added, ' Now this He
said of the Spirit, which they should receive who believed in
Him ' ; for the Holy Spirit is received by Baptism.''
Moses taking Moses may sometimes also be seen in the act of taking off
off his shoes.
his shoes before approaching the burning bush ; and this is
treated by some of the Fathers as emblematical of those
renunciations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, which all
the faithful have made in Baptism ; t or it might typify that
reverence which is required of all who approach the Christian
mysteries.
In one instance, in a fresco of the cemetery of St Callixtus,
we find these two scenes in the life of Moses represented
close together, almost as parts of the same picture ; % but the
figure of Moses in the two scenes is manifestly different. In
the first, where he takes oft" his shoes, having been called by
the hand of God coming out of a cloud to go up into Mount
Sinai to receive the law, he is young and without a beard ; in
the second, where he strikes the rock, and the thirsty Jew is
drinking, he is older and bearded ; and both the general look
of his hair and beard, and the outline of his features, seem to
present a certain marked resemblance to the traditional figure
of St Peter.
These are the principal scenes from the Old Testament his
tory of which it is necessary that we should speak ; and the few
which are taken from the New Testament will fall more natu
rally under other branches of our division. We shall have
occasion also to return to one or two of those which we have
* St John vii. 37-39. t St Greg. Nazianz. Orat. 42.
♦ See Tlate IV.
mentioned from the Old Testament, as, for instance, Moses

striking the rock, when we come to its more complete
exhibition, not in paintings on the walls, but on the gilt
glasses of the third and fourth centuries which have been
found in the Catacombs. For the present, the interpretation
given by Kiigler, though not very exact, may be quoted as
sufficiently intimating its general sense. " Where we find
Moses," he says, " striking the rock, with kneeling figures
drinking the waters,''—these are not generally found in the
paintings, but only on the sarcophagi,— " we understand the
miraculous birth of Christ, who, according to the prophet
Esaias, is the Well of Salvation from which we draw waters
with joy—the Spiritual Rock from which we drink."
We conclude our present chapter by observing, that we
should gather even from the writings of the Apostles them
selves, that nothing was likely to be more familiar to the
minds of the early Christians than the symbolical and pro
phetical meaning of the facts of the Old Testament ; so that
the sight of these paintings on the walls of their subterranean
chapels was probably as a continual homily set before the
practised minds of the faithful of the first three centuries,
and by them perfectly understood. Moreover, the constant
repetition of the same subjects makes it impossible to suppose
that there was no unity in their choice ; and a careful study of
the order and mutual dependence in which they are usually
disposed, seems to reveal a certain theological knowledge in
those who presided over their arrangement. Indeed, it is
scarcely too much to say, that some of these artistic com
positions might be made to take the place of a well-ordered
dogmatic discourse. This has been noticed long since even
by men who had no really extensive or intimate acquaintance
with the subject, eg., by Kiigler, who imagined that he saw in
the order of histories chosen for the adornment of one of these
chapels, an intention to set forth under typical forms the Birth,
the Sufferings, and the Resurrection of Our Blessed Lord
in proper succession. Lord Lindsay also writes to the same
effect, when he says that " Rome seems to have adopted from
the first, and steadily adhered to, a system of typical parallelism,
of veiling the great incidents of redemption and the sufferings,
faith, and hope of the Church, under the parallel and typical
events of the patriarchal and Jewish dispensations." * This,
however, is a branch of the subject to which we shall have
occasion to return when we speak of the liturgical paintings,
where this principle is singularly prominent.
* Sketches of the History of Christian Art, 47.
Fl~. \3 — Scnlptnrj in the Lnteran Minrum, representing the ascent of

Klint inte heaven.
CHAPTER V.
PAINTINGS OF CHRIST, HIS HOLY MOTHER, AND THF. SAINTS.
THE three classes of paintings we have hitherto described Historical

i• i li-iii • paintings cx-
—those which we have called symbolical, allegorical, tremely tare in
and biblical—were all animated by the same spirit, and were, (-alacoml>s-
in fact, only various manifestations of the same principle.
They were all cotemporaneous, therefore, and often mixed
together in the decoration of the same chambers. Whereas
then the genius of Christian art remained thus essentially
symbolical, we cannot be surprised at the utter absence from
the Catacombs of anything like real historical paintings of
what was then going on in the Church. Neither the sufferings
nor the triumphs of the martyrs employed the pencil of the
Christian artist during the three first centuries, or at least but
very rarely. Nevertheless, De Rossi enumerates scenes from
the lives of the Saints and the history of the Church, as a dis
tinct class of paintings, because there is at least one picture
in the Catacomb of St Callixtus which seems to record some
such event. Two men are depicted standing before a Roman
magistrate on his seat of justice, or rather being led away from
before it after their condemnation ; and as there is good reason
to believe that the two martyrs, Saints Parthenius and Calo-
cerus, were buried in the chamber in which this painting
occurs, it has been conjectured that it is a part of their history
which it represents. Moreover, as these martyrs had been the
guardians, during life, of the young lady whose family (we be
lieve) gave this portion of ground for the use of the Church as
a cemetery,* there was nothing improbable in supposing that
the memory of their noble confession of the faith may have
been thus recorded for future ages. One or two other ex
amples, scattered here and there throughout the Catacombs,
seem to invite a similar interpretation. Nevertheless, we re
ceive it with much hesitation ; the instances are so rare, and
they seem so alien to the spirit and temper of the countless
multitudes of paintings of a different description executed
during the three first centuries. Of course, after the conver
sion of Constantine there was a revolution in this as in every
thing else ; but it was not till the end of the fourth, or even the
beginning of the fifth century, that paintings were executed
such as those which Prudentius describes, for example, repre
senting the various sufferings of the martyr St Hippolytus.
No real por- It is certainly more remarkable that there should not have
trait of Christ,
or of Blessed been found here any genuine portraits, either of Our Blessed
fary. 'c. Lord, His Holy Mother, or His Apostles, which De Rossi
enumerates together as forming another class of paintings.
Raoul Rochette t has said very positively that there was no
consecrated model in the first ages of the Church for the
figures of these sacred objects of Christian devotion and wor
ship ; and although this statement may perhaps require some
slight modification with regard to the two Princes of the
Apostles, Saints Peter and Paul, yet in the main it is cer
tainly true, so far as we may judge from the testimony of what
still remains to be seen in the Catacombs.
Indeed. Our Blessed Lord is scarcely ever represented there
at all, excepting either under the typical character of the Good
Shepherd, or in the act of performing one of His miracles, or
sitting in the midst of His Apostles ; \ and in all these cases
He is generally painted as a young and beardless man,§ with
* Seepage 127. t Tableau des Catacombes. 164.
\ We know of no other very ancient picture in the Catacombs of our
Lord's Baptism, except that ofwhich we have given a copy at p. 119. That
in the cemetery of San Ponziano is very much later, of the 7th or 8th century.
§ In the mosaics, on the contrary, He is usually bearded.
Paintings of Christ, &c. 253
nothing very marked in His appearance to distinguish Him
from others of the children of men. Once, indeed, His head
and bust form a medallion, occupying the centre of the roof
in a cubiculum of the cemetery of Saints Nereus and Achilles, Kiigler's
. ..... _ _. . j 1_- description
the same in which is a representation of Orpheus and his of a b„st of
lyre. This painting, in consequence of the description o'' Ca'acomb
it given by Kiigler, is often eagerly sought after by strangers
visiting the Catacombs.* It is only just, however, to add
that they are generally disappointed. Kiigler supposed it to
be the oldest portrait of Our Blessed Saviour in existence, but
we doubt if there is sufficient authority for such a statement.
He describes it in these words—" The face is oval, with a
straight nose, arched eyebrows, a smooth and rather high fore
head, the expression serious and mild ; the hair, parted on the
forehead, flows in long curls down the shoulders ; the beard is
not thick, but short and divided ; the age between thirty and
forty."
This description may, perhaps, remind some of our readers
of the well-known letter of Lentulus to the Roman Senate,
in which the personal appearance of our Lord is thus
described—" His hair curling, rather dark and glossy, flows
down upon His shoulders, and is parted in the middle, after
the manner of the Nazarenes. The forehead is smooth and
very serene ; the countenance without line or spot, of a plea
sant complexion, moderately ruddy. The nose and mouth are
faultless ; the beard thick and reddish like the hair, not long,
but divided ; the eyes bright, and of varying colour." We
need not stop to inquire into the genuineness of this letter,
nor the means which its author had of knowing the truth ; for,
with respect to the description given by Kiigler, it must be at
once acknowledged that it is too minute and precise, too
artistic, for the original, as it is now to be seen. A lively
imagination may perhaps supply the details described by
our author, but the eye certainly fails to distinguish them.
* Kiigler misnames the Catacomb, calling it of St Callixtus.
Eusebius has mentioned painted likenesses of our Lord and
of His Apostles, handed down from ancient times, and similar
allusions occur in St Augustine, St Basil, and others.* Never
theless, we repeat that the monuments of the Catacombs pre
sent no authentic incontestable example of any real, or even
conventional, portraiture of either. Only two members of the
Apostolic College are generally distinguished from the rest, and
these keep with tolerable uniformity the same type. But,
The saints ordinarily, all the saints were represented in the same way,
generally re in the act of prayer; that is. with arms outstretched in the form
presented as
praying. of a cross ; and the reason of this attitude is explained by
numerous inscriptions, speaking in the most distinct terms,
and showing, first, that the saints were believed to be living in
God, and secondly, that survivors desired the help of their
prayers.
Our Blessed Among the innumerable oranti, as they are called (persons
Lady as an
orante in the praying), which appear on the walls of the Catacombs, there is
Catacombs ; one of a woman, which is frequently found as a companion to
the Good Shepherd, and which a multitude of considerations
lead us to believe was intended for Our Blessed Lady, or else
for the Church, the Bride of Christ, whose life upon earth is a
life of prayer, even as His Holy Mother is similarly employed
in heaven. The two interpretations do not necessarily exclude
one' another. On the contrary, both may have been present
to the mind of the artist together, as there are several indica
tions in ancient writers of a certain recognised resemblance
between the Blessed Virgin and the Church. St Ambrose
speaks of it distinctly ;t Pope Sixtus III. (a.d. 435) set up an
inscription in Mosaic in the apse of the Lateran Basilica, in
which he commemorates the virginal maternity of the Church,
the Spouse of Christ ; and long before either of these, the
Euseb. H. E. ii. 25 ; vii. 18. St Aug. De Consens. Ev. lib. i. c. 1°,
St Basil, Ep. ccclx. ad Julian. Tertull. De Pudic. c. 10; and St Jerome in
loann. iv. See also Macarius, Hagioglypta, II.
t " Multa in figuta ccclcsia; de Maria piophctata sunt."—De Instit. Virg.,
c. xiv.
famous letter, written by the Church of Lyons about her
martyrs, expresses the same idea, when it calls the Church
" the Virgin Mother," * quite as though the phrase would be at
once understood by all.
It has sometimes been supposed that this female orante
denoted some martyr or person of distinction buried in the
principal tomb of the cubiculum where the painting is found.
And possibly this conjecture may be sometimes correct. But
in the majority of instances, we feel certain that it is inadmis
sible ; as, for instance, where it is manifestly intended as a
companion to the Good Shepherd ; and indeed, in some few
instances, we find this figure engraved upon the tombstones
instead of the Good Shepherd ; it stands with outstretched
arms between two sheep. And in many more instances it
occupies a part of a ceiling in which every other compartment
is filled by some person or story from the Bible, and where,
therefore, it is hard to believe that any memorial of a private
individual would have been allowed to remain. For these
reasons, then, we more willingly believe that either the Church
or the Blessed Virgin was intended ; and of these interpreta
tions, we incline rather to the latter, first, because the Blessed
Virgin is to be found represented in this same attitude on
some of the gilded glasses in the Catacombs, either alone or in glasses,
between the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul, and can be identi- "^'"îns"
tied in both cases by her name written over her head ; and
secondly, because she is represented in the same way also
upon a sepulchral marble of the earliest ages, in the Church of
San Giovannino, at St Maximin, in Provence. The inscription
on this monument runs thus, — Maria Virgo minester de
tempulo Gerosalb,— which seems to refer to some legend
about her ministrations in the temple, recorded in one of the
apocryphal Gospels.t Moreover, it should not be forgotten
* Eus. Hist. Eccles. v. 1, § 4°.

t Macarii. Haginglvpta, 36; I.e Want, Inscription* Chretiennes de la
flaule, vol. ii. 277.
that on Byzantine coins, and in works of Greek art generally,
down to this very day, Our Blessed Lady is often represented
in this ancient and mcst expressive attitude of prayer. Even
if the figure were intended principally to represent the Church,
it would be quite in keeping with the practice of early Christian
writers to represent the Church under the symbol of the Virgin
Mother of God.*
frequently also Whatever may be thought of the cogency of these arguments,
painted in the , , ,. , ,
Adoration of '— an" we believe that they cannot easily be refuted, — the
the Magi. question of Our Lady's position in the most ancient field of
Christian art by no means depends upon them. If these
paintings do not represent her, yet she certainly appears in
more than a score of other scenes, where her identity cannot
be questioned. A modern Protestant writer, indeed, laying
claim, too, to a perfection of candour, boldly says that he only
saw a single certain specimen of a painting of the Blessed
Virgin in all the Catacombs, and that was of a comparatively
late date, and that it is idle to attach much importance to so
singular an exception. He is evidently referring to the
Madonna in the (so-called) Catacomb of St Agnes, where she
is to be seen in the lunette of an arcosolium, with her hands
outstretched in prayer, the Divine Infant in front of her, and
the Christian monogram on either side, turned towards her.t
The presence of this monogram naturally directs our thoughts
to the fourth century as the probable date of the work ; but
as there is no nimbus round the head either of Our Blessed
Lord or His Holy Mother, it is necessary to fix the earlier half
of that century rather than the later. De Rossi considers that
* See S. Clem. Alex. Pa;dag. i. 6. I)r Newman says on Apoc. xii. I:
" The Holy Apostle would not have spoken of the Church under this par
ticular image unless there had existed a Blessed Virgin Mary, who was
exalted on high, and the object of veneration to all the faithful."-—Letter to
Dr rusty on his Eirenicon, p. 62.
t This picture, in which the Divine Infant is placed in fiont of his
virgin mother, unsupported, and simply to show who she is, forms the
original of a favourite Russian type of the Madonna which they call Zmi-
menskaia. Sec Palmer, 1. c. p. 66.
the style of execution indicates as nearly as possible the time

of Constantine himself. This, however, so far from being the
oldest or most interesting painting of the Blessed Virgin to be
seen in the Catacombs, is probably one of the latest ; and if
the author we have referred to saw no other, he can have seen
FlG. 31. —Fresco ofthe lilessc<i Virgin ntui Child in the (so-calUd) Cemetery of
St Agnes.
but very little of the Catacombs at all. There is quite a
numerous class of paintings,—De Rossi speaks of upwards of
twenty,—representations of the Magi making their offerings to
the Infant Jesus, in which she is always the central, or at least
the principal figure. Generally she sits at the end of the scene,
with the Holy Child on her lap, and the three Magi are before The Magi are
her; but in three or four instances she is in the middle; and alwa>s tllru-
here, in order to keep a proper balance between the two sides
of the picture, the number of the Magi is increased or
diminished; there are either four, as in the cemetery of St
Domitilla, or only two, as in that of Saints Peter and Marcel-
linus. It is clear, however, that three was already known as
the traditional number ; * for even in one of the instances we
have quoted we can still trace the original sketch of the artist,
designing another arrangement of the scene with three figures
* It is generally said that St Leo the Great, or St Maximus of Turin,
are the first witnesses to this tradition. Origen, however, seems to have
had the same idea.—Patrizi aU Evangel, iii., diss, xxvii. pars. 2dn.
K
only ; then, mistrusting the result, he abandoned the attempt,
and sacrificed historic truth to the exigencies of his art. Paint
ings of this subject belong to different ages, but De Rossi
assigns the two that have been specially mentioned to the
first and second half of the third century respectively. He
claims a much higher antiquity for the painting of Our Blessed
Our Blessed Lady represented in Plate X. 1. He unhesitatingly says that
Lady with 3 3 .
Isaias. he believes this to belong almost to the apostolic age. It is
to be seen on the vaulted roof of a loculus in the ceme
tery of St Priscilla, and represents the Blessed Virgin seated,
her head partially covered by a short light veil, and with the
Holy Child in her arms ; opposite to her stands a man, clothed
in the pallium, holding a volume in one hand, and with the
other pointing to a star which appears above and between the
two figures. This star almost always accompanies Our Blessed
Lady, both in paintings and in sculptures, where there is an
obvious historical excuse for it, e.g., when she is represented
with the Magi offering their gifts (Plate X. 2), or by the side
of the manger with the ox and the ass ; * but with a single
figure, as in the present instance, it is unusual. There has
been some difference of opinion, therefore, among archaeolo
gists as to the interpretation that ought to be given of this
figure. The most obvious conjecture would be that it was
meant for St Joseph, or for one of the Magi. De Rossi, how
ever, gives many reasons for preferring the prophet Isaias,
whose prophecies concerning the Messias abound with imagery
borrowed from light. This prophet is found on one of the
glasses in the Catacombs, standing in a similar attitude before
Our Blessed Lord, where his identity can hardly be disputed,
since he appears in another compartment of the same glass in
the act of being sawn asunder by the Jews (in accordance with
the tradition mentioned by St Jerome);* and Our Blessed
* The ox and the ass are found in a representation of the Nativity on a
tomh bearing the date a.d. 343.—Inscr. Christ, i. 54.
t Isa. ix. 2 ; lx. 2, 3, 19 ; St Luke i. 78, 79.
J In Isaiam xv. c. 7.
Lady, as an orante, occupies the intervening compartment

between these two figures of the prophet. Bosio * has pre
served to us another fresco from the cemetery of St Callixtus,
still more closely resembling that upon which we are comment
ing from St Priscilla ; only there is no star, but in its stead the
battlements, as of some town, appear behind the Woman and
Child, by which it was probably intended to denote the town
of Bethlehem, as was so commonly done in the sculptures,
mosaics, and other works of later art. We have already said
that De Rossi considers this painting, with which we are now
concerned, to have been executed, if not in apostplic times,
and, as it were, under the very eyes of the Apostles themselves,
yet certainly within the first hundred and fifty years of the Chris
tian era. He first bids us carefully to study the art displayed in
the design and execution of the painting, and then to com
pare it with the decorations of the famous Pagan tombs dis
covered on the Via Latina in 1858, and which are unani
mously referred to the times of*the Antonines, or with the
paintings of the cubiada near the Papal crypt in San Callisto,
described in our next chapter, and known to belong to the very
beginning of the third century ; and he justly argues that the
more classical style of the painting now under examination
obliges us to assign to it a still earlier date. Next, he shows
that the Catacomb in which it appears was one of the oldest,t
St Priscilla, from whom it receives its name, having been the
mother of Pudens, and a cotemporary of the Apostles ; and
still further, that there is good reason for believing what Bosio
and others have said, that the tombs of Saints Pudentiana and
Praxedes, and therefore probably of their father, St Pudens
himself, were in the immediate neighbourhood of the chapel
in which this Madonna is found ; finally, that the inscriptions
which are found there form a class by themselves, bearing
manifest tokens of the highest antiquity. Everything, there
fore, combines to satisfy him that this beautiful painting of Our
* Rom. Sott. p. 255. t See p. 66.
Blessed Lady is the oldest which has yet been discovered, and
it is needless to observe that she and her Divine Son are
clearly the principal figures in it. She does not enter here into
the composition of an historical or allegorical scene as a
secondary personage, but herself supplies the motive, so to
speak, of the whole painting. She seems also, as far as we
can make out from the imperfect remains of the painting, to
have been repeated in other parts of this loculus, both by
herself, and with her Holy Spouse and Child—a group which
Bosio and Garrucci also have recognised in other parts of the
Catacombs. De Rossi still further tells us—and again he is
able to quote Bosio and Garrucci * as having been quite of the
same opinion with himself—that there are other frescoes in
this same cemetery of St Priscilla, representing the Annuncia
tion t by the Archangel, the Adoration by the Magi, and the
Finding of Our Blessed Lord in the Temple ; in a word, all
these archaeologists are agreed that this cemetery surpasses
every other, both for the number, the variety, and the antiquity
of the pictorial representations of Our Blessed Lady.
St Joseph. Some of our readers will be taken somewhat by surprise by
our mention of any groups representing " The Holy Family,"
and especially of any representation of St Joseph. De Rossi
acknowledges that this class of monuments is still open to
some question, the paintings into which he is supposed to
enter being generally in a very bad state of preservation. In
the sarcophagi he certainly appears ; and in the most ancient
of them, as a young and beardless man, generally clad in a
tunic. In the mosaics of St Mary Major's, which are of the
fifth century, and in which he appears four or five times, he is
shown of mature age, if not old ; and from that time forward
this became the more common mode of representing him.
Probably the later artists followed the legend of St Joseph's
age and widowhood which occurs in the apocryphal Gospels,
* Bosio, Rom. Sott. 549; Macar. Ilagioyl. 174, 242.
+ Hagioylypta, p. 245.
especially that which bears the name of St James the Less,

and those on the birth of Mary and the infancy of the Saviour.
These legends had been quoted by St Epiphanius, St Gregory
Nazianzen, and other writers of the fourth century ; and
allusions to them, or even whole scenes taken from them,
occur in the artistic monuments of the fifth and succeeding
centuries. Before that time Christian artists seem strictly to
have been kept within the limits of the canonical books of
Holy Scripture. Afterwards it was probably considered that
there was no longer any danger to the integrity of the faith,
and greater licence was given both to poets and artists.
CHAPTER VI.
LITURGICAL PAINTINGS.
Liturgical T T might have been thought that the impenetrable secrecy

paintings very which in ancient times shrouded the sacred mysteries
rare.
from the gaze or knowledge of the profane would have ren
dered any sensible representation of them by art on the walls
of the Catacombs quite impossible. And, doubtless, such
representations were very rare. The paintings we are about
to describe are merely exceptional ; and they were executed
at the end of the second century, or quite in the beginning of
the third, before the invasion of the subterranean cemeteries
by the heathen had taught the necessity of caution. More
over, by a careful use of Christian symbolism, and a mixture of
things natural and supernatural, simple and allegorical, the
artist has contrived to produce a work which, whilst eminently
liturgical in character (representing the administration of Bap
tism and the consecration of the Holy Eucharist), and plain
enough and of the highest interest and value to us, yet to an
uninitiated stranger must always have been absolutely unintel
ligible. The administration of Baptism, for example, is mixed
up with biblical histories and a llegories of various kinds; and
the consecration of the Holy Eucharist is both complicated by
means of the hieroglyphic sign of the fish, and also veiled
under various historical scenes taken from the Old and New
Valuable Testament. These paintings deserve to be examined in the
specimen most minute detail. They are to be found in that series of
early m the
third century, cubicula in the immediate neighbourhood of the Papal crypt,
Liturgical Paintings. 263
concerning which it has been already shown * that they were

all made about the same time ; the oldest, before the end of
the second century, the latest, at no very advanced period in
the third. In three of them, the paintings are too much
destroyed to enable us to recognise all their details ; but as
far as we may judge from the fragments which remain, they
were of the same subjects, and of the same general character
with those of the two oldest chambers, which we propose to
describe.
On the wall at the left of the door as we enter the first, is General de-
the old familiar figure of a man striking the rock, whence the them!'°" °
water gushes forth. Next, we see a man fishing in the stream,
and then another man baptizing a youth who stands in the
same water. The paralytic carrying his bed on his shoulder
concludes the series on that side of the chamber, t On the
principal wall, or that which faces the doorway, we see a three-
legged table, having on it bread and fish, with a woman
standing on one side of it in the attitude of prayer ; and a
man on the other, clad only in the pallium, extending his
hands, and especially his right hand, towards the table in such
a way as to force upon every Christian intelligence the idea
of the act of consecration. | This is followed by the scene
already described, of seven men sitting at table with bread
and fish before them, and eight baskets of loaves arranged
along the floor ;§ and then Abraham about to offer up his son
Isaac—a scene easily identified by the ram and the faggot of
wood at their side.|| These three scenes are painted, side by
side, on the interval between two graves ; and they are flanked
at either extremity by a full-length figure of afossor, with his
left arm extended and a pickaxe resting on his right shoulder. IT
The painting on the third side of this chamber has perished,
all the plaster having fallen to the ground and been reduced
to dust. But the plaster of the small recess on the right-hand
• See p. 126. t riate XII. X Plate XIV. 3.
§ Plate XIII. I Plate XI. I. 1 Plate XI.
side of the doorway is still perfect, and shows us the figures
of two men, not standing side by side, but one placed on a
higher level than the other (probably in consequence of the
narrowness of the space). One of these men is seated, and
might be supposed to be teaching from a long roll, probably
of parchment, which he holds in his hands ; the other seems
to be drawing water from a well which is already overflowing.
In the second chamber, we find the rock, the fisherman, the
feast of seven, the baptism, and the sitting teacher, much the
same as before. On the right-hand wall, which in the former
chamber was in ruins, we distinguish the raising of Lazarus from
the dead ; and whilst on one side of the doorway is a preacher
standing, the fragments of plaster found on the other show that
a fossor had once been represented there.
We have already said that the same subjects, with more or
less of variation, appear to have been reproduced in the
other chambers of this series ; and such frequent repetition
naturally suggests the presence of some hidden sense. Nor,
indeed, is it a work of any difficulty to ascertain what that
sense is. Already our readers have had the clue placed in
their hands, which, if carefully used, will guide them aright
through all this apparent confusion of sacramental rites,
biblical histories, and scenes from common life.
Their meaning A single author, Tertullian, who was in Rome about the time
^\-i'tuI'ihan by tnat tnese paintings were executed, and may very probably
have often seen them, can be made to supply all the fresh
guidance that is needed for their complete interpretation. In
a former chapter we heard him describing Christians as little
The waters fish born in the waters of Baptism; and in his treatise upon
uf Baptism „ .
typified by the that sacrament he speaks of those waters as flowing forth
,uck"" ll'e from tne rock. The rock, as we know from the Scriptures
themselves,* was Christ, who refreshes with the spiritual
waters of His grace and of the faith the weary and thirsty
wanderers in the wilderness of this world. There is nothing
* 1 Cor. x. 3 ; Isa. xxxv. 6,
in the picture to show who it is that is here striking the rock ;
but we must anticipate for a moment what will be brought
before us in a future chapter,* and say briefly that Moses is
here a figure of Saint Peter, who succeeded to him, and became
" the leader of the new Israel," as Prudentius says ; with him
was the authority to draw forth the true living waters of
sacramental grace which flow from the Rock, and are first
given in Baptism, and to communicate them to the whole
Church.t
The rock, then, followed by a man fishing, and another and the fisher-
baptizing,^ is a very striking instance of that characteristic of ma '
ancient Christian art which we have heard Lord Lindsay
call " typical parallelisms." The truths of the Gospel are
veiled, yet revealed, under the parallel and typical events,
either of the Old Law or of common life. The pictures spoke
to the Christians of those days (the second and third centuries),
in a very plain and intelligible way, of the gate of all the
sacraments, the beginning of Christianity, the sacrament of
Baptism.
And the same mystery was again set before them in the and the
next painting on the same wall, the paralytic carrying his bed. carrying his
Those who have ever visited the (so-called) Catacombs of bed-
St Agnes with Father Marchi, will remember that he used
always to identify this painting with the sacrament of Penance,
supposing it to refer to the man that was healed at Caphar-
naum, to whom Our Lord addressed those worcts, " Be of good
cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee ;" and, indeed, that miracle is
expressly quoted in the apostolical constitutions as symbolical
* Chapter VII.
t St Cyprian, Kp. ad Jub., tom. ii. p. 332. Hence in the writings of
the Fathers, the font of the one Baptism and its derivation from the one
Rock was a favourite type of the origin and unity of the faith, the sacra
ments, and the Church. And the impugners of the validity of Baptism
administered by heretics, had no stronger argument against their enemies
than this undoubted unity of Baptism and of ihe Church, and the preroga
tive of Peter as its head. X Plate XII.
of this sacrament. Nevertheless, it would have been obviously

out of harmony with the prevailing tone of thought and prac
tice among the Christians of the days of persecution that
they should have represented grievous sin and repentance
as a probable interlude between the sacraments of Baptism
and the Holy Eucharist. It is far more probable, therefore,
that all the paintings on this wall were intended to have
reference to Baptism, just as all those on the next speak
clearly of the Holy Sacrament of the Altar ; and it is better to
understand this picture of the paralytic, as representing that
other miracle wrought at the pool of Bethsaida, which Tertul-
tian, Optatus,* and others, have interpreted as typical of the
healing waters of Baptism.
The next We pass on, then, to the next three pictures, which form a
no"e"the'con Sroup by themselves, quite as intimately connected with one
secration and another as those we have been just now considering, and
participation . . . .
of the Holy following from them in strict theological sequence. It is
Eucharist. exactly the same train of thought and combination of ideas
which we have found before in the ancient epitaphs of St
Abercius and of Autun, in both of which there is a natural and
easy transition from the waters of Baptism to the heavenly Fish
of the Holy Eucharist. Moreover, we must not forget that,
according to the ecclesiastical discipline of those days, these
two sacraments followed one another much more closely than
they do now ; they were, in fact, often administered simul
taneously. '
There are certain details, however, in the mode of repre
senting the symbols of the Holy Eucharist in these paint
ings which require a few words of additional explanation.
Some persons, for instance, might take exception to that which
we have called a picture of the consecration, in consequence
of the insufficient clothing of the man we have supposed to be
Consecrating the priest. He is clad only in the pallium, and as he stretches
priest clothed t ^ hand over tne taL>]c his breast and arm, and one
hi the pallium
only- * De Baptismo, c. 4 ; Dc Schism. Don. ii. 6.
whole side of his body become much exposed. There can be no
doubt, however, that this simple austerity of dress, which was
a characteristic of the better class of heathen philosophers,
was at one time,—and especially at the time to which these
pictures belong,—adopted also by the Christian clergy. The
Greeks and Romans always looked on the philosopher's cloak
as a guarantee of more than ordinary knowledge. Eusebius *
distinctly mentions of Justin Martyr, that he " preached the
Word of God in the dress of a philosopher ; " but it is not
quite certain that he was a priest. Before him, Aristides of
Athens, and after him Tertullian, Heracles, a priest of Alex
andria, Gregory Thaumaturgus, and others, did the same.
Tertullian expressly defends and applauds this mode of dress
in his treatise De Pallio.\ Prudentius, who (as we know)
frequented the Catacombs, must have had before his mind's
eye some such painting as we are now explaining, when
he described, in the beginning of his Pyschomachia, Faith
coming down to do battle with idolatry, attired almost in this
very way. He represents her as carried away by the eager
ness of her zeal, and descending into the arena but imperfectly
clad, with bare arms and shoulders, and other limbs un-
covered.J St Cyprian, indeed, who lived about fifty years later
than Tertullian, denounced the vainglorious immodesty of the
bare breast of the heathen philosophers, § and spoke of
Christian teachers, by way of contrast, as being philosophers
not in words but in deeds, not making any outward show of
wisdom by their dress, but holding it in truth. But this only
* Hist. Eccl. iv. 11. See also the opening of Justin's dialogue with
Trypho.
t See note at beginning of Oehler's edition of this treatise, Leipsic,
1853, tom i. 913. Also St Hieron. Ep. lxxxiii., ad Magnum. Catal. Hom.
111. cxx. " HutHcrum cxottts" is the very word used by Tertullian, c. 3.
X "Agresti turbida cultu,
Nui/n httmeros, intonsa genas, exserta lacertos,
... nec telis meminit nec tegminc cingi,
Pectore sed fidens valido, mevibrisqut rctectis."—Vv. 21-25.
5 He Bono Patienlix, 8 2, 3. " Exerti ac serainudi pectoris inverecunda
jactantia."
indicates a change of taste and feeling upon the subject which
had come over the Christian mind between the end of the
second century and the middle of the third ; and, in point of
fact, almost all the pictures of men, painted in the Catacombs
subsequent to this date, represent them as clothed with the
tunic underneath the pallium. Thus we seem to be provided
with a very sure criterion as to the date of these paintings in
San Callisto ; and it is important to observe how precisely it
agrees with the result to which we had been led before by a
multitude of concurrent indications of a totally different kind.
The Church Another detail in these paintings which has been made the
represented by , . r ,. . . , . . ,
a woman. subject of some discussion, is the true meaning of the woman
who stands opposite to the priest, with outstretched arms in
the attitude of prayer; whether she is intended to represent
some deceased lady, buried in this chamber, or whether she
does not rather stand as a symbol of the Church. Looking,
however, at the whole character of this series of paintings, we
cannot doubt that the latter interpretation is the more correct.
Just as the person represented here as receiving baptism is a
mere boy, or very young man, not because the artist intended
to denote some one determinate person who was really of that
age, but because youth is the age of baptism, and it was even
customary to call neophytes, of' whatever age they might be,
infantes or pueri ; so, in like manner, at the table of the tre
mendous mysteries, a woman was represented, not because it
was desired to do honour to any particular lady whose tomb
might be near, but rather because, when the whole body of
the faithful was spoken of, it was most usual to speak of them
under this figure. Both in the Epistles of St Paul, and in the
writings of the most ancient Fathers, the Church is the Bride
of Christ, without spot or wrinkle. She partakes also, as we
have already noticed, of the marvellous privilege of Our Blessed
Lady, and, whilst still a virgin, is yet a fruitful mother, so that
many things which are said of the one may be said also of the
other, and a woman becomes a very natural artistic symbol
for the whole Church. Thus, in the old mosaics, e.g., of

Sta. Sabina in Rome, put up by Pope Celestine in the earlier
half of the fifth century, the legends under two female figures
expressly designate them as Ecelesia ex Gentibus, and Ecelesia
ex Circumcisione, i.e., the Church from the Gentiles and from the
Jews; and it is certainly more probable that these mosaics con
tinued, with more or less of modification, the ancient types of
Christian art, than that they invented new ones. Indeed, the
tradition of this symbolical language was continued among
Christian artists ; e.g., it occurs in liturgical illuminations of a
Paschal candle in a MS. of the Barberini Library, belonging to
the eleventh or twelfth century. However, whether this female
figure, standing here in prayer, be really meant for the Church,
for Our Blessed Lady, or for some one Christian soul, is com
paratively unimportant. It is her position and occupation
which command our attention, reminding us of the words of St
Cyril,* "that those prayers are most prevailing which are made
with the consecrated gifts lying open to view."
Of the seven men seated together, and partaking of bread Answers to
and fish, we have already spoken ; we will only add here, in ° J601'°"8,
answer to a German critic who would fain transfer the refer
ence from the Blessed Sacrament to the eternal banquet in
heaven, first, that the mere uniformity in all these paintings
of the number and sex of the guests, would alone suffice to
distinguish them from the representations either of the agapa
or of the joys of paradise. Specimens are not wanting of
either of these subjects, but in both of them women appear as
well as men, and in various numbers. Moreover, the position
and adjuncts of this feast in these chambers seem absolutely to
determine its sense. In one instance, where the two scenes
are compressed into a single wall of the chamber, it stands
side by side with the representation of Baptism. In another,
where a type or figure of each sacrament is joined with its
literal representation, as the fishing is next to the baptism, so t
* Lect. xxiii. 9, Oxf. Trans. 275.
the consecration of the Holy Eucharist is next to this enter

tainment. To doubt, then, of its application to the Sacrament
of the Altar, especially when we remember how universally
the history was so interpreted by ancient Christian teachers,
seems a wilful closing of our eyes against the truth, and can
best be accounted for by the rejection of the ancient doctrine
which the symbol expresses.
The sacrifice We have seen that after the paintings of the fishing and
cal of^he^holy tne baptizing, there followed, on the same wall, the paralytic,
sacrifice of the wnich we therefore referred to the same sacrament. Here
Mass.
also upon this wall, is a third scene, that of Abraham and
Isaac,* which, in like manner, must be connected with the
Holy Eucharist; and although the same German critic, already
referred to, finds a difficulty in accepting a figure of the
bloody sacrifice on the cross as a suitable figure also of the
unbloody sacrifice on the altar,t his scruples will scarcely be
considered conclusive, even by his co-religionists. For surely
the sacrifice of Isaac by his father might, in some respects,
claim to be considered a more lively type of the sacrifice of
the Mass than of the sacrifice on Mount Calvary ; since,
although, as St Paul twice repeats, Abraham " offered up
his only-begotten son," yet the blood of Isaac was not really
shed ; he was only " as it were slain."J Abraham " received
him from the dead for a parable."§ The offering, then, of
Isaac by his father is frequently sculptured on the Christian
sarcophagi of the fourth and fifth centuries, together with
other biblical stories prefiguring the priesthood and sacri-
nce of the New Law. Here it is the pendant (so to speak)
to that other picture already described, wherein the priest
* Both are represented as praying,—a faggot and the ram behind them
alone enable us to identify them. Another fresco of the same subject was
•een by Bosio.—Rom. Sott. 503.
t Yet it is expressly named in the Church's hymn Lauda Sion, " In
figuris prrcsignatur, cum Isaac immolatur;" and in the Canon of the Mass
it is named with the sacrifices of Abel and of Melchisedec.
I Apoc. v. 6. § Heb. xi. 1719.
Liturgical Paintings. 27 1
is consecrating, "filling the place of Christ," as St Cyprian*

speaks, " imitating what Christ did, offering a true and perfect
sacrifice in the Church to God the Father."
Not a vestige remains of the principal subject which was The seriescon-
. . . cludeswith the
painted on the remaining wall, opposite to the paintings of resurrection
Baptism. Nevertheless, we may venture with confidence to of Lazarus-
supply it from the corresponding picture in the next chamber.
It was, as we have already intimated, the resurrection of Laza
rus, which to the Christians of that age would have seemed the
most natural, and almost necessary, complement to representa
tions of the Holy Eucharist. Not only did the language which
Our Blessed Lord made use of, on occasion of that miracle, bear
a very striking resemblance to parts of His discourse upon the
Blessed Sacrament, t but He had also seemed to connect a re
surrection to everlasting life in so special a manner with the
eating of His flesh and drinking His blood, that the Fathers
always speak of the one as a kind of pledge and earnest of the
other. We may see from the language of Prudentius \ how
naturally the Christian mind passed from one of these subjects
to the other; as when he suddenly stops in the midst of his
reflections upon the multiplication of the loaves and fishes,
bearing' upon their relation to the Holy Eucharist, and, as
though he feared that he was in danger of revealing secrets
forbidden to profane ears, abruptly addresses himself to Laza
rus, as the next subject of which it would naturally become
hint to speak.
It is to be observed that Lazarus is not here represented
in the ordinary way in which he was represented during the
third century, as an adult, and swathed like a mummy just
emerging from the tomb, but as a youth, having the winding-
sheet loosely hanging about his person, as though to mark him
as an ideal and allegorical, rather than an historical personage.
It. is not necessary that we should draw out at length the
* Ep. ad Com. liv. t Cf. St John xi. 25 with vi. 58, &c.
X Apotheosis, v. 73.
hidden sense of that series of paintings of the history of Jonas,
with which the upper part of these walls is decorated, their
bearing on the trials of this present life and the hope of a
future one being sufficiently obvious. There remain, how-
Supplement- ever, two other figures on which we ought to make some
of Doctor "awl observations. One of them is seated, apparently in the act
fossors 0f unroiiirig a volume, or, at least, holding a long roll of
explained. 00
parchment in his hands ; the other stands, drawing water
from a well which is already overflowing. In the next cham
ber, the same figure appears twice, once standing, once sitting,
but on both occasions holding a book, and seemingly engaged
in the work of instruction. He wears the same ascetic dress
of Pagan philosophers as the priest who was consecrating.
Our first impulse at sight of the well with its overflowing
waters is to refer it to the conversation of Our Blessed Lord
with the Samaritan woman at the well,* wherein He promised
to give water to them that believe in Him, such as should
" become in them a fountain of water springing up unto life
everlasting." And, doubtless, this would be a very beautiful
and appropriate termination to a series of symbolical paintings,
beginning with the stream of grace, drawn from the rock of
Christ by him who was himself a rock, and now ending
with the Well of Living Water and the promise of eternal life.
A more careful consideration of the subject, however, has led
De Rossi to adopt another interpretation. He supposes this
figure to represent a Christian doctor of the faith, possibly St
Callixtus himself, who perhaps devised this whole symbolical
series, and is then commemorated in them, just as the mere
material workmen (the fossores) were also represented on the
same walls. He takes the drawing of the water at the well to
be only an expression in art of what Origen had said in words,
when he speaks of " the Well whence spiritual waters are to be
drawn for the refreshment of the believers ; " t and that the
* St John iv. 14 ; viu 37, 3K.
f Hom. XII. in Num. tom. ii. p. 311-314.
reason for making use of these unusual memorials of individuals
was the fact that this cemetery was the first which had ever
belonged to the Church in her aggregate capacity.*
Doubtless, this same reason explains also the exceptional This whole
■ ^■11 r 1 -i j 7 series seems
character of the whole system of decoration that was adopted inspired by
in these chambers. They form one uniform group, adorned authority-
with the same symbols and in the same style, freely changed
in their composition and arrangement, yet constant in their
hidden meaning and theological sense ; whereas in all the
other cubicula of the same area there is no trace of the
same system of decoration. It may well be doubted whether
any private individuals would have ventured on such bold
representations of the sacred mysteries for the adornment of
their family vaults ; neither would every artist have had suffi
cient theological knowledge to design them. On many ac
counts, therefore, they seem to bear the stamp of authority,
and are certainly one of the most valuable monuments of
ancient Christian art that have come down to us.
Bosio and others before I)e Rossi have discovered in the A few other
Catacomb of St Priscilla other paintings of a liturgical charac- scertfs'else-
ter, but not so full and complicated a series. They represent where-
the taking of the veil by some consecrated virgin, the laying
on of hands for ordination, and perhaps, also, for public pen
ance. And, as we have ourselves also before observed, many
of the emblems and decorations in various parts of the Cata
combs have a distinct liturgical sense and reference, even
when they seem at first sight to be simply historical. Indeed,
a recent English writer, who has published a work on " Ancient
Christianity and Sacred Art in Italy," trying to enlist them on
the side of Protestantism, or, at least, to effect a separation of
them from the cause of Catholic truth, does not refuse to
acknowledge that " if any one could so cast away bias and
prepossession as to form for himself the ideal of a Christian
church exclusively from the records of the past that meet us
* Sec pp. S3 86.
s
in the Catacombs, his impartial and calmly-adopted conclu

sion would be that, in the worship of such a church, all should
revolve round a mystic centre of sacramental ordinances."
Before taking leave of this interesting series of liturgical
paintings, which we have been examining, it is worth remark
ing how accurately they illustrate and confirm the remarks
which were made in a former chapter,* on the order in which
the several classes of paintings succeeded one another in the
development of Christian art. We are sure that these cham
bers were excavated in the very earliest period of the third
century, if not in the end of the second ; and there can be
little doubt that the paintings were executed at the same
time, and the same subjects were painted in all of them.
But in the latest of the cubicula, they are represented only by
means of the biblical stories, without any admixture of scenes
merely allegorical or hieroglyphical. In a yet later cubiculum
near the tomb of St Eusebius, the same substantial idea is
still there, in that picture of the Good Shepherd and His
Apostles, and the various attitudes of the sheep, described
in page 237 ; but it is reduced to an expression less secret,
and in more literal conformity to the text of the histories
and parables. The rock is there, whence flowed the waters
of Baptism, and by its side on the next wall is the symbol of
the Holy Eucharist ; but it is merely in a representation of the
two Apostles bringing the bread and fish to Our Blessed Lord
before the miraculous multiplication. It is, therefore, rather
an accurate representation of an historical fact, than a myste
rious symbol, though, of course, we do not doubt that it was
with a mystical intent that it was painted there.
* Sec page 196.
CHAPTER VII.
GILDED GLASSES FOUND IN THE CATACOMBS.
THERE are, in many of the great museums of Europe, Various

collections more or less extensive of articles found in frtlFIes found
in the
the Catacombs of Rome. Rings, coins, terra-cotta lamps Catacombs,
with Christian emblems upon them, and various other ob
jects of domestic use or ornament, have been from time to
time discovered in the Christian cemeteries. They have been
found stuck into the cement which surrounds the loculi, and
must have been placed there at the time of burial, and by
surviving friends who desired thus to express their own affec
tion, and to distinguish the grave of their departed relative
from those around it. In some few instances the instruments
of martyrdom were buried with the martyr; and although
many of the articles exhibited under this appellation are
undoubtedly fictitious, still there seems no reason why we
should doubt the genuineness of some of the ungula, or iron-
claws, and of the plumbata* or scourges loaded with lead
which are to be seen in Christian museums, and which cor
respond exactly to the instruments of torture described in
the Acts of the Martyrs, and other ancient records. The
Vatican Library contains the largest collection of these Chris
tian antiquities ; but very rarely has any account of the locality
in which they have been discovered been preserved, and thus
they have lost much of their interest and historical value.
Another class of objects, however, have an interest and value Gilded glass.
* R. S. ii. 164.
of their own, and tell their own story ; although here also, in
many instances, we have to regret the absence of information
as to the locality in which they were discovered. These are
the fragments of glass, ornamented with figures and letters in
gold, of which the largest collection is to be seen in the
Vatican Library. Smaller collections may be found in the
Kircherian Museum at the Roman College, and in the museum
of the Propaganda. The British Museum possesses about
thirty specimens, the museums of Paris, Florence, and Naples,
not so many. Among private collections, Mr C. W. Wilshere's
in this country is probably one of the best ; it contains about
twenty specimens, the more important of which are at present
in the loan collection of the South Kensington Museum.
Description of These glasses are, the greater part of them, evidently the
fnihe fou'ui bottoms of drinking cups. Their peculiarity consists in a
C atacombs. design having been executed in gold leaf on the fiat bottom of
the cup, in such a manner as that the figures and letters
should be seen from the inside, like the designs on the glass
bottoms of the ale tankards so popular at Oxford and Cambridge.
The gold leaf was then protected by a plate of glass, which
was welded by fire so as to form one solid mass with the cup.
These cups, like the other articles found in the Catacombs,
were stuck into the still soft cement of the newly-closed grave ;
and the double glass bottom, imbedded in the piaster, has
resisted the action of time, while the thinner portion of the
cup, exposed to accident and decay by standing out from the
plaster, has in almost every instance perished. Boldetti
informs us that he found two or three cups entire, and his
representation of one of these is given in Padre Garrucci's
work.* Even the bottoms of these glass cups have frequently
perished in the attempt to detach them from the plaster, and
the impression left in the cement is often all that remains to
show the loss sustained by Christian archaeology.
The discovery of these glasses is coeval with that of the
* Vetri ornati di figure in n1n.- Tar. xxxix. nn. "a, 7b, first edition.
Gilded Glasses found in the Catacombs. 277
Catacombs themselves. Bosio found five or six fragments of Their dis
covery by
them during all his researches on the Via Appia and Via Kosio and
Ardeatina, and then found an equal number of whole unbroken Roman"
specimens in a single gallery on the Via Salaria ; and when Catacombs.
Aringhi published the drawings and descriptions of these, he
added an account of a few others that had been discovered
since. Buonarruoti's work contains an account of about
seventy specimens, which were all that were known in his
time. Boldetti added about thirty more. Padre Garnicci,
however, has obtained accurate drawings of all the specimens
now extant in the various museums of Europe, so that in his
publication we have a full collection of about 340, twenty of
which, however, only exist in the pages of Boldetti, Olivieri,
and other authors. Modern exploration has not brought to
light many new specimens. In the course of twenty-three
years of labour in the Catacombs, De Rossi has only come
upon two fragments, and two or three have been brought to Two found at
• • Cologne,
light by the excavations recently made at Ostia. Until 1864
not a single specimen had been discovered except in the
neighbourhood of Rome, but in that year a very remarkable
fragment of a gilded glass plate was found at Cologne in
excavating the foundations of a house near the Church of
St Severin ; and in 1866 another, though of a different work
manship, was discovered, together with some charred bones,
in a rough stone chest about thirty inches in length, and
fifteen in width and depth, in a similar excavation near the
well-known Church of St Ursula and her companions. This
last specimen is now in the Slade Collection in the British
Museum ; and a woodcut of the other is given in page 290.
These two exceptions scarcely seem sufficient to overthrow The art of
the general opinion of archaeologists that Rome was the only JjlfownBonl>"in
place where this kind of glass was manufactured. Garrucci Rome ;
has, indeed, adopted a further conclusion, and considers the
art to have been confined to the Roman Christians. It is,
however, exceedingly improbable that the Christians should
278 Roma Solterranea.
have been acquainted with any ornamental art which was
unknown to their Pagan cotemporaries. Besides, several of
the figures represent gladiatorial combats and scenes from
Pagan mythology, such as no Christian artist of the early ages
would have thought of depicting, nor can either the figures or
the inscriptions which accompany them be in any way adapted
so as to bear a Christian signification. How, then, it may be
asked, are we to account for the fact of these glasses scarcely
ever having been found except in Christian sepulchral crypts ?
We acknowledge the fact, but deny the inference : for it is no
less a fact that these glasses have never been discovered in
any Christian building or sepulchre above ground, and yet we
know that from very early times, and more especially after
a.d. 312, the Christians possessed many places of burial which
were not subterranean. That no such glasses have come
down to us from antiquity, except those found in the Cata
combs, is to be ascribed to their extremely fragile nature,
which the peculiar circumstance of their having been imbedded
in mortar alone preserved from destruction. Cavedoni con
jectures, with much probability, that vessels of glass thus orna
mented have been destroyed in great quantities for the sake of
the gold which they contained, and this conjecture is confirmed
by one or two instances recently found, in which some of the
gold leaf has been scraped away with an instrument forced
in between the plates of glass.* The Jew " dealers in broken
glass," who plied their trade in Trastevere, even in the days
of Martial,t may have had some share in producing the scarcity
of specimens of this kind of manufacture.
It is difficult to determine precisely the period to which
these glasses are to be assigned. Olivieri discovered one in
the cemetery of St Callixtus, " in the middle of which was
* Cavedoni, ( (sservazioni, &c., p. 6, &c., quoted in /tullcttiuo, 1864, p. 82.

t Transtyberimis ambulator.
Qui pallentia sulphurata fraciis
Pcrmutat vitreis. — i. 42.
Gilded Glasses found in the Catacombs 2 79
represented a heap of money, and in the centre of the heap,
on the top of all the rest, was to be distinguished the head of
Caracalla."* Another glass bears the name of Marcellinus,
who was martyred under Diocletian in a.d. 304^ From an
examination of the style of dress, and of the mode of arranging
the hair, as also from the orthography of the legends and other
indications, Padre Garrucci considers them all anterior to the
time of Theodosius ; and De Rossi speaks more precisely,
assigning them to a period ranging from the middle of the
third to the beginning of the fourth century.
The subjects depicted on them are more varied than Subjects tle-
those painted on the walls of the Catacombs. A few are, as J1Je^f °™
we have already mentioned, scenes from Pagan mythology : Pagan.
Hercules, Achilles, and Pagan gods and goddesses. Others
represent boxers contending for the prize, charioteers, and
hunting scenes ; a ship-builder with his men variously em
ployed ; a money-coiner, a tailor, and a druggist, each in his
shop. Domestic scenes from the nursery and the schoolroom Social and
are also here to be met with ; a father and mother, with domestic-
one or more of their children in front of them ; or still more
frequently, a husband and wife, standing side by side, some
times with hands joined over the nuptial altar, which is
generally presided over by Christ, either represented by His
monogram ^jj^, or else in His own person crowning the
married couple. In one instance, it seems to be an angel
instead of Christ, who is assisting at the union ; but it is quite
possible that this may be a Pagan scene, and the winged
figure may be intended for Cupid. Five or six specimens
exhibit the seven-branched candlestick, the ark containing the Jewish,
rolls of the law, and other Jewish symbols ; but the great
majority are manifestly Christian.
Three of these, of which two are in the possession of Mr Most fre-
W'ilshere, have one or two figures in the centre, and, grouped tian?''5, ^ "*
around these, a number of subjects from Holy Scripture.
* Garrucci, Tav. xxxiii. n. 5. t lb., Tav. xix. n. 3.
280 Roma Sottervanea.
Description of Thus in one * we have Christ with the rod of power changing
some of these.
the water into wine ; Tobias with the monster fish ; Christ
with the rod of power enabling the paralytic to carry his bed ;
and lastly, with the same rod of power protecting the Three
Children in the flaming furnace of Babylon. Another, also in
the possession of Mr \Y'ilshere,t has the Apostles Peter and
Paul in the centre, and the six compartments around them
contain successively figures of the Three Children ; a man,
supposed by Garrucci to be the prophet Isaias, with a roll of
a book taken out of a chest, and a symbolical figure of the
sun ; then a female figure praying, possibly the Virgin, whose
maternity the prophet saw in vision ; next a man, probably the
prophet Isaias, being sawn asunder by two executioners ; then
another man with a rod and a serpent in front of him, probably
Moses and the brazen serpent, which Our Lord tells us was a
type of Himself; and lastly, Moses striking the rock. These
and other scriptural subjects, such as the Fall, Noe in the Ark,
the sacrifice of Isaac, the destruction of the dragon by Daniel,
and the history of Jonas, are found sometimes singly, and
sometimes together. Our Lord is frequently represented as
the Good Shepherd, or as multiplying the loaves, or changing
the water into wine ; but in this latter miracle the number of
water-pots is invariably represented as seven instead of six,
apparently to signify that the symbolical meaning of the
miracle as a type of the Holy Eucharist was principally in
the artist's mind.
Figures „f The Blessed Virgin is represented sometimes alone, with
Saints. .
her name over her head, praying between two olive-trees ;
sometimes with the Apostles Peter and Paul on either side of
her ; sometimes accompanied by the virgin martyr St Agnes.
St Agnes is found on several glasses with similar variations.
Other saints, as St Lawrence, St Vincent, Hippolytus, Callix-
tus, Marcellinus, Sixtus, Timotheus, &c., are found more
* Garrucci, Tav. i. n. I. t lb. I. c. n. 2.

rarely. But the favourite subject is evidently the representa

tion of the two great Apostles Saints Peter and Paul.
Those who have passed a summer in Rome will not easily Feast of
forget the enthusiasm with which the Romans still keep the ancTpauf"
festa of their great patrons. Even the vast basilica on the
Vatican appears full of citizens in gala dress, when they listen
with proud satisfaction to the glorious hymn :
" () felix Roma ! quae duorum Principum
Es consecrata glorioso sanguine,
Horum cruore purpurata cseteras
Kxcellis orbis una pulchritudines."
The sermons of St Leo the Great, and the poems of Pruden- at Rome in
tius, show us with what solemnity the festival was observed in fourth cenlul>
the fourth and fifth century. " The people flock together,"
sings the latter, " for more than ordinary joys. Tell me, my
friend, what this may be ? They run to and fro through the
whole of Rome, and shout for joy, because to us this festal
day of the Apostles' triumph has come again, this day enobled
by the blood of Peter and of Paul." * These festivities were
then, as now, apt to run into excess, and hence St Jerome,
while thanking Eustochium for her childish presents of sweet
meats, adds the caution, " It is the feast and birthday of
Blessed Peter . . . and therefore we must take all the more
care that we keep this solemn day not so much with the
abundance of our food, as with the gladness of our souls.
For it is very absurd to propose with over-eating to honour
a martyr, who you know pleased God by his fasts." t St
Augustine laments the dishonour done by scenes of riot
to the saints, "whom drunkards now persecute with their
cups, as much as the furious Pagans used to pursue them
with stones;" % and he specially mourns over the scandal
given by the wine-bibbing in " the basilica of St Peter," §
where agapa were celebrated in the portico for the benefit of
* Peristeph. xii. t Ep. xxxi., ad Kustochium.
X hnarr. in Ps. lix. § Ep. xxix., ad Alypium, § 10.
the poor. Paulinus of Nola tells us how the agapa thus de

generated, how " the table of Peter receives what the teaching
of Peter denounces," and at the same time he draws a graphic
picture of a fesia in the fourth century. " Among the crowds
attracted thither by the fame of St Felix," he says,*—and with
one alteration we may fairly transfer his description to Rome
on the 29th of June,— " there are peasants recently converted
who cannot read, and who, before embracing the faith of
Christ, had long been the slaves of profane usages, and had
obeyed their senses as gods. They arrive here from afar, and
from all parts of the country. Glowing with faith, they despise
the chilling frosts ;t they pass the entire night in joyous watch-
ings ; they drive away slumber by gaiety, and darkness by
torches. But they mingle festivities with their prayers, and,
after singing hymns to God, abandon themselves to good
cheer. They joyously stain with odoriferous wine the tombs
of the saints. They sing in the midst of their cups, and by
their drunken lips the devil insults St Felix. I have there
fore," continues the good bishop, " thought good to enliven
with holy pictures the whole temple of St Felix. It may be,
when the sight of them strikes their astonished minds, these
coloured representations will arrest the attention of the rustics.
Inscriptions are placed above the pictures, in order that the
letters may explain what the hand has depicted. While they
point them out to one another, and read by turns these
pictured objects, they forget their eating till a later hour.
The enjoyment of the sight beguiles their hunger, better
habits are formed in these gazers, and studying these sacred
histories, chastity and virtue are engendered by such examples
of piety. . . . And as they spend the day in gazing more and
more, their potations become less frequent, and only a short
time remains for their repast."
* l'oema xxvi (aliter xxxv.) ; I)e Felice, Natal., carm. ix. v. 541, sn/q.
t The coniadini who spend the vigil of Saints Peter and Paul on the
steps and under the colonnade of the Piazza di San Pietro are not in danger
of frost.
Whether the same idea of restraining0 the, potations
r of the Figures of
Saints Peter
Roman Christians, by depicting figures which could only be ami Paul on
seen to advantage when the glass was empty, suggested the 8la5ses-
use of these gilded cups, we shall not pause to inquire. It is
at any rate certain that the feast of Saints Peter and Paul was
observed as a general holiday in Rome during the fourth century,
very much as Christmas is now amongst ourselves, and the repre
sentation of the two apostles on eighty glasses out of the three
hundred and forty published by Garrucci, is a strong argument
of their having been intended in some way or other to commemo
rate that day. The inscriptions, where they occur, with the
figures of the apostles, confirm this supposition, for they are all
of a convivial character. We give a few examples—Dignitas
AMICORVM PIE ZESES CVM TVIS OMNIBVS BIBAS. DlGNITAS AMI-
CORVM PIE ZESES CVM TVIS OMNIBVS BIBE ET PROPINA. CvM
tvis feliciter zeses. These may be translated—" A mark
of friendship * drink,+ and [long] life to thee, with all thine.
Mayest thou live [long]." " A mark of friendship, drink, and
[long] life to thee, with all thine, drink [or, live] and propose a
toast." " Mayest thou live happily with thine own" or, more
freely, " Life and happiness to thee and thine." A more reli
gious inscription has :— Hilaris vivas cvm tvis omnibvs
feliciter semper in pace dei zeses; that is, "Joyfully
mayest thou live with all thine; happily mayest thou live Jor
ever in the peace of God." Doubtless in Rome many a pious
pilgrim followed the practice which St Monica learned in
Africa, of whom St Augustine records, with the playful fond-
* Dignitas Amicorvm appears to have been equivalent to the phrase
Digni amid, with which a Roman host was accustomed to pledge his
guests before drinking their health. Perhaps it would have been more
exactly rendered by " Here's to our friendship." The phrase is evidently
alluded to by St Augustine in the passage quoted below, where digna-
tionem stands for the honour paid to the saints by St Monica with her cup
of wine.
T PiK, zkses, for tit, (1frjlt Oreek words in popular use in Rome.
BlBAS may be understood as it stands, or as written for Vivas. The
latter is more in conformity with the spelling on the inscriptions in the
Catacomb., in which VlXIT is usually written BtxiT.
ness of filial affection, that she used to bring to the festivals
" a small cup of wine, diluted according to her own abstemious
habits, which for courtesy she would taste (' untie dignationem
sumeret'). And if there were many shrines of the departed
saints to be honoured in that manner, she would carry round
that one same cup which she used everywhere ; and this, even
when it had become not only very watery, but unpleasantly
lukewarm, she would distribute to those about her by small
sips, for she sought there devotion, not pleasure." *
Ancient A question here naturally arises as to the representations of
of thiese* tlle Apostles, how far they may be considered to be real like-
Apostles, nesses, or whether they were purely conventional, invented and
perpetuated merely by Christian art. We have the testimony
of Eusebius that he had " seen representations of the Apostles
Peter and Paul, and of Christ Himself, still preserved in
paintings;" and he adds, "that it is probable that, according
to a practice among the Gentiles, the ancients were accus
tomed to pay this kind of honour indiscriminately to those
who were as saviours or deliverers to them.t Moreover, it
cannot be denied that there is a certain uniformity of type
about the figures of these Apostles on most of the glasses of
which we are speaking, so that they might often be distin
guished, even if there were no legends over their heads.
The oldest representation of them now extant is probably
that on a bronze medal preserved in the Vatican Library. J This
medal is about three inches in diameter ; it is executed in a fine
style of classical art, and the heads are finished with great care.
This was found by Boldetti in the cemetery of Domitilla, and
has every appearance of having been executed in the time of
the Flavian emperors, when Grecian art still flourished in Rome.
The portraits are very life-like and natural, bearing a strong im
press of individual character. One of the heads is covered with
short curly hair, the beard clipped short and also curled, the
features somewhat rough and common-place. The features
* Conf. vi. 2. Hist. Eccl. vii. c. 18. X See Plate XVII. 1.
of the other are more noble, graceful, and strongly marked,

the head is bold, and the beard is thick and long. This
valuable medal confirms the tradition preserved by Nice-
phorus * of the personal appearance of the two Apostles, the
first being that of St Peter, and the latter that of St Paul ; and,
as we have already said, these characteristics are in the main
retained in most of the glasses, excepting a few which are of
very inferior execution. The two Apostles are represented Variously
side by side, sometimes standing, and sometimes seated. In onâs". *"
some instances Christ is represented in the air (that is, from
heaven, as it were), holding over the head of each a crown of
victory ; or, in other instances, a single crown is suspended
between the two, as if to show that " in their death they were
not divided." This crown becomes sometimes a circle sur
rounding the labarum or , which is often supported on a
pillar, thus symbolising " the pillar and ground of the truth,"
which is " that very great, very ancient, and universally known
Church founded and organised at Rome by the two most
glorious Apostles Peter and Paul."t For there certainly seems
to be good ground for Mr Palmer's conjecture.^ that in some
of these glasses the Roman Church is intended to be symbol- sometimes
ised in the persons of her founders and patrons, rather than Roman"11 °f
the Apostles themselves to be represented personally. In this ( nurcn'
way we can account for their being placed on either side of
the Blessed Virgin, § of St Agnes, or of other saints, who have
their hands uplifted in prayer, whilst the Apostles are not in
the same attitude, and moreover, are made to appear of very
diminutive stature. It can never have been intended to
represent St Agnes as superior to the chiefs of the Apostles, or
* See also St Jerome, Comment, in lip. ad. Galat. i. i8, tom. vii. p.
329, ed. Migne. It is a curious coincidence also that in the apocryphal
Acts of the Apostles, edited by Teschendorf, it is said of Dioscorns, the ship
master, who had followed St Paul to Rome, and was mistaken for the
Apostle and beheaded in his stead, that he was bald, "<cai avrbt draqtaXarSof
t'lrapx"", P- 4- t S. Irenaeus, Il.-vr. iii. 3.
J Early Christian Symbolism, p. 21. * Sec Plate XVIII. I.
as making intercession for those who had " finished their
course " nearly a century and a half before her. Rather, we
understand St Agnes, St Peregrina, and the rest, even our
Blessed Lady herself, as praying for the Roman Church which
these Apostles had founded, and through it for the Church at
large. St Agnes was always accounted a very special orna
ment and glory of the Roman Church, and we have certain
proof of the Roman Christians of the fourth century asking
her prayers in the inscription by Pope Damasus, still to be
seen at the entrance of her church fuori le tmira—
UT DAMASI PRECIBUS FAVEAS PRECOR, INCLYTA VIRGO.
She was also represented alone * upon these glasses almost
more frequently than any other saint excepting the two
Apostles of whom we have been speaking.
St Peter under '^ne relative positions of these two Apostles, in ancient
Mosea^ °f w0rks of art, have been a subject of frequent discussion ever
since the days of St Peter Damian. It seems impossible,
however, to establish any theory upon them. St Peter is
generally at the right hand, but by no means always so ; and
if any one attempts to prove from this that the Roman
Christians looked upon the two Apostles as in all respects
equal and co-ordinate, he is met by the fact ;—first, that Our
Lord Himself is found once standing on the left of St Paul ; St
Agnes, too, in the place of honour, where she appears with
the Blessed Virgin ; and husbands, often placed on the left of
their wives : moreover, that Pagan artists, when they placed
Jupiter between Juno and Minerva, observe the same indiffer
ence as to the relative position of the two goddesses, t And
secondly, that the primacy of St Peter is distinctly attested in
some of these glasses by another symbol which can hardly be
misunderstood. We mean those in which he appears under
the type of Moses striking the rock. The rock, of course, at
once suggests the passage of St Paul : " They drank of that
* See Plate XVIII. 2. t Bullttt. 1868. 43.
spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ ; "
but we should hardly have ventured to affirm that the figure
striking the rock was St Peter, if his name had not, in two
instances at least, been unmistakably given at his side. One
of these glasses has been long known to antiquarian visitors to
the Vatican Museum,* and within the last few months a
second, preserved in the same place, but whose surface had
become corroded and opaque, has been cleaned and rendered
transparent by Professor Tessieri. It does not differ in any
essential respect from the other, yet there is just sufficient
difference to indicate the hand of another artist.
Flfi. 33. —Bottom of a Gilded Glass found in the Catacombs, and lately cleaned and
restored to Ihe Vatican Museum.
These invaluable glasses supply us with a key to many of
the paintings in the Catacombs and sculptures on Christian
sarcophagi, where the same scene is so fre<]uentlv repeated.
They show us that St Peter was considered to be the Moses
• See Hate XVII. 2.
288 Roma Sotkrranea.
of " the new Israel of God," as Prudentius speaks, and they
explain the reason why the rod, the emblem of Divine power,
is never found except in three hands, those of Moses, Christ,
and Peter. It belongs primarily, and by inherent right, to
Christ, the eternal Son of God. By Him it was of old dele
gated to Moses, of whom God testified, " He is most faithful
in all my house." * For a few years the rod of power was
visibly wielded by the Incarnate Word ; and when He with
drew His own visible presence from the earth, " afterwards,''
to use the words of St Macarius of Egypt,t " Moses was suc
ceeded by Peter, to whom is committed the New Church of
Christ, and the new priesthood." We understand, also, that it
is not without reason that in the sarcophagi the figure striking
the rock is almost invariably found in immediate juxtaposition
with the Prince of the Apostles led captive by the satellites of
Herod Agrippa, and there is frequently a studied similarity in
the features of the principal figure in both scenes. The most
striking example of this is in the large sarcophagus which
stands at the end of the principal hall in the Lateran Museum.
In one of the four compartments into which the front of that
sarcophagus is divided, we have an epitome of St Peter's life.
First, he stands with the rod of power, already given to him
by his Divine Master, who is warning him of his fall, sym
bolised by the cock at his feet. Next, he is taken prisoner by
the satellites of Agrippa, but he still bears the rod, for " the
Word of God is not bound," and no worldly violence can
wrench the rod of jurisdiction from him to whom Christ has
given it.* Lastly, he appears under the symbol of Moses,
* Num. xii. 7 ; compare Heb. iii. 5, 6. t Hom. xxvi. c. 23.
* There must have been some special cause for the frequent repetition of
this scene. The most reasonable explanation is, that St Peter's imprison
ment and miraculous deliverance, after w hich " he went into another place "
(Acts xii. 1 7), was the occasion of his coming to Rome, where the same
scene was enacted again and again in the apprehension and martyrdom of
so many of his successors. The parallel event in the life of St Paul (his
imprisonment and deliverance at Philippi) is nowhere reproduced in early
Christian art. See Palmer's "Symbohsm," p. 18.
using the rod to bring from " the spiritual Rock " the streams
of grace, at which the Israel of God slake the thirst of their
souls. We have already seen that the same idea runs through
the paintings in the earliest cubicula of the Catacombs. All ar"i >" frescoes
. in Catacombs,
sacramental grace is there represented as flowing from that
one stream over which Peter presides. Early in the fifth cen
tury, St Augustine expressed the same idea when, writing to
Pope Innocent I., he said, " We do not pour back our stream
let for the purpose of increasing your great fountain, but we
wish it to be decided by you whether our stream, however
small, flows forth from that same Head of rivers whence comes
your own abundance." * And in his reply the Pope says of St
Peter, "from whom the very Episcopate, and all the authority
of this name '(of the Apostolic See) sprung . . . that thence
all other churches might derive what they should order; whom
they should absolve ; whom, as bemired with ineffaceable
pollution, the stream that is worthy only of pure bodies should
avoid ; just as from their parent source all waters flow, and
through the different regions of the whole world the pure
streams of the fountain well forth uncorrupted." t
Among the glasses delineated by P. Garrucci may be noticed Large patena
a great number of very small size. These had been sup- medallions let
posed to belong to glass cups of small dimensions ; but a "Uo tlle s'ass-
careful examination of them, especially since the discovery
which we have mentioned of the fragments of a glass plate at
Cologne, has proved that they once formed parts of similar
patencs. It will be observed that they rarely contain a whole
subject at once. Thus one of them will contain the figure of
Adam, another that of Eve, while the tree and the serpent
coiled round it will be represented on a third. The Three
Children are represented each on a separate glass, and so are
the three Magi. Our Lord, or St Peter, as the case may be,
* S. Aug. Kpist. clxxvii. vol. ii. p. 938, ed. Gaume.
t Inter Epist. S. Aug. 181 ; ib., p. 949. See Note C. in Appendix,
on the Chair of St Ptter, and its connexion with the Baptismal Font on
the Vatican.
X
290 Roma Soiterra nea.
is represented about a dozen times standing alone with a rod

in his hand, while on other glasses are to be seen the paralytic
carrying his bed, Lazarus as a mummy at the door of his
Fni. 34. —fragments t\fa Ctnss Patena found at Cokgnt.

sepulchre, and the rock with the stream issuing from it. It
is true that sometimes these small glasses have been taken out
of the series to which they belong. Thus, one published by
Garrucci in Tav. iv. 9, which is in the Vatican, was found in

the plaster round a child's grave, in the cemetery of St Pris-
cilla, surrounded with a circle of iron with a ring by which it
had been hung round the neck as a medal ; and yet the sub
ject is one of the three Magi. But the general use of these
small glasses is proved by the fragments discovered at Cologne,
of a flat plate about ten inches in diameter made of clear glass,
into which have been inserted, while in a state of fusion, a num
ber of small medallions of green glass exactly similar to those
found separately in Rome, and which together form a series of
scriptural subjects. These medallions, being of double glass,
have resisted the ravages of time and accident which have de
stroyed the more thin and fragile glass of the patena. De Rossi
has seen in the plaster oiloculi in the Catacombs the impression
of large plates of this description, which have probably perished
in the attempt to detach them from the cement.""'
We have alluded to the probable use of these glasses at the r,la5S chalice.
Agapce, and the subjects on many of them suggest their having
been also used on other festive occasions, as marriages, birth
days, &C. It is however a more interesting question to con
sider whether it is not possible that some of them may have
been used as patens or chalices in the celebration of the Holy
Eucharist. The well-known passage in which Tertullian scoffs
at the Roman Pontiff for painting on his chalice the figure of
the Good Shepherd,t would lead us to suppose that the
chalices of the second and third century must have been fre
quently of similar material and workmanship to the glasses of
which we are treating. The celebrated Grant or Sacto Catino,
preserved at Genoa, which is supposed to have been the
chalice used by our Saviour at the Last Supper, and in search
for which so many romantic adventures were encountered by
legendary knights, is of glass, and of hexagonal form ; but it
* Butlett. 1864, pp. 89-91.

t " Ipsre pictura calicum vcstrorum, si vel in illis perluccbit interpretatio,"
&c. ; and again, "pastor quem in calice depingis."— Tu t. Dt Pudkit. 7, 10.
would not be safe to deduce any archaeological argument
from so doubtful a relic.* The Liber Pontificalis says of St
Zephyrinus, that " he made it a constitution of the Church,
that ministers should carry glass patais into the church in
front of the priests, while the bishop celebrated mass with
the priests standing before him, and that in this manner
masses should be celebrated, care being taken for what be
longed to the rights of the bishop, that the clergy only should
take away for all present the Holy Loaf (coronam) consecrated
by the bishop's own hand, and that the priest should receive
it to administer it to the people." About twenty years after
wards, St Urban " made the consecrated vessels all of silver,
and set apart twenty-five silver patens." From these notices
later writers, such as Honorius of Autun, have affirmed that
" the Apostles and their successors celebrated masses in
wooden chalices ; Pope Zephyrinus in glass ; but Urban, Pope
and martyr, ordained that the Holy Sacrifice should be offered
in gold or silver chalices and patens.'' t The passages, how
ever, do not bear out so absolute a limitation of the period of
glass chalices to the few years between Zephyrinus and Urban.
It is not said that the latter Pope forbade the use of chalices
of less precious materials ; it is merely stated that he provided
sacred vessels of silver, and especially a number of patens
corresponding to the number of the city tituli. The history
of St Sixtus IT. and St Laurence shows that the treasures of
the Church were constantly liable to confiscation, and it would
have been as impossible to ensure the sacred vessels being
always of the precious metals in Rome, during the ages of
persecution, as it is now for those Christian communities which
groan under the bondage of Mohammedanism. \ When hap-
* See Didron, ''Christian Iconography," vol. i. ]>. 270, note, (ISohn's
trans.) t De Gemma Arums, i. 89.
X t he present writer once received a visit from a Coptic priest, who
begged earnestly to have given him for a chalice one of the ale-glasses
which he saw on the table of the Nile-boat saloon. Glass chalices are
universal throughout Kyypt in the Coptic churches.
pier clays came, and the munificent gifts of gold and silver
chalices displaced the glass vessels, it was not at all unlikely
for some of the latter to be put up as tokens of affection and
distinction on the tombs of the departed, and hence it is quite
possible that some of our glasses may be fragments of chalices.
The patatcc vitrea which St Zephyrinus required, belong to a Glass patemt
different category. They were not for the use of the celebrant alu* t'u"'1 llse
bishop or priest ; but in conformity with that ancient practice
which required all the priests in cathedral cities on Sundays
and great festivals to assist at the bishop's mass, St Zephy
rinus ruled that the priests of the several titles should be
attended on such occasions by a minister with a glass patena,
in which a requisite number of consecrated hosts (made then
in the form of the Roman circular biscuit ciambella, and hence
called corona) should be placed at the bishop's mass, and taken
by the priests to be administered to the faithful in the different
parishes, who thus signified their union with the bishop by
" being all partakers of that one bread " consecrated by his
hands. "Take heed," says St Ignatius of Antioch, " that you
have but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of Our Lord
Jesus Christ, and one chalice in the unity of His blood. One
altar, as there is but one bishop, with the priests, and the
deacons, my fellow-servants.''* Now, the fragments of the
two large patena discovered at Cologne, correspond exactly
to the kind of glass paten here mentioned. The scriptural
subjects, and the absence of any allusions to secular feasting,
accord well with so sacred a purpose, and we may therefore
fairly presume that those other smaller glasses of which we
have also spoken may also be remains of the patena used to
convey the Blessed Sacrament from the Pope's altar to the
parish churches in Rome. Padre Carrucci thinks this not
improbable, although he does not admit that any of our Cata-
* S. Ign. ad Philadelph. c. 4; compare ad Smyrn. c. 8:— "Let that

be deemed a sure Eucharist which is [administered] cither by the bishop, or
by one to whom he has entrusted it."
comb glasses ever formed portions of Eucharistic chalices.

The patena found near the Church of St Ursula differs from
the other discovered two years before, in having the subjects
depicted in gold and colours on the surface of the glass, in
stead of being within medallions of double glass. The draw
ing is also in a better style of art.
Fig. 15.— Sauopho£tts still 1c /v tftu in Cemetery rfSntt Caliiste.

CHAPTER VIII.
CHRISTIAN SARCOPHAGI.
IN the course of the preceding chapters we have frequently Christian use

had occasion to mention the sarcophagi, or stone coffins, ° sarcoP 881
in which some of the more illustrious of those buried in the
Catacombs were laid to rest. The use of sarcophagi comes
down from the remotest Egyptian antiquity, and, as we have
already remarked, it prevailed in Rome before the practice of
burning became general. Examples of Pagan Roman sarco
phagi may be seen in almost every museum, and the most ex
tensive collection of Christian sarcophagi is to be found in the
great hall of the Lateran Palace. It was arranged by Padre
Marchi, and additions have been made from time to time under
the direction of the Commendatore De Rossi. Before exam
ining this interesting collection of early Christian sculpture, it
is worth while to inquire into the Christian use of this mode of
burial, in order that we may gain some general idea as to the
date of the specimens before us.
We have seen that the Catacomb of St Domitilla,'* which dates from
bears every mark of having been constructed in the time of ^mes.'° 'C
the Flavian emperors, appears originally to have been intended
solely for the reception of those buried in sarcophagi. The
loculi, cut through the plaster which covers the walls of the
first portion of this cemetery, are manifestly later additions ;
while the wide recesses, in which the sarcophagi once stood,
prove the original design of the sepulchre. In fact, the body
of St Petronilla lay here in a stone sarcophagus, in which it
* Sec page 71.
was translated to St Peter's by Pope Paul I. In 1474, King
Louis XI. of France restored the altar of this saint, and in
consequence the sarcophagus was exposed to view; and there
is a letter of Pope Sixtus IV. to the king, in which he describes
it as having four dolphins at the corners. The inscription,
AURELIAE PETRONILLAE FILIAE DVI.CISSIMAK,
is said to have been engraven by the hand of St Peter himself,
whose daughter, in the Gospel, this saint of Caesar's household
was. The sarcophagus of Linus, the immediate successor of
St Peter, is related by Severano * to have been found in the
time of Urban VIII., during the restoration of the Confession
of St Peter. The Christian use of sarcophagi, then, appears
to have been coeval with the introduction of Christianity.
There were, however, several reasons which made this mode
of burial far from general among the Christians.
They were not, In the first place, the sarcophagus was an expensive article,
veVyCgcn'er"l an^ tne mass of the Christian community was composed of
use- the poor. The conveyance of a heavy stone coffin from the
city to the cemetery required the presence of a considerable
number of workmen, and must have attracted more attention
to the Christian cemeteries than was generally desirable.
Consequently we find, at a very early period, the sepolero a
mensa, which is nothing else but a sarcophagus cut out of the
living rock ; and the later form of this kind of sepulchre was,
as we have seen, the arcosolium,\ which has been described as
" an excavated sarcophagus, with arched niche above."
Christian sub- Even when the Christians did bury their dead in sarcophagi,
sculptured on clo not appear> unl1l the ages of persecution had passed
sarcophagi away, to have ornamented them with sculptures of a distinctive
during ages ... < ^ /- , ,- , , , . •
of persecution. Christian character. Out of the four hundred and ninety-three
dated inscriptions, described by De Rossi as belonging to the
first four centuries, only eighteen are found on sarcophagi, and
of these not more than four bear dates anterior to the time of
* See page 65. t Sec fig. 4, 5, in page 30.
Christian Sarcophagi. 297
Constantine. These are ornamented with genii, or griffins, or
pastoral or hunting scenes ; and the earliest dated sarco
phagus, with a distinctively Christian subject sculptured upon
it, is one from the Catacomb of Saints Peter and Marcellinus,
upon which is represented the Nativity with the ox and ass,
and which bears a consular date corresponding to a.d. 343.
This tardy development of Christian sculpture cannot be
explained by the supposition that the Church forbade or dis
couraged the representation of sacred subjects and symbols,
for if such had been the case, the same rule would have
applied to painting, and we have seen that no restriction was
placed upon the Christian artist even from the apostolic age.
A simple explanation of the contrast presented by these two
branches of Christian art is to be found in the consideration
of the widely different circumstances under which the painter
and the sculptor pursued their respective callings during times
of persecution. The Christian artist, concealed in the bowels
of the earth, prosecuted his labours without fear of danger ;
while the sculptor would be unable to execute Christian sub
jects in his workshop without drawing a dangerous attention
to his work. Hence upon the sarcophagi, prior to the time of
Constantine, we find Christianity, if represented at all, veiled
under forms which were not unknown even to the Pagans ;
while upon those belonging to the period which followed the
peace of the Church, we notice at once the reproduction in
marble of the same series of sacred subjects which we have
seen reduced to a regular symbolical system in the subter
ranean fresco-paintings of the second and third centuries. In
fact, no sooner was peace given to the Church than Christian
art sprang up everywhere, and sarcophagi of the fourth cen
tury, adorned with Christian sculptures, have been found in
Aries and Saragossa as freely as in Rome, Ravenna, or Milan.*
* A great number of Christian sarcophagi, discovered in the neighbour

hood of Aries, may still be seen in the museum of that city. There ap
pears to have been a very considerable school of Christian sculpture there.
298 Ronn i Si itterra nea .
Subjects From the difficulties in the way of anything like the for
selected by
Christians mation of a Christian school of sculpture during the ages of
from the
Pagan shops. persecution, it is evident that those who wished to procure
sarcophagi must have had recourse to the shops of the heathen ;
and an examination of the fragments which remain of these
ages proves, that they took, considerable pains to select those
which did not directly offend against the Christian religion by
representing idolatrous rites, or false gods, or scenes clearly
peculiar to Paganism. Sarcophagi with such scenes sculptured
upon them are sometimes indeed to be met with in the Cata
combs, but they have either been carefully defaced with a
chisel, or turned against the wall ; and when used to close
loculi, the sculpture has been turned towards the inside of the
tomb. For instance, a bacchanalian scene sculptured on a
sarcophagus was found in the cemetery of St Lucina, turned
against the wall, while the rough side was exposed to view,
and on this side was inscribed the name of the deceased,
irkne. The sarcophagi usually found in Christian ceme
teries are ornamented either by wave-lines,* or by scenes of
Pastoral pastoral life, agriculture, the chase, and (more rarely) comic
scenes. figures. Figures with their hands raised in prayer, orand,
were not unknown on Pagan tombs. A shepherd with a sheep
on his shoulders is also to be found among heathen subjects.
These were at once expressive of thoroughly Christian ideas,
and were consequently in great request, as the numerous
examples of them testify. Sometimes, other subjects appear
less susceptible of a Christian interpretation. Cupid and
Psyche are represented side by side with a Good Shepherd,
who is overturning a basket of fruit, an omen of evil rather
than good, t It is however fair to add, that this sculpture
was found with signs of plaster upon it, and had been buried
beneath the floor of the chamber. Another, found in the
Ulysses and crypt of St Lucina, represents the story of Ulysses and the
Syrens. Syrens, and it is probable that the monogram of tvranio was
* As in 1'ig. 15, page lo9. t Kig. 32. page 261.
a disguised form of the Cross. * This is not the only instance
of the representation of this fable on Christian tombs; and in
the fifth century, St Maximus of Turin explained the ship of
Ulysses to be a type of the Church, the mast being the Cross,
by which the faithful are to be kept from the seductions of the
senses, " for in that Christ Our Lord was fastened to the Cross,
so let us pass through the ensnaring perils of the world
with as it were closed ears; thus shall we be neither held
back by the pernicious hearing of the world's voice, nor
swerve from our course to the better life and fall upon the
rocks of voluptuousness." t Both these fragments of sarco
phagi may be seen in the Catacomb of St Callixtus.
The Good Shepherd at each end of one of the sarcophagi in
that Catacomb, which still contains the well-preserved body of
a man, was probably taken from the Pagan shops. The dog at
his feet is foreign to Christian art. % Yet the chamber was
probably not made before the fourth century, and another
sarcophagus in it is covered with subjects wholly biblical.
In the Lateran Museum a good specimen of a Pagan Good
Shepherd, adapted to Christian purposes, may be seen about
the middle of the hall, on the right-hand side. It represents
three shepherds, one holding a sheep by his tail, the second
with a sheep on his shoulders and another at his feet, while
the third leans on his staff and watches three sheep feeding on
the mountain-side, a fourth lying at his feet. This sarcophagus
bears the inscription :—
EN9AAE IIATAEIXA
KEITA1 MAKAPUN"
ENI XOPO
HN KHAET2E IIAKATA
EHN ePEIITEII'AN"
TATKEPHN
AHAN EN XP12
" Here Pauline lies in the place of the blessed whom Pacata buried
[for she was] her sweet and holy nurse in Christ."
* I' ig. 2%, page 232.
t S. Maxim. Hom. i. He (."nice Domini. See also Philosophumena, vii.
C 1, Clark's edition, vol. i. p. 267. % Fig. 35, page 294.
Bosio says that it was dug up out of the cemetery of St Friscilla

on the Via Salaria, and he infers from the inscription that that
cemetery was a celebrated resting-place of saints.* The sar
cophagus, with Orpheus and a fisherman sculptured upon it,
of which a lithograph is given in Plate XX. at the end of the
volume, belongs to the same category.
.Sarcophagi in Since sculpture cannot be said to have existed as a Christian
the Lateran. .... .
That nearest art before the time of Constantine, we may safely attribute all
t ie entrance. ^ ^^phag^ with distinctively Christian subjects sculptured
upon them, to the fourth and fifth centuries; and having thus
determined an approximation to their date, we may pass on to
examine some of the more remarkable specimens. AVe will
commence with the large sarcophagus which stands at the end
of the hall in the Lateran, and which is usually the first to
attract the attention of visitors. A lithograph is given of it at
the end of the volume. t This sarcophagus was recently found
above the tomb of St Paul, when the excavations were made
for the construction of the magnificent Baklacchino which now
covers the high altar in his basilica on the Via Ostiensis.
That basilica was rebuilt by Theodosius towards the close of
the fourth century, and this sarcophagus appears to have been
placed there about that time. The unfinished faces of the
busts in the centre, doubtless intended for the man and
woman to be buried in it, and other heads in the same incom
plete condition, show that some circumstance prevented the
execution of the original design. It has been suggested that
the invasion of the Goths under Alaric was the cause, and this
would fix the date at a.d. 410.
The Holy Beginning at the right hand of the upper part of the sar-
Inmty. cophagus, we have three bearded figures, representing by
their unity of operation the Three Persons of the Ever-
Blessed Trinity. The Eternal Father, as the source and
fountain of Deity, is symbolised by the figure in the chair,
veiled, as the episcopal chair was, in token of His supreme
* Bosio, Rom. Sott. p. 513. t Plate XIX.
J
dignity. In front of Him is a figure who represents the

Eternal Word, by whom all things were made, in the act of
creating Eve from the side of the sleeping Adam. Behind the
seated figure stands a third, to represent the Holy Ghost, who
co-operates in the work of creation. In the next group we The Fall,
see the serpent with the fatal apple in his mouth, which he
offers to our common mother, while between the guilty pair is
Our Lord, here represented without a beard, because it was in
the depth of the shame of the fall that He was revealed as the
promised seed who should be born of the woman, and the Incar
nation is expressed by the signs of youth. He gives to Adam
a sheaf, for " in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread ;"
while to Eve he gives a lamb, a type of domestic labour in
spinning, and also of the Lamb of God whom the second Eve
was to bring forth to atone for all the evil that the first Eve
had brought upon mankind. Immediately below we see two TheEpiphany.
other groups, evidently intended to contrast in some way with
those already described. Here the Eternal Word is again
represented, but this time not according to His divine nature
by which He is co-equal with the Father, but He is the Word
made flesh, an infant on His mothers knee. The Holy Ghost
is represented just as before, for it was by the operation of the
Holy Ghost that Mary conceived the Second Person of the
Blessed Trinity in her virginal womb. Her chair is not veiled,
to distinguish the most blessed of creatures from the unap
proachable Creator ; and to mark the twofold generation of
Christ, that which is invisible by which He was born of the
Father before all w orlds, and that which was made manifest by
which He was born of His mother in the world. The uni
versality of His kingdom is typified by the three Magi, the
representatives of the whole Gentile Church. And finally, the
application of the universal redemption to the individual is set
forth by Christ giving sight to the blind, while He holds in Our Lord
. . giving sight to
His hand a roll, either to signify His divine mission, or to the blind,
show that it is His doctrine which alone can enlighten the
Eucharistic eyes of the darkened understandings of men. Turning now to
types.
the upper portion of the other side of the sarcophagus, we see
our Lord with the rod of His power changing the water into
wine, and multiplying the loaves, the well-known patristic
symbols of the Holy Eucharist, in which the wine becomes
His blood, and the bread His flesh, which He gives for the life
of the world. And then, as a type and foreshadowing of the
power of the Holy Eucharist even upon the mortal body, accord
ing to the promise, " He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My
blood hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up in the last
day," we have a third group, mutilated indeed, but with enough
remaining to show that it represents the raising of Lazarus.
St Peter. Beneath this Eucharistic series, as we may call it, we see St
Peter, having had already committed to him the rod of power,
which Our Lord held in the former series, and yet receiving
from his Master the solemn warning, " Before the cock crow
thou shalt deny Me thrice." The uplifted hand of Our Lord,
and the cock at St Peter's feet, express this with sufficient
clearness, while the rod in the Apostle's hand shows that his
fall would not deprive him of his great prerogatives, but that,
being converted, he should " confirm his brethren." The next
group represents the apprehension of St Peter; the bearded
face and general similarity of expression identify the Apostle,
and distinguish him from his Divine Master. The Jewish
caps mark the satellites of Herod Agrippa, and it is worthy of
note that, though they have power to lead the Apostle whither
he would not, yet he still retains the rod, for " the Word of
God is not bound," and imperial soldiers, who repeated the
scene over and over again in the person of Peter's successors,
have never been able to wrest from him the rod of power with
which he rules the Church as Vicar of Christ. Another reason,
which probably led to the very frequent representation of this
scene in St Peter's life, is that his imprisonment and miracul
ous deliverance was the immediate cause of his coming to
Rome and founding the Church there ; and thus Roman
Christians would see in the apprehension of St Peter the
symbol of " the Holy See of Blessed Peter, through which," in
the words of St Leo, Rome " was made a priestly and royal city,
and the head of the world, extending her sway more widely by
the religion of God than ever she had done by earthly domi
nation.'" The next group is a mutilated representation of
Moses striking the rock, of the waters flowing from which the
people of Israel are drinking. We have seen that the glasses
found in the Catacombs enable us to interpret this as a symbol
of St Peter, and in him the Christian priesthood, touching with
the rod of power the Rock from which the spiritual Israel draw
grace for all their needs. The remaining group, beneath the Daniel among
busts of the persons for whom the sarcophagus was intended, thc llons-
represents Daniel in the lions' den, protected by God under
the figure of an old man, while the figure offering to Daniel a
basket of food represents the prophet Habacuc, whom " the
angel of the Lord took by the top of his head, . . . and set
him in Babylon, over the den, in the force of His spirit.
Then Habacuc cried, saying: 'O Daniel, thou servant of
God, take the dinner that God hath sent thee."'t This group
is met with very frequently both in painting and sculpture. It
is found in the earliest known Catacomb, and it may be seen
in the subterranean church of San Clemente, among frescoes
of the tenth century. The continuator of the Liber Pontift-
calis mentions Gregory IV. having adorned altar frontals with
gilded representations of Daniel in the lions' den. The
writings of the early Fathers inform us that the Christians saw
in Daniel the type of the Christian martyr, sometimes like
Daniel unharmed by the savage beast to which he was
exposed in the arena, but always victorious over those who
could at most only destroy the body, and consoled in the
dungeon, in which he awaited his martyrdom, by the Christian
* Scrm. i. in Nat. A post. See Corn, a Lap. in Act. xii. 17.

t Dan. xiv. 32-3S. In the l'rotcstant version it is called " The Story of
Bel and the Dragon."
priest who strengthened him for the conflict with the heavenly
food of the Holy Eucharist. Thus St Cyprian applies the
history : " For since all things are God's, nothing will be
wanting to him who possesses God, if God himself be not
wanting to him. Thus a meal was divinely provided for Daniel :
when he was shut up by the king's command in the den of
lions ; and in the midst of wild beasts who were hungry and
yet spared him, the mnn of God was fed."*
Sarcophagus On either side of this sarcophagus are two small statues of
with Jonas. ê q00{] Shepherd. Eusebius tells us that statues of Our
Lord, under this form, were set up by Constantine at Con
stantinople, but in Rome early Christian sculpture is nearly
always confined to bassi rilievi. A remarkable exception will
be noticed before we leave this museum.
The first sarcophagus on our left, as we pass up the hall, is
one whose lid is ornamented with sea-monsters, and bears the
inscription—marivs . vitellianvs . primitivae . conivgi .
fidelissimae . aaikcbbin ^5^. " Marius Vitellianus to his
most faithful wife Primitiva. Hail, innocent soul ; dear wife,
mayest thou live in Christ.'' t This lid, however, in all proba
bility, belongs to another sarcophagus, since in Bosio's time
this latter was used as the cistern for a fountain in the Medici
Gardens, on the Pincio, whither it had been removed from the
crypt of St Peter's. The central group, immediately beneath
the inscription, again represents the smitten rock and the
apprehension of St Peter; while on the one side is Our Lord
calling Lazarus as a mummy out of the tomb, close to which
stands Martha ; her sister Mary kneels at the feet of Our Lord,
and the disciples stand around. On the other side is a Good
Shepherd watching over two sheep in a temple-like house,
probably intended for the Church. But the most striking
subject on the sarcophagus is the history of Jonas, who is
* S. Cypr. I)e Oratione, 21.
t Such at least is the interpretation adopted by I)e Rossi, who follows
Maftei in understanding the congeries of letters at the end as the initials of
Aveaniina innocent kara coujux Nbas in Chiislo. —Bullett. iS6S, io.
represented first as being cast out of a ship, the large sail of
which is filled with the wind from the conch-shell of the winged
figure above. The sea-monster opens his enormous jaws to
receive Jonas, and a female bust in the sky apparently indi
cates the calm which succeeded. The same monster is next
represented as vomiting forth the prophet upon the dry ground,
upon which crabs, lizards, and snails are seen crawling about.
Close to this scene is the reclining figure of Jonas asleep under
the grateful shade of the gourd. The sculptor has filled every
bit of available space with figures, and the same water in which
float the sea-monsters is made to bear up a little square box,
intended for the Ark, in which Noe sits and receives the
olive-branch from the dove, which is made, perhaps not with
out meaning, to come from the place of refreshment where the
prophet reposes. At the water's edge, on either side, are
represented fishermen—in one case hooking a fish which a boy
is assisting him to land, and in the other, giving the basket
of fish to the boy. A water bird is also looking out for prey,
and may be intended to convey the warning, that others,
besides those whom Christ has made " fishers of men," are on
the watch for those who are born of the waters.
On the same side of the hall is another sarcophagus, upon Sarcophagus
,• • r w'trl Cain am
the lid of which are two shepherds, each taking care of three Abel offering
sheep rather larger than themselves. Every one of the sheep sacnfice'
holds a circular roll of bread in his mouth, evidently a figure
of the Holy Eucharist, which (we have already said) was for
merly consecrated in bread made in the shape of a corona.
The sarcophagus itself is ornamented with sacred subjects, the
first of which is the sacrifice of Cain and Abel. The invisible
God is represented by the bearded figure seated on a stone,
which possibly has reference to the rude altar of patriarchal
times ; Cain, as the eldest, offers his fruits first, while Abel
follows with his lamb. In the next group, the Fall is again
represented, but Eve has taken the apple, and the promised
Saviour, beardless, as in all representations of the Incarnation,
u
holds the sheaf in His hand, but extends it towards the seated
figure, as though to imply that the bread obtained by the
sweat of Adam's brow is to be offered to God, if His blessing
is to be expected upon the labour of man. He does not here
give the lamb to Eve, Abel's offering, perhaps, sufficiently con
st Mary Mag- veying the lesson. The central figure is a female with an
open box in her hand, the "alabaster box of precious oint
ment " which Mary poured on Our Lord's head, and of which
He said, " Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the
whole world, that also which she hath done shall be told for a
memory of her." * The remaining subjects are the paralytic
carrying his bed, Our Lord giving sight to the blind, changing
the water into wine, and raising Lazarus from the tomb.
Sarcophagus Proceeding still further along this side of the Museum, the
from S. J'aolo . . .„.,,.., , , , .,
fuori le uiura. visitor will hardly fail to notice a very finely sculptured sarco
phagus, in the centre of which are the busts of two men, whose
refined and intellectual expression of face contrasts strongly
with the rude grotesquesness of most of these sculptures. It
is impossible to say who these two men were ; but the sarco
phagus, which probably once contained their remains, formerly
stood beneath the altar in the tribune of S. Paolofuori lemura,
and the relics of the Holy Innocents were placed within it.
Sixtus V. removed it with the relics to a chapel built by him
in Sta. Maria Maggiore. The upper series of figures represent
Mary kissing Our Saviour's hand in gratitude for having
restored her brother Lazarus to life; Peter warned of his
denial before the cock should crow ; and Moses receiving the
law from a hand stretched out from heaven. Another out
stretched hand checks the uplifted arm of Abraham as he is
about to sacrifice his son Isaac, who kneels with his hands
Pilate washing bound behind his back. The sacrifice of the true Isaac is not
found among the subjects selected by early Christian art, but
the article of the Creed, " crucified under Pontius Pilate," rs
set forth here with sufficient clearness in the group which
* St Matt. xxvi. 13.
represents the servant with the ewer and basin standing ready
to wash the hands of the irresolute governor, who, seated on
his veiled judgment-seat, turns away his head in token of his
repugnance in condemning the innocent blood. Our interpre
tation of Moses as the figure of St Peter is confirmed by this St Peter,
sarcophagus, on the lower portion of which we see that
Apostle in the hands of Herod's satellites, still pointing to the
stream which flows from the rock above his head ; while
Christ, or possibly St John, is represented as also engaging the
attention of the satellites, either in allusion to His own appre
hension in the Garden, or else to teach that He suffers still in
the persecution of His Church. Again, we' see Daniel in the
lions' den, and the prophet Habacuc, while, on the opposite
side, Our Lord gives sight to the blind, and multiplies the
loaves and fishes. In the centre, however, is a group which
has somewhat puzzled the learned. Bosio makes the old man
under the tree to be Moses giving the law to the people, and
the head which appears between the branches of the tree to be
that of Zaccheus climbing up in order to see Our Lord.
On the same side of the hall is a sarcophagus, with the Sarcophagus
nearest resemblance to the later representations of Our Jîa-lJ
Saviour's Passion to be found in early Christian art. It is
Fir.. -fi.—Sarcophatpts in Latemu Museum offourth orJifth century.
divided into five compartments by twisted Corinthian pillars,

the pediments above which are decorated with scenes from
the vintage. In the central compartment is the labarum1
surrounded with a crown of immortality, and supported on a
cross, on each of the arms of which is a dove pecking at the

crown, thus symbolically representing the hope of an immortal
crown with Christ, which feeds the soul, although here below
its only resting-place is His Cross. The guards appointed by
Constantine to keep watch over the sacred standard are re
presented below by two soldiers ; and we may see here a type
of the Christian army, who, whether they sleep or wake, live or
Representa die, find rest beneath the Cross. Two of the side compart
tions of the ments represent Our Lord witnessing a good confession before
Passion.
Pontius Pilate, above whom hangs a crown, the reward of
those who confess Christ before men. On the other side a
soldier places a crown on the head of Our Saviour, but it
resembles rather the crown of glory which is the recompense
of the crown of thorns endured for Him on earth. The last
compartment contains a representation of Our Lord carrying
His Cross under the guard of a soldier, but there are none of
the traces of suffering with which later artists, following the
sacred narrative, have familiarised our imagination, and the
crown above points to the reward for bearing the Cross after
our suffering Master. Above this sarcophagus is let into the
wall a fragment of another, which represents a number of per
sons, some listening with devout attention to one who is read
ing to them, while others of the same company are partaking
of the agape.
Sarcophagus Perhaps the finest specimen of Christian sculpture among
under canopy. all tne sarcophagi in the Lateran Museum is that which stands
under a canopy supported by two beautiful columns of Pavon-
azzetto marble, and is placed in this position to show how the
sarcophagi were arranged in the ancient basilicas ; for this, as
well as the one last described, were found in the crypt of St
Peter's. The front of the sarcophagus is sculptured with
figures in high relief, divided into groups by eight richlv
ornamented pillars. The groups at the two extremities are
Abraham's sacrifice, and Our Lord before Pilate, who is wash
ing his hands. The rest of the figures are the Apostles
grouped around Our Lord, who is seated in the centre as in Our Lord in
glory suv-
glory, the vault of heaven beneath His feet being expressed rounded by
(as in Pagan monuments) by the veil which a female figure the AP°5tles-
holds above her head. De Rossi remarks that the grace and
refinement of the faces of Our Lord and the Apostles would
incline us to ascribe this work to the age of Septimius Severus,*
rather than to that of Constantine, did not the on one
of the sides indicate the latter as its actual date. The two
principal figures among the Apostles are manifestly intended
for St Peter and St Paul, and the characteristics of each Saints Peter
Apostle, which we have noticed on the gilded glasses, are
easily to be discerned here. St Paul is on the right, distin
guished by his baldness from St Peter, who receives, with
hands reverently veiled, the new law from the Mediator of
the New Testament, just as heathen magistrates were wont to
receive from the emperors the book of the constitutions where
by they were to govern the province committed to their charge.
Often, on similar representations, Our Lord is represented as
giving the volume to the Apostle, but saying nothing. In
others, again, the roll bears the inscription, dominvs dat
legem, or pacem, sometimes one, and sometimes the other,
whence the Bishop Eribert was led to engrave on the Book of
the Gospels provided for the cathedral of Milan the words
" lex et pax.'' Here again we see Peter represented as the
Moses of the new dispensation, and every such discovery in
creases the probability that in all other representations also of
Moses, the chief Apostle was really meant to be understood.
The two sides of this sarcophagus are covered with sculpture.
On one is represented the denial of St Peter, with a basilica Hernial of
St Peter.
and a baptistery in the background, the latter of which (no
doubt by an intentional anachronism) is surmounted with the
. On the other side is a similar kind of background, but
in front is the smitten rock, and, apparently, the "Noli Me tan-
* Sickler, Almanach aus Rom. pp. 173, 174, actually assigns to it that
date.
Roma Sotterranea.
gere" although this latter group may be intended to represent
the gratitude of Mary for the resurrection of her brother.
Sculpture of On the visitor's right, as he ascends the staircase at the end
nig*VTeawn o^ tne na^> ne will notice a spirited sculptured representation
and leaving 0f the ascent of Elias into heaven in the fiery chariot.'1 The
his pallium to
Eliseus. sons of the prophets are gazing with eager astonishment at
Kliseus, who reverently, and with veiled hands, receives from
the ascending prophet the cloak or pallium, the symbol of the
double portion of the Spirit which rested upon him. In Elias,
St Ambrose and other Fathers saw a figure of Our Lord ; and
Rupertus explains further : " When Elias was on the point of
being translated, he laid his pallium on Eliseus ; because Christ
Our God and Lord, wlierr about to pass out of this world unto
the Father, gave to theÂpostles both His office and His
Spirit." t "Eliseus," says the Venerable Bede, "took the
mantle of Elias, and with it struck the waters of Jordan, and
when he invoked the God of Elias, they were divided, and he
passed over. The Apostles took up, the Church founded by
them took up, the sacraments of her Redeemer, and with them
is spiritually enlightened, cleansed, and consecrated ; and she
also invoked the name of God the Father, and learned how to
conquer the torrent of death, and despising the hindrance of
it, to pass over to eternal life." J This history forms the
subject of a painting which may still be seen in the Catacomb
of SS. Nereus and Achilles. It is carved also at the end of a
sarcophagus near the door of the sacristy of St Peter's, con
taining the bodies of Popes Leo II. III. and IV. ; and on two
or three other sarcophagi, copied in the works of Bosio,
Bottari, and others. It would certainly have reminded
Roman Christians of the pallium, the symbol of jurisdiction
worn by the Bishops of Rome, and given by them to metro
politans as from the very body of St Peter,—"de corpore Sancti
Petri.'''§ It is worthy of notice, in connexion with this subject,
* See Fig. 29. p. 251. t Rupert. Abb. De Trin. v. c. 15.
X Hom, in Ascen. Dom. § See Xute F in Appendix.
Christian Sarcophagi.
and also with the roll given to St Peter by the ascended
Saviour in the last sarcophagus, that the most ancient part
of Filocalus' catalogue of the Popes commenced thus :—
" Passus est Dominus noster Jesus Christus duobus Geminis
consulibus viii Kal. Apriles, et post Ascensum ejus beatissimus
Petrus episcopatum suscepit, ex quo tempore" &c. *
"Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered on the 25th March, the two Gemini
being consuls, and after I lis Ascension the must blessed Peter undertook
the episcopacy, after which time," &c.
Above the translation of Elias is a fragment of a small sar- The Nativity,
cophagus representing the Nativity, with the ox and ass and
the Magi ; and below is a rude intaglio of the raising of
Lazarus, on a marble covering of one of the loculi, with an
inscription to datvs. But our readers will easily be able to
interpret for themselves most of the other sculptures in this
museum.
As we pass out of the great hall into the upper corridor, Sarcophagus
around which De Rossi has arranged the inscriptions from Bassus'"5
the Catacombs, we may observe a number of casts of a sar
cophagus similar tD some that we have described, and yet
possessing certain remarkable features peculiar to itself. Many
of our readers will have seen the original in St Peter's crypt,
where it stands on the right hand of the passage leading to
the subterranean chapel, and bears the inscription : —
1VN • BASSVS VC QVI VIXIT ANNIS . XLII MEN . II . IN IPSA
PRAEFECTVKA VRBIS
NEOFITVS IIT AD DEVM . VIII KAL SEPT EVSEBIO ET
VPA'I'IO COSS
"Junius Bassus, who lived forty-two years and two months. In the
very year in which he was Prefect of the city, he went to God, a neophyte
on the 23d of August, a.n. 359."
The noble family of the Bassi is mentioned by Prudentius
as having been among the first of patrician rank to embrace
the Christian religion ;t and the death of this very Junius
* Rom. Soft. ii. 307. t Contra Symmachum, i. 558.
Bassus is recorded by a cotem-
porary writer * as having taken
place soon after his appointment
as Praefect of Rome. The sarco
phagus is of white marble, hand
somely carved in the Corinthian
style ; and besides the representa
tions of Adam and Eve, the sacrifice
of Isaac, Daniel among the lions,
and Our Lord in glory delivering
the law to His Apostles, we have,
on the upper portion, a group in
which is represented the apprehen
sion of Our Saviour in the garden ;
and again His condemnation by
Pilate. The apprehension of St
Peter appears on the other side,
the Apostle being distinguished from
his Lord by the beard, thus con
firming our explanation of a similar
scene on other sarcophagi. The
lower portion also contains in the
; centre Our Lord's entry into Jeru
salem ; and, at one extremity, Job
comforted by his friends, while his
wife, with her handkerchief to her
nose, illustrates the complaint of
the afflicted patriarch, " My wife hath
abhorred my breath." t The other
extremity contains the representa
tion of a person bound and led
away, which, from the baldness of the
head, and the sword in the hand of
one of his guards, we may consider
* Ammianus Marcellinus. t Job x'*. 7-
to be intended for St Paul being conducted to the place of his

execution on the Ostian Way. The spandrils of the five arches Symbolical
>• 1 ■ , . • 1 . 1 r figures of the
which make up the lower portion are ornamented with figures LamD work-
which form perhaps the most interesting feature in this sarcopha- ln£ nliracles-
gus. The subjects indeed have been explained before in other
sculptures, but here it is a lamb who occupies the place of the
Three Children in the furnace of Nabuchadonosor. A Iamb with
a rod touches the rock from which another lamb drinks. Again,
a lamb with the rod multiplies the loaves ; a lamb imposes his
foot upon the head of another lamb, while a dove pours down a
stream of light upon the latter, signifying the seven-fold gift of
the Holy Ghost in the sacrament of Confirmation or of Holy
Order. Further on, a lamb approaches reverently to receive
the law ; and lastly, a lamb with the rod brings forth Lazarus
from his tomb. These six subjects prove incontestably the
symbolical character of the subjects represented on these sar
cophagi, and teach us that, whether in the hand of Moses, or
of Peter, or of the Lamb, the divine rod is the power of Christ,
by whom the miracles of grace in the sacraments of the Church
are still worked.*
Our account of the Christian sculptures in the Lateran Statue of St
Museum will not be complete without some notice of the H'PlX>'3''lus-
statue of St Hippolytus, which stands at the upper end of the
hall, and which is pronounced by Winckelmann and other
critics to be the finest known specimen of early Christian
sculpture. This statue was discovered, a.d. 155 1, when some
excavations were being made near the basilica of San Lorenzo
fuori le mura, and must have stood either in the subterranean
cemetery of St Hippolytus, or in a basilica close by. It bears
* These six subjects, three of which are shown in Fig. 37, are more clearly
to be distinguished in Bosio, Kom. Sott., p. 45, than on the sarcophagus
itself, which has probably suffered some damage during the last two hun
dred years.
It is interesting to observe the comparative frequency of the different
scriptural subjects introduced into the sculptured sarcophagi. The fol
lowing list is taken from Burgon's Letters from Rome, Letter xx., with
one or two corrections in the description, lie counted fifty-five saico
3H Roma Sotterranea.
every mark of having been executed during die third century,

for, though the head and arm are modern restorations, yet the
classical dignity of the figure is greatly superior to statues of
the age of Constantine ; while the Canon Paschalis, engraved
on one of the sides of the chair in which the saint is seated,
would hardly have been considered worthy of commemoration
Paschal many years after the martyrdom of St Hippolytus. We have
Canon of
St Hippolytus. no intention of taxing our readers' patience with an account
of the long disputes concerning the proper time for the observ
ance of Easter, which occupied so much serious attention dur
ing the early ages of the Church. It is well known, however,
that the Roman Church always strenuously opposed those who
followed the Jewish reckoning, and who, from their keeping
Kaster on the 14th day of the lunar month, received the name
of Quartodecimans. Still, during the first and second centuries
the Church had, as was natural, adopted the Jewish mode of
determining the Paschal full moon ; but the blind fury of that
unhappy people against Christianity prejudiced the minds of
Christians against anything coming from them ; and since, at
the beginning of the third century, the Church possessed men
in no way inferior to the Jewish rabbis in scientific know-
phagi, and we have placed side by side with his numbers those which result
from an examination of the forty-eight sarcophagi illustrated by liosio,
thirty of which were found in the crypts of the Vatican :—
I„Tteran. Bosio. Lateran. Bosio.
History ofJonas, 23 11 Fall of Adam and Eve, 14 10
The Smitten Rock, 21 16 Woman with Issue of Bled, 8 9
Apprehension of St Peter, 20 14 Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, 6 8
Miracle of Loaves, 20 14 The Good Shepherd, . 6 9
Giving Sight to Blind, 19 11 Noah in Ark, ... 5 6
Change of Water into Wine, 16 8 Christ before Pilate, . 5 6
Raising of Lazarus, . . 16 14 Giving of the Law. 4 t>
Denial of St Peter. 14 8 Three Children in Fire, 4 3
Daniel in Lion's Den, 14 7 Moses taking off his Shoes, 2 2
Paralytic Healed, 12 7 Elias taken up to Heaven, 2 3
Creation of Eve, ..11 2 Nativity, with Ox and Ass, 1 4
Sacrifice of Isaac, . 11 9 Crowning with Thorns, . 1 1
Adoration of Magi, 11 8
Mr fturgon, in his contemptuous remarks about the symbolical meaning of
these sculptures, seems to show himself entirely ignorant of the method of
interpreting Holy Scripture universal among the Fathers of the fourth and
fifth centuries, to which these sarcophagi belong.
ledge, it was fitting that the Christian bishops, and especially
the Bishop of Rome, should sanction some authoritative
method for determining the great Christian festival.
Hippolytus was the first to form a table, in which, by
doubling the Greek periods of eight years, he endeavoured,
with the help of seven such periods, of sixteen years each, to
obtain a formula by which the difference between the lunar
and solar years should be corrected, and the true Easter
determined for ever. There is, in accordance with this mode
of calculation, engraved on the opposite side of the chair to
that upon which the canon itself is found, a table for 112
years. Unfortunately, St Hippolytus' method laboured under
the fatal defect of an error of three days in every sixteen
years ; and hence the praise lavished upon the first attempt to
form an independent Christian calendar died away, and fresh
calculations became necessary. We learn this from a work
which has been ascribed to St Cyprian, and which bears the
date of a.d. 243, and whose author, curiously enough, ascribes
St Hippolytus' error of three days to his having calculated
from the creation of the world instead of from the 4th day, on
which the moon was created ! We may therefore conclude
that this statue belongs to the early part of the third century,
while the errors of Hippolytus' canon still remained unknown,
and the renown of its author caused it to be considered a
fitting tribute to his memory.
St Hippolytus professes that his table will show Easter in
the past as well as in the future. He therefore gives some
of the more remarkable Paschal solemnities, such as the
Exodus, which he makes out to have taken place on April 2d,
or April 5th, if Daniel's computation is to be followed. The
Paschal solemnities in the desert, in the time of Joshue,
Ezekias, Josias, and Esdras are also determined. The Pasch
in the year when Christ was born, and also in that wherein *
He suffered, are marked as being of the greatest interest to
all Christians.
The list of the works of St Hippolytus commences with the
titles of two works, of which only the last four letters can now
be deciphered. Critics have exercised their ingenuity in sup
plying the remainder, but no certainty can be arrived at. The
Paschal Canon, and other matters inscribed on this statue, are
given with explanations in Migne's edition of the works of St
Hippolytus, to which we must refer those of our readers who
desire to investigate further this interesting monument of early
Christian art.
FlG. 38.—Glass in the Vatican Library,

Representing Christ between Sts. Peter and Paul ; also Christ as the Lamb, and the
faithful as Lambs—Jews and Gentiles coming from Jerusalem and Rethlchem
[Becle] to Mount Sion, whence flow the four Evangelical Streams, united in the
Mystical Jordan.
ROOK V.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE CATACOMBS.
CHAPTER I.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE CATACOMBS TO THEIR CHRISTIAN

ORIGIN.
IN the preceding chapters our information has been princi- Scope of this
pally drawn from the historical records which have come work°" °
down to us from antiquity, and of which an account has been
given in the second part of the Introduction.* We have also
taken our readers into the subterranean cemeteries, and con
firmed our historical conclusions by the inscriptions and other
monuments still remaining there. An important branch of
our subject, however, still remains comparatively untouched,
and this is what we may call the Testimony of the Catacombs
themselves,— understanding by this expression, not the evi
dence to be drawn from the dates and names inscribed on the
stones and walls, but the conclusions to be deduced from a
careful examination of the subterranean galleries, and the
method of their construction. This appears at first sight a
dry and uninviting subject, but the results are too important
to be passed over in silence, and the striking and incontro-
* Sec page 17.
3i8 Roma Sotterranea.
vertible confirmation which they give to many of our histori

cal conclusions, will amply repay the reader for the pains it
will cost him to master the details.
The Cata- The first question which we would ask of these long dark
combs used by ., , r , . , . ,
none but silent subterranean streets of tombs is, whether they are able
Uirâli-places t0 3L^0T<^ us anv cûe as to tneir own origm- The ignorant
assertions of Burnett and Misson do not deserve a serious refu
tation. The former was foolish enough to publish his opinion
that all the tokens of Christianity found in the Catacombs
were the forgeries of a few monks in the fourth and fifth cen
turies, while the latter put forth the no less untenable theory
that they were used " as marks of distinction to prevent the
graves of the faithful from being confounded with those of the
infidels." The exclusive use of the Catacombs by the Chris
tians has now, however, been universally admitted, and the
only serious argument that was ever adduced against it, viz.,
the presence of a few Pagan inscriptions in these Christian
cemeteries, has been found to tell in the opposite direction,
Pagan inscrip- for it is now ascertained that in every instance these Pagan
tions account- .... , , . , , ,
ed for. inscriptions have some marks which prove that they were not
originally intended for the position in which they have been
found, but like the stone on which the copy of the inscription
to Pope Eusebius was written,* have been appropriated by
Christians, and used for their own purposes. It is not
enough, however, to establish the exclusively Christian use of
the Catacombs as burial-places. We are able also to prove
them to have been originally excavated by the Christians for
that purpose, and this by the testimony of the Catacombs
themselves.
Padre Marchi Until within a very recent period it was the generally
dicMe^he Vm" received theory that these subterranean excavations had
Christian been made by the Pagan Romans in order to extract mate-
origni of the
Catacombs rials for building ; and that the Christians, finding them con
venient as places of concealment where their martyred brethren
* See page 171.
Christian Origin of the Catacombs. 3 19
might rest undisturbed, had taken possession of them, and

adapted them by additional excavations to the purposes of
burial and worship. This theory was not, as we shall after
wards see, destitute of some apparent support from ancient
documents, and was accepted by Baronius, Severano, Aringhi, against a
widely-re-
and other writers upon the subject. Bosio himself is silent ceived opinion
upon the origin of the Catacombs, and Boldetti, with all his J°ar^' con
knowledge acquired by personal observations, only ventures
to claim a Christian origin for a few particular cemeteries.
Padre Lupi went somewhat farther, and showed that the addi
tions made by the Christian fossors exceeded in extent the
original works of the Pagan excavators ; but Bottari, D'Agin-
court, and Raoul-Rochette, all maintained the heathen origin
of the Catacombs. Padre Marchi was the first to enunciate
the proposition, that the Christians themselves had originated
all those subterranean cemeteries which are known by this
name. The weight of authority was strong against him, but
he defended his proposition by proofs taken not so much from
the works of learned authors, as from the cemeteries them
selves. His investigations have been continued by the
brothers De Rossi, and their patient labours have thrown
so much additional light upon the subject, that the Christian
origin of the Catacombs may be regarded as now firmly estab
lished. In order to understand the proofs of this conclusion,
it will be necessary to give a brief notice of the geological
strata in which the Catacombs have been excavated, and a por
tion of the carefully compiled Geological Summary in Murray's
" Handbook to Rome," will perhaps be more satisfactory to
our readers than any attempt of our own to condense the
more diffuse account given by Michele De Rossi.
" By far the greatest part of the surface of the Roman Volcanic strata
Campagna, in the environs of the capital, is formed of materials Koine. armm
of igneous origin. They may be classed under two heads,
very different in their mineralogical characters, as they are in
the mode in which they have been deposited, their age, &c.
320 Roma Soiterranea.
The more ancient, which appears to have immediately suc

ceeded the Tertiary marine deposits, or even to have been
co-temporaneous with them, and to be the result of submarine
volcanic action, consists, in the more immediate vicinity of
Rome, and within the city itself, of a red volcanic tufa,
formed by an agglomeration of ashes and fragments of pumice :
Tufa Utoide. it has been designated by the name of tufa liloide by the local
geologists : and was, and still is, much used for building pur
poses. It forms the lower part of most of the Seven Hills on
the left bank of the Tiber, constituting the Tarpeian rock
beneath the Capitol, the lower portion of the Palatine, Quirinal,
Esquiline, and Aventine It is extensively quarried at
the foot of Monte Verde, outside the Porta Portese, for
building stone No trace of the craters which produced
this older tufa can now be discovered.
" A certain interval appears to have occurred between the
latter deposit and the more modern volcanic rocks of the
Campagna, during which the land seems to have been raised,
and several parts of it covered with fresh-water lakes or
marshes. It is to this period that belong the strata of cinders,
ashes, &c., which form the more immediate surface, which are
often very regularly stratified, and certain impressions and
leaves of land plants, and here and there a bed of calcareous
gravel and marls, with land and fresh water shells, and some
times of fossil bones But the greater part of these more
recent volcanic rocks have been deposited on dry land ; the
Pozzoltma. beds are in general horizontal ; the deposits of pozzolana or
volcanic rocks, so extensively used for making mortar, belong
Tufa granu- to this period of subaerial volcanoes, the red tufa granulare,
in which the Catacombs or early Christian cemeteries are
hollowed out, and probably the more compact varieties of
tufa known under the name of ptpcrino, quarried at Albano
and Marino."*
Such being the nature of the soil in the vicinity of Rome,
* Murray's Handbook of Rome, 1868, p. 321.
Christian Origin of the Catacombs. 321
the confidence of Padre Marchi in the old theory of the Pagan Catacombs
origin of the Catacombs was first shaken by his observing g-nl„„l<„c-
that they were excavated in the tufa granulare rather than in
any other kind of rock. The tufa litoide, called by the
ancients lapis ruber and saxum quadratum, affords numerous
examples of ancient quarries, but not one instance of a Cata
comb ; while the pozzolaua, esteemed so highly by Vetruvius
as fulfilling all the conditions of the best sand for making
cement,* anil extensively quarried for that purpose, appears
to have been carefully avoided by those who originated the
Catacombs. The tufa granulare, from the quantity of earth
which enters into its composition, would never be used for
cement when the true pozzolaua was procurable, while it is
far too soft to be of any use as stone for building. Yet it is
in this very stratum that have been excavated those vast
systems of galleries which we call the Catacombs. The ex
treme improbability, therefore, of the Pagan Romans having a proof of
constructed these galleries for no conceivable purpose is the origjn^" h 1lan
first argument in favour of their Christian origin ; for the
tufa granulare, useless for other purposes, was admirably
adapted for the reception of the dead. It is easily worked,
of sufficient consistency to admit of being hollowed out into
galleries and chambers without at once falling in, and its
porous nature causes the water quickly to drain off from it,
thus leaving the galleries dry and wholesome, an important con
sideration when we think of the vast number of dead bodies
which once lined the walls of the subterranean cemeteries.
Some of the Catacombs have been constructed in a rock still
more unserviceable for building purposes than the tufa granu
lare; as, for instance, the Catacomb of San Ponziano on
Monte Verde, and that of San Valentino on the Via Flaminia,
where the stratum is a mere marine or fluvial deposit, com-
* Vetruvius, Arch. iii. 7, " ut ea sit idonea neque habeat terram com-
mixtam . . . et qua- manu confriuata fecerit stridorem erit optima . . .
item si in vestimcntum candidum ea conjecta fuerit, postea excussa vel icta
non inquinaverit neque ibi terra subsiderit, erit idonea."
X
3?2 Roma Sotterranea.
posed of earth, sand, shells, and pebbles, vegetable and
animal fossils, &c., requiring solid substructions of masonry to
resist its tendency to fall in. Such excavations could only
have been made for the purpose of sepulture, and since the
Christians alone used them for that purpose, we conclude that
none but the Christians had any part in originating them.
Their general The manner in which the Catacombs are constructed affords
efTwithThat of anotrier proof of their exclusively Christian origin ; especially
the sand-pits wnen we contrast them either with the arenifodina or sand-pits,
another proof,
which have been excavated both in ancient and modern times
for the purpose of obtaining pozzolana, or with the lapidicina,
as the ancient stone-quarries were called. In both these cases
the object has been to extract the largest possible quantity of
material with the least possible difficulty. Hence the passages
are made as wide as possible, the arch of the roof springing
from the floor, thus affording space for carts to be introduced
to carry away the sand or stone. The same reason causes
the excavators to avoid sharp angles, and to make the passages
run in curved lines. Entirely different is the construction of
the Catacombs. In them the walls are vertical and the roof is
very slightly arched and often quite flat ; the passages are nar
row, so as rarely to admit of two persons walking abreast ; they
run generally in straight lines, and they cross each other often
at very sharp angles. Only the narrowest kind of hand-carts
can be used by those who are now occupied in clearing them
out, and hence the slowness and expense of the work. The
latter consideration, indeed, might not have weighed with the
Pagan Romans, who had an almost unlimited supply of slave-
labour; but the comparison of a Catacomb with an undoubted
ancient arenifodina, such as may easily be made at Santa
Agnese, of a portion of which a plan has already been given,*
will be more convincing than any description of the great
difference between the two kinds of excavation.
There are not, however, wanting instances in which arenaria
* See Fig. 2 at page 29..
have actually been converted into Christian cemeteries, and which is only
strengthened
these exceptions, which prove the rule, afford us the most by apparent
. - proof of the Christian origin of all the other Cata- thc
convincing exct?011ons
£je. to
combs. We have one remarkable instance in a portion of
the first floor of the cemetery of St Hermes, in which the such as the
Cemetery of
form and proportions of the galleries and of the loculi do not St Hermes,
Fig. 39. —Part of H 'all ofGallery ofSt Hermes

in appearance differ greatly from the general type ; but a
closer examination shows that their walls, instead of being cut
in the rock, are constructed of masonry. The roof is of tufa,
slightly arched, and often sustained by brick-work ; the niches
of the loculi are regularly formed in the two walls, and closed
in the usual manner, with the exception of the uppermost
range, the slabs at the mouth of which are laid obliquely, as
Fui. 40. —Section ofGallery in St Hermes.

in the section above (Fig. 40). The gallery is of the usual
height, but when the brick-work is cleared away its breadth is
on an average two or three times that of an ordinary Cata
comb ; the section of the walls and roof forms a tolerably
regular semi-ellipse. At the crossing of the galleries the span
of the arch becomes greater, and the walls more inclined, and
sometimes the roof is supported in the middle by a thick
wall containing loculi, while the walls are strengthened at
the base by brick-work, but contain no tombs. This instance
Fic. 41.—Stction ofGallrry snpfcried by Brickwork.

....show is sufficient to show the alterations necessary' in order to
winch
the difficulty of convert an arenaria into a Christian cemetery; whereas if
converting an
armaria into the theory of Raoul-Rochette were true, we ought to find in
a Catacomb. ê Roman Campagna numbers of subterranean excavations
destitute of tombs, with the narrow, straight galleries of the
Catacombs. None such have been discovered, and we there
fore conclude that the marked contrast between the Cata
combs and the arenaruc proves that they had a different
origin ; for, although a Catacomb might easily be so amplified
as to resemble an arenaria, nothing could convert an arenaria
into a Catacomb except a process which whould tell its own
story as plainly as in the instance just described.
How the *l n1ay' however, not unreasonably be asked, if the Cata-
theory of their comds themselves bear so conclusive a testimony to their
Pagan origin
came to be Christian origin, how came the theory of their having been
accepted.
originally excavated by Pagans to be so generally received by
learned men? This question must be satisfactorily answered
before our readers can feel confidence in the arguments by
which we have proved our case. The fact is, that, as we have
already hinted, learned men formed their theory of the origin
of the Catacombs rather from a supposed historical tradition
than from the examination of the cemeteries themselves.
This tradition rested on the words in ancient documents which
describe the burial-places of certain martyrs and others as in
arenario, or juxia arenarium, or in cryptis arenariis. Thus, it
is stated in some copies of the Liber Pontificalis that Lucina Passages in
. ancient records
buried Pope Cornelius in her own property in crypta juxta wnich seem to
axmeterium Callisti in arenario ; the Acts of Saints Hippolytus, jîaf places
Eusebius, Marcellus, and their companions relate that " St of Christian
martyrs
Stephen, the bishop, collected their remains, and buried them
on the Via Appia, at the first mile from the city of Rome, in
the very arenarium in which they were wont to assemble;"*
the Acts of Saints Nereus and Achilles tell how " Auspicius
carried off their bodies, and buried them in the property of
Domitilla in crypta arenaria, on the Via Ardeatina ;"t the
Acts of Saints Marcus and Marcellianus likewise mention
those martyrs having been buried " two miles from the city
in the place which is called Ad arenas, because there were
the sand-pits (crypta arenarum), from which the walls of the
city were built ;"% the Acts of St Susanna represent her as
buried in aemcterio Alexandri, in arenario in crypta juxta S.
Alexandrum. Other copies have : juxta corpora SS. Chrysanti
ct Darue via Salaria in arenario ;% on the same Via Salaria
Nova, St Crescentianus, martyr, was buried in cameterio Priscilla
in arenario;\\ on the Via Labicana, about three milesfrom Rome,
the bodies of the Quatuor Coronati were buried with other
saints in arenario ;^ and lastly St Tertullinus " was led out to
martyrdom to the second milestone on the Via Latina, and
St Stephen buried his body at the same place, in crypta aren
aria."** These passages from ancient documents certainly
* Sec Posio, Rom. Sott. p. 193. t lb. p. 192. % lb. p. 186.
8 lb. p. 481 ; and Bolland. Acta SS. August, ii. p. 625.
I Aringhi, Rom. Sott. tom, ii p. 219.
*\ Bosio, p. 319. ** lb. p. 3°0.
326 Roma Sotterra-nca.
establish a connexion between the arenaria; and some at least

of the Catacombs ; and when we recall the passage where
Cicero describes the murder of the young Asinius, in arenarias
with Pagan quasdam, outside the Esquiline gate,* or the still more famous
sand-pits. ..... . , .
saying of Nero, when in his last extremity he was urged to
conceal himself for a time in these subterranean caverns
(in specum cgesta arena), and he refused to be buried before he
was dead (negavit se vivum sub terram ituruni) ;t we cease
to be surprised at the theory of the Pagan origin of the Cata
combs, which appear to be so identified with the ancient
sand-pits.
Examination A careful examination, however, of the ancient documents
lagcs"of which proves that the eight passages quoted above are the only
there are at instances to be found in which Christian burials are said to
most nine in
number. have taken place in arenarim. It is true that if we include
the accounts of martyrs buried at Nomentum and other places
beyond the circle of the Roman Catacombs, a few more
examples may be collected. But, confining ourselves within
a range of five or six miles from Rome, we find that there
is no mention of arenaria in connection with any of the
cemeteries on the Via Ostiensis, Portuensis, Aurelia, Cornelia,
Triumphalis, Flaminia, Salaria Vetus, Nomentana, or Pra?-
nestina. On the Via Tiburtina, indeed, Constantine is said
to have built a basilica, in Agro Vcrano super arenariam
cryptam ; and Bosio sees reason to think that the saints buried
there were Saints Narcissus and Crcscentius, companions in
The term martyrdom with St Lawrence. Thus we have, at the most,
rryptic arm- . different sepulchres of martyrs in arenaria or crypta
ai ue does not 1 J yr
imply pozzo- arenariif. The latter expression occurs three times, viz., as
1ana-pits.
the locality of the sepulchre of Nereus and Achilles, on the
Via Ardeatina ; of St Lawrence, on the Via Tibartina ; and of
Tertullinus, on the Via Latina. During the recent restoration
of the basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le mura, there were un
usual facilities for examining the rock in the neighbourhood
* Fro Cluentio, 14. t Sucton. in Kcron. 48.
of that basilica. Every one might convince himself that it

is composed of a material quite different from pozzolana.
It is, in fact, what is vulgarly called in Rome capellaceio, and
is utterly useless for building purposes. And yet in this rock
lies the whole Catacomb of St Cyriaca. The same must be
said of the rock in which is formed the Cemetery of Domitilla.
The sepulchre of Tertullinus is not yet identified, and there
fore cannot be examined, but the other two examples are
sufficient to prove that the expression crypta arenaria merely
denotes an excavation made in a sandy kind of rock, and
does not necessarily imply the existence of an arenarium or
sand-pit proper. As to the sepulchre of Saints Marcus and
Marcellinus, Padre Marchi justly observes that it is not said
that those martyrs were buried in cryptis arenarum, but in
loco qui dicitur Ad arenas* and, therefore, merely in the neigh
bourhood of " the pits from which the walls of the city were
built."
There remain then five passages in ancient documents which Five remaining
mention martyrs being buried in arenario, a term certainly J^p^ '~
denoting a pozzolana-pit. The first of these, relating to Cornelms ;
Pope Cornelius, is not found in all the MSS. of the Liber
Pontificalis, but as there really is a stratum of pozzolana in
that Catacomb at a lower level than the stratum in which his
crypt was made,t some excavations there may have led later
copyists to add the expression in arenario, in order, as they
probably thought, the more distinctly to identify the spot. Of
the four remaining passages, three describe localities which
can be identified, and which correspond exactly with the
description, for there is in each of them excellent pozzolana
precisely at the same level with the galleries of the Catacomb.
De Rossi has not yet succeeded in finding any good pozzo- 2. Quat00
lana in the cemetery of Marcellinus and Peter, which is Cor°"at'>
supposed by Posio to be the locality indicated by the fourth
* Compare AJ Catacumbas, and similar appellations of places.
t See Map accompanying this volume, Eh, Vh.
passage, which describes the burial of the Quatuor Coronati;

but the artists employed to draw the plan of that Catacomb
for Bosio's work seem to have penetrated into a portion of the
ancient arenarium, for their drawing represents some passages
resembling those of pozzolana rather than the galleries of
Catacombs, and in their description they speak of "a large
grotto without tombs, like a stone quarry ;" and again, " a wide
place where the tombs have been destroyed to get out the
pozzolana.''* It will be more satisfactory to our readers if we
examine carefully the three passages mentioned above, in
order that we may thoroughly satisfy ourselves whether they
do in truth prove or disprove the theory to which they
apparently gave rise.
3. SS. Chn - First, there is the arenarium in which were buried the
lTaria"S ^ martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, on the Via Salaria Nova.
The Liber Potitificalis states that Pope Adrian I. " restored
the basilica of S. Saturninus, on the Via Salaria, together with
the cemetery of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria." Now these
saints were not only buried in arenario, but the Emperor
Numerian " ordered them to be led out on the Via Salaria.
and put down in arenario, .... and there to be both of them
blocked up alive with earth and stones." This arenarium was
identified and described by Bosio and Marangoni ; and it
may still be observed that, in one part of the Catacomb, the
galleries widen out into the form of an arenarium, and the
loculi are diminished in number, so that there are only two
tiers of them, one above the other. This has evidently been
done in order to avoid weakening the walls, which are sloping
and of good pozzolana. In fact, as we pass from the Cata
comb into the arenarium proper, we find even these attempts
to convert the latter into a cemetery disappear, and there arc
evident traces of the Christians having blocked up the
passages in order to prevent access to a region unfitted
for sepulture ; while in the immediate vicinity r>f one of
* !Wio, p. 591, D.
Fiii. 4.'. Han ofpart ofC<i(tuomb of St Priseiita,

the galleries thus blocked up, a flight of steps leads down to
a lower level, where we find a Christian Catacomb of the
ordinary type. We have, therefore, here another instance of
the Christians having made an attempt, as at St Hermes,
to utilise the arenarium, but it appears that they found it
more convenient to abandon that attempt, and to construct
entirely new galleries, even at the cost of descending to a
greater depth into the bowels of the earth.
4. S. Crescen- The second passage to be examined is that which relates
tianus in ceme
tery of S. how the martyr Crescentianus was buried in cotmeierio PriscilUc
1 1 in arenario on the same Via Salaria Nova. Every one who
has visited the central and more ancient part of that Cata
comb has remarked how greatly it differs from the usual type.
Numerous pillars, of various sizes ; long walls of solid masonry,
sometimes straight, sometimes broken into angles, both con
cealing and sustaining the tufa and the tombs in the galleries ;
the graves often interrupted by pillars of brickwork ;—all
these peculiarities show the immense labour that was required
to convert the original excavation into its present form. The
plan on the preceding page will render this more unmistakably
evident, for the masonry is represented by light shading, the tufa
rock being shaded darkly, so that the original excavation is at
once distinguished from the form into which it was afterwards
converted. The wide passages of the arenarium are to be traced
in the portions marked A, while the Catacomb galleries are
marked C. The shaft B was originally a pit for extracting
pozzolana from the arenarium, but was afterwards modified so
as to form a large luminare. Here, then, is actually a Cata-
tomb having its origin in an arenarium, but the examination
of its plan is sufficient to prove the impossibility of many of
the Christian cemeteries having been so constructed.
5. Saints Lastly, we must examine the passage of the Acts of Saints
i>:asebius,"&c., Hippolytus, Eusebius, Marcellus, and their companions, which
on Via Appia. re]ates their burial by Tope St Stephen " on the Via Appia, at
the first mile from the city of Rome, in the very arenarium in
which they were wont to assemble."* De Rossi will not un

dertake to say that he has identified this arenarium with the
same certainty as the two just described ; but it is a signifi
cant fact that one of the largest staircases in the cemetery of
St Callixtus leads directly from the surface of the soil to the
third piano of the Catacomb, which is on the same level with
pozzolana pits, and close to the spot where passages con
nect them with the cemetery. Later excavations have also
revealed the existence of a very narrow secret passage leading
directly to the sand-pits themselves from the surface of the
ground. This staircase stops suddenly short at the roof of the
arenarium, so that a person descending by it would require a
movable ladder, or some other assistance supplied by those
below, to enable him to reach the floor. t These facts prove a
connexion between the Catacomb and the arenarium, which
will be more fully examined in our next chapter ; and, if De
Rossi is right in supposing this arenarium to be the one in
which Christians were wont to assemble for worship during a
time of persecution, its connexion with the Catacomb is suffi
cient to account for St Stephen being said to have buried the
martyrs in arenario, when in fact he buried them in the ceme
tery adjoining.
The examination of these instances, so far from leading us to These appa-
suppose that an arenarium was the ordinary matrix of a Cata- rYonsThuT
comb, suggests the very opposite conclusion, since the difference Prove the nlle'
between the one and the other is so marked as to strike the
* The ancient Acts quoted by Uosio relate the baptism of Adria,
Paulina, Neo, and Maria, and how afterwards these holy women took
up their abode with the priest Kusebius, and the deacon Marcellus, and
ethers, in the same crypt where Pope Stephen was concealed, and every
day and night they used to persevere in prayer, and fastings, and the voice
of psalmody. When St Paulina suffered martyrdom, Hippolytus, a monk,
by command of St Stephen, buried her body in the armarium where
they used frequently to meet together, and afterwards, Hippolytus and the
rest being martyred, their bodies were also buried in the same armarium.
—Basio, p. 193.
t A section of this staircase is given in our next chapter. It is marked
X' in the plans which illustrate that chapter.
most ordinary observer, and yet these and two others are all the
examples of their connexion which have been noticed by the ex
plorers of the last three hundred years. * We argue, therefore,
thus :—The ancient documents in four or five passages seem to
speak as though the martyrs had been buried in sand-pits. In five
cemeteries out of twenty-five or thirty, an arenarium is found
more or less closely connected with the cemetery, and of these,
three are discovered to be identical with three of those men
tioned in the ancient records. We consequently conclude that
what is mentioned so seldom by ancient writers, and found so
seldom by modern explorers, could not have been the normal
condition of things, but, on the contrary, that these instances
were deemed worthy of special mention as being exceptions to
the general rule, and thus these examples form one of the most
convincing proofs of the Christian origin of the Catacombs
generally.
* In fact, what Bosio calls the "singularity'' of the portion of the ceme
tery of St Priscilla, and of that near St Saturninus described above, has
been commented upon by nearly every writer on the subject, from Bosio's
time to the present day.
Fig. 43.— Gilded Glass in the Lenvrc Collection representing St L all:x tns.
CHAPTER II.
MODE OF THEIK CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT.
J E have seen how the Catacombs bear witness to their Scope of this
VV Christian origin, and furnish a reply to the difficulties
that have been urged against this now established fact. It
remains for us to examine them still more carefully, and to
extract from them, if possible, an account of the mode of their
construction, the successive additions and modifications which
they received from time to time, the traces to be found in them
of the relations in which these Christian cemeteries stood at
various periods to the Roman laws, and of the condition of the
Roman Church in times of persecution and of peace. We
have already traced these various relations in our historical
chapters, and if we find those observations borne out by the
testimony of the Catacombs themselves, we shall be repaid for
having mastered the somewhat dry and uninviting portion of
our subject which now lies before us, for we shall have exam
ined an independent and perfectly unexceptionable witness to
the truth.
We have already noticed some of the circumstances which Locality of
determined the locality of the early Christian cemeteries. * cemeteries.
The laws obliged them to be outside the walls, and conven
ience required that they should not be too far away from the
city. The ancient documents give us a radius of from one to Distance from
three miles from the wall of Servius Tullius as the zone within the uly'
which most of the cemeteries were situated, and it is precisely
* See page 56.
within this zone that we see, in the present day the entrances
to all the principal Catacombs. Between the third and fifth
mile from the walls, no Christian sepulchre has been found ;
at the sixth only one, that of St Alexander ; while beyond the
seventh mile from the city, tombs are again met with, but
these belong rather to the towns and villages of the Campagna
than to Rome itself.
On high A further cause which determined the situation of the Chris-
groun . tian cemeteries was the geological condition of the soil within
the limits stated above. Had they been excavated in deep
valleys, they would have been constantly exposed to the
danger of being flooded by the neighbouring streams, or at
any rate by the filtration of water, which, besides impeding
access to the cemeteries, would have greatly accelerated the
putrefaction of the bodies, and corrupted the air, in spite of
the careful closing of the loculi. The cemetery of Castulo, on
the Via Labicana, is an instance of this. Being in a somewhat
low situation, it is now quite inaccessible, from the water and
the clay with which the galleries are filled, and it bears signs
of having been from the first an exceptional excavation. The
pains taken by St Damasus to prevent the water damaging the
tomb of St Peter on the Vatican are commemorated in his
usual manner :—
" Cingebant latices Montem, teneroque meatu
Corpora multorum cineres atque ossa rigabant.
Non tulit hoc Damasus, communi lege sepultos
Post requiem tristes iterum persolvere pcenas.
Protinus aggressus magnum superare laborem,
Aggeris immensi dejecit eulmina Montis.
Intima sollicite scrutatus viscera ternv,
Siccavit totum quidquid madefecerat humor,
Invenit Fontem, pitvbet qui dona salutis.
Ilrcc curavit Mercurius Levita Fidelis."
"The waters used to surround the hill, and with their gentle flowing
used to drench the bodies, ashes, and bones of many [saints]. Damasus
did not suffer this [to go on],—that those buried after the law common to
all should be disturbed in their rest, and again suffer sad punishment. So
at once he set himself to conquer the formidable difficulty, and cut away
the ridge of an immense bank of the hill. He diligently dived into the
Mode of Construction and Development. 335
very bowels of Ihe earth, and drained the whole of that which the damp
had moistened. He discovered the spring, which [now in the baptismal
font] conveys the gifts of salvation. Mercurius, his faithful deacon, had
charge of these works."
The Christian cemeteries were thus restricted to the high Cemeteries in

tufa granu-
ground, and there in fact we find them; and this circum- iare :
stance alone was sufficient to prevent any line of communica
tion having existed, either between the various Catacombs, or
between them and the churches within the city. We have
already remarked how the Christian cemeteries were almost
always excavated in the tufa granulare, rather than in any other
stratum of rock. Another characteristic, depending to a cer
tain extent upon the geological formation, is, that the different
levels, or piani of excavation in the same cemetery, are quite
distinct from each other. Hardly ever does a gallery lead the galleries
gradually down from a higher to a lower level ; the descent is horizontal""
made by a flight of steps. The preservation of the horizontal
plane throughout each piano was a wise precaution against
danger to the roof or to the floor of the galleries and chambers,
for, if the horizontal plane had been departed from, it would
have been almost impossible for the fossors, unaided by scien
tific instruments, to have avoided running one gallery into
another. An accident of this kind on the same plane would
cause but little damage, but the safety of a whole chamber, or
even of a whole gallery, would have been imperilled by the
excavation of another, either close above or close below it.
Hence the principal levels are separated by a very wide inter
val, and if between them small galleries are sometimes found,
these are a later work of very limited extent, and resemble
those little rooms which are to be seen between the first and
second stories of large houses in Rome, and which are called
maxanini.
The section on the next page will convey a general idea of Differentpiani
. one below
the depth below the surface at which the different piani are another,
excavated. It is a section of the crypt of St Lucina, imme-
diately beneath the vast ruined monument already described.*
The floor of the gallery <t> is not more than twenty feet below
the surface of the soil, and in some places not above ten ; so that
had it been continued on the same plane, it must have run out
into the open air, in consequence of the slope of the hill.
This piano is consequently very small, and it is in fact the only
Fig. 44. —Section afthe Cemetery efSi- CatlLrtus.

specimen of a gallery being excavated so near the surface.
The stratum in which this gallery was formed is composed
of a friable tufa granulare, of a gray colour, and full of amphi-
gene, a kind of garnet, and here and there black augite. This
is marked II.; and the stratum I. above it is made up of
Geological
strata. earth and stones, ruins of ancient monuments, and other mate
* See page 123.
rials. Stratum III. is composed of a less solid kind of tufa
without those crystals, and this was the favourite stratum of
the Christian fossors, in which we find the most ancient and
most important piano of galleries. The section shows how
P, X, and U were excavated, with the roof of those galleries
coinciding with the junction of this with the stratum above.
By this means the fossors secured a more solid kind of rock for
the ceiling, and the difference of colour, and the sparkling of
the crystals in the rock which forms the roof, when compared
with that in which the loculi are cut, frequently arrests the
attention of those who visit this Catacomb. About the point
a, this stratum insensibly merges into the pozzolana proper,
although between them there is sometimes a thin stratum of
stones and cinders in fine volcanic sand, with crystals and bits
'of mica. This occasionally has become solidified by the
action of water into tufa litoide. Stratum V. is pozzolana
proper, and here a low and narrow gallery has been exca
vated, marked g in the section, which would terminate here
if it were simply a vertical section of the galleries beneath this
ruined monument. De Rossi, from whose work this (Fig. 44)
is copied, has, however, added below the line which crosses
stratum V., a section of another portion of the Catacomb of St
Callixtus, the principal piano of which is very nearly of the
same level with U and X the principal piano here, but whose
position may be found on De Rossi's map by the reference L
c, 1, 2, and I b, 1* By this means we have a comparative view
of another lower piano in the pozzolana, marked 1'IT; and in
stratum VI., which is composed oilufa granulate again, we have
a still lower gallery, II n ft, so deep that the air becomes less
easy to breathe, and a limit is put to the excavation by the
water which almost always inundates the gallery at this level.
The rock VII. beneath this is impervious to water, and has not
been examined. The levels of the Tiber, and of a little stream
* These are situated too far to the north to be included in thc map
accompanying this volume.
Y
which crosses the Via Appia, called the Almone, are given
from Father Secchi's measurements of the trigonometrical base
on the Via Appia.
Formation of Having obtained a general idea of the mode in which the
the Catacomb ....... , , .
of StCallixtus. various piatu of galleries were constructed, we may proceed to
inquire into the manner in which the galleries and chambers
on the same piano were formed ; and as the necropolis of St
Callixtus is the only Catacomb of which a full and scienti
fically accurate plan has yet been published, we will confine
our observations to this great cemetery. The first impression
conveyed by a glance at the map accompanying this volume,
is that of an inextricable confusion ; but, as we have already
remarked, a more careful examination, aided by the various
colours which distinguish different parts of the map, enables
us to recognise a certain order in the disposition of the gal
leries within each of these divisions, so that we are prepared to
acquiesce in Michele De Rossi's assurance that each of these
Distinct arcx. portions originally formed a separate cemetery, the area of
which was defined and protected by the Roman law. The
measurements of these area, reduced to Roman feet, singu
larly confirm this observation, since it can hardly be an acci
dent that they should form such round numbers as 100, 125,
150, 180, and 250 feet. But the fact is put beyond all reason
able doubt by a minute examination of the galleries them
selves, and of the points at which those of one area now com
municate with those of another. It would be impossible for
us, in a work of this size, to follow De Rossi through his care
ful analysis of each gallery and chamber, and almost of every
tomb, by which he demonstrates the truth of his conclusion ;
and we shall therefore content ourselves with the results of De
Area of St Rossi's examination of a single area, for the minute analysis of
Cecilia and
the Popes. which we must refer our readers to a separate chapter. We
shall select the area which includes the tombs of the Popes
and of St Cecilia, which have been already described, and
which history teaches us to regard as the most important of
all the ancient cemeteries, being in fact the caemeterium

administered by the Pope's archdeacon. It would, of course,
be unfair to conclude that the architectural characteristics of
this area, and its successive developments, formed a type
which was universally followed in the construction of other
cemeteries. The circumstances of the soil, the wealth of the
proprietor, or the architectural notions of the persons who
superintended the excavation,' doubtless varied in the differ
ent Catacombs. Nevertheless, since the laws affected all
Christian cemeteries alike, and the necessities for increased
accommodation or for concealment came at the same periods
upon the whole Christian population, the account which we
are about to give of this great and important cemetery, will
enable us to trace the leading features of the changes and suc
cessive developments of other Catacombs.
The great necropolis, which forms what is called the Cata- Public and
. , , , , , ... . private roads.
comb of St Callixtus, is bounded by the via Appia and the
Via Ardeatina, and the tract of ground between these two
public ways was anciently traversed by two small cross roads
which connected them, and which we will call Via Appio-
Ardeatina. It will be seen by the map that most of the stair
cases which led into the hypogaea were either parallel or at
right angles to one or other of these roads, and that the differ
ent arca into which the necropolis is divided, each with its
own staircase, have a clearly-defined frontage along them.
Confining our attention to the area of St Cecilia (marked III.
in the map), we will proceed to trace its architectural develop
ment from its first construction to its latest transformation.
A plot of ground, measuring 250 Roman feet along the First period of
cxc'ivati0n
small cross-road, and extending back 100 feet in agro, was
secured by its Christian proprietor as a burial-place with the
usual legal formalities. The plan of the excavation was then
determined, and, as occasion required, was carried out in
the manner indicated in Fig. 45, which is drawn on a scale
The two parallel galleries, A and B, each with its staircase

communicating with the surface, appear to have been excavated
about the same time, and extended the full length of the area.
The gallery C connecting them appears from the marks of the
pickaxe in its walls to have been commenced from the corner
AC. The ambulacra, A and B, were also united by the two
01 .-I-
10 tO\—: 40l -IoI-
00 -l 00i—i—I0Oi
ScAlE OF EKCLISH FtFT.
Fig. 45.—First Period ofExcavation.
other galleries D and I ; and the original design appears like
wise to have provided for the passages F, G, H, which, how
ever, were not, during this first period, completed to their full
extent. The gallery L, with the papal crypt L1, and the
chamber L2, belong to this period, as also do the cubicula
A1, A2, A3, whose painted walls have been described in a for
mer chapter.*
How it can be Our readers will here fairly ask, upon what grounds do we
distinguished. . .
thus positively assert that such and such a gallery belongs to
this or that period of excavation, and pretend to give the
exact dimensions of the area as gravely as though we were in
possession of the original legal documents which defined them.
To the latter question we reply, that this area is at once
marked off from the adjacent area of the Catacomb by its
floor being about five feet lower in level than theirs. With
respect to the period in which the different galleries were
* Chapter VI. of Book IV.
formed, it may certainly be taken as an axiom, that when the
loculi in the walls of an ambulacrum are broken through in
order to afford an entrance into a gallery, this portion of the
gallery at least is of a later date than the ambulacrum into
which it enters, and did not form part of its original plan.
Thus, in Fig. 46, which represents the outside wall of the
gallery C, the entrances to C1 and C- have been broken
through three or four loculi, which have been strengthened
afterwards by masonry. It is therefore evident that the
Fig tfr.—Outer II all ofAmbulacrum C.
galleries C1 and C2 were not contemplated in the original plan

of the gallery C, and were constructed at a much later date.
This observation, however, only affects the outside walls of
B and C, and enables us to exclude from the original plan all
those passages which now branch out from them ; but it does
not account for our representing F and H as stopping short of
B, and G, in the same manner, as not having originally
extended so far as to fall into A. Our grounds for so repre
senting these galleries will appear from an examination of the
woodcut on the next page, which gives the elevation of the
whole of the inner or left-hand wall of the ambulacrum A,
as it exists at the present day, and shows the relative sizes and
positions of the entrances into the cross galleries D, E, F,
G, H, I, and L. Now it is obvious that the entrance D could
the dotted line cd. This level would give the entrance to D
a height of about 7 feet, that to F a somewhat lower elevation,
but still sufficient for practical purposes ; while the entrance
to G, being yet lower, was in all probability not excavated
until the floor of the ambulacrum A had been lowered, and the
gallery E could not possibly have been constructed until after
that had been done. A similar examination of B would prove
in like manner that F and H did not fall into that ambulacrum
until after its floor had been lowered ; but we have said enough
to show that our plan has not been arbitrarily drawn, and for
further details we must refer our readers to the descriptive
analysis.
The lowering of the floor of the galleries marks what we Second period
may call the second period of excavation. The necessity of foo*o"ihelhe
providing more space for graves, and the confidence in the galleries,
consistency of the rock which practice had given the fossors,
led them to adopt this method of enlarging the cemetery.
They appear to have commenced with the ambulacrum B, and
to have continued the work along C until they reached A. In
this latter gallery, however, the change of level was by no
means uniform, and was never carried out to the extent con
templated when the chambers A4, A5, A8, were constructed.
Flc. 48.—Second Period of Excavation.

These cubicula were evidently excavated in anticipation of a
much greater depression of the floor of the ambulacrum, for we
now enter them by descending some steps, whereas we have
to ascend in order to reach A2 and A3 from the gallery which

is there at its original level. A reasonable explanation of this
variation is, that the fossors had presumed too much upon the
strength of the rock, and finding themselves obliged to sup
port the wall by the mass of brickwork which now forms the
corner 27 C,# they deemed it more prudent to abandon the
design of reducing the whole gallery to the same level with
B and C. This work, together with the completion of the
galleries F, G, and H, and the construction of a new one E,
marks the termination of the second period of excavation, when
the plan of the cemetery must have been such as it is repre
sented in Fig. 48.
Third periuH. We now come to a third period in the construction of this
cemetery. The further enlargement of the ambulacra having
proved dangerous, the fossors were compelled to attempt the
construction of another system of galleries at a lower level.
In order not to endanger the existing hypogeum it was neces-
Attcmpt to Sary to go to a considerable depth, and we find a staircase
make a lower . .
piano leading from the cross gallery H, and consisting of thirty-four
steps. They had hardly, however, penetrated below the
former level, when they found that they had passed through
the tufa granulare, and were in a stratum of very friable
pozzolana. The very walls of the staircase had to be pro
tected with brickwork : and, at length, finding it impossible to
get out of this stratum, they pushed a narrow passage in a
horizontal direction, which is represented in Fig. 49 as H2 ;
but, not meeting with any kind of rock adapted for their pur
pose, they abandoned the design, and the few loculi constructed
here are formed entirely of brickwork. We have already
remarked how this and other similarly fruitless attempts to
excavate sepulchral galleries in the pozzolana go to prove the
exclusively Christian origin of the Catacombs. The tiles used
in this staircase, and the galleries immediately adjacent, all
bear the stamp of the imperial brick-kilns of Marcus Aurelius,
* See Fig. 47.
and must, therefore, have been made between A.n. 161 and about a. i>.
170.
1 So. It is true that we cannot from this circumstance alone
determine positively the date of the work ; but it is unlikely
that all the bricks of a building should bear the same date, if
the building itself had been constructed at a period far
removed from the time of their manufacture. If this be
admitted, we have a proof of this cemetery having been in use
Fig. 49. — I'hird Period. Connexion with Airntirtnui.
for a considerable time before a.d. 197, when it was committed

by Pope Zephyrinus to his deacon Callixtus.
It was during this period that an alteration was made at the Construction
T of crypt of Si
farther end of the papal crypt Li, 111 order to form a passage Cecilia.
into O, the crypt where St Cecilia was buried near to the
tombs of the Popes. This crypt bears evident marks of

having been originally of much smaller dimensions than at
present, and was probably of the form represented in the plan,
in which we also see a gallery Q, and two cubicula Qi, and Q2,
the entrance to which was originally through the crypt of
St Cecilia. All the chambers and galleries, whose architec
tural history we have hitherto been tracing, are distinguished
by the fineness and whiteness of the plaster on their walls,
especially in the more ancient portions, and also by the
absence of arcosolia. The graves are simple loculi ; or when,
as in the instances distinguished on the plan by a small oblong,
they are table-tombs,* they are always loculi a mensa and not
arcosolia.
Necessity for Our readers will not have forgotten that, towards the middle
Lea1m.11 ^ ^ third century, the Christians began to be disturbed in
the hitherto peaceful possession of their cemeteries.t It was
no longer possible for them to claim the protection of the law,
and hence it became necessary to provide for the preservation
of the tombs of the saints by concealing their entrance from
public view. Accordingly, they blocked up and partially
destroyed the staircases A and B. The evidences of this
remain in both cases, and may be recognised in the section
of A, Fig. 47, where, at the point numbered 1 1, we see the
ancient staircase stop short about six feet from the floor, while
the tombs, 7, 9, 10. could only have been excavated after
Cemetery con- the demolition of the staircase. The entrance B was still
arenariinn. more completely destroyed, and a passage, B3, was opened
and supported by masonry in the outside wall of the ambula
crum, in order to enable the Christians to enter their cemetery
through an arenarium, X r X2 X3, which was situated in
convenient proximity. We see from the plan that there were
several entrances from the armarium, some of which have
been closed with masonry. These various passages provided
means of escape even when their enemies had tracked the
* See Figs. 4 and 5, page 30. See pp. 54 88.
Christians into the Catacomb itself ; and, while the satellites

of the tyrant, led perhaps by some traitor, were penetrating
into the cemetery by one passage, the faithful, only separated
from them by a few feet of rock, might be silently passing out
at another. Even when the Pagans had set guards at all the
entrances into the arenarium, the Christians had still a way of
escape through an exceedingly narrow and steep staircase, Secret >tan
case.
which leads directly from the arenarium to the open air.
This staircase, marked X4 in Fig. 49, to which allusion has
already been made,* and of which a section is given in Fig.
50, was clearly never intended to reach farther than the roof
Fig. 50. —Secret Staircase into Arenarium.
of the arenarium, and must have been useless either for ingress
or egress, except to those who had friends below to assist
them with a movable ladder, or some other means of con
necting the lowest step with the ground. In none of the
galleries uniting the cemetery with the arenarium do we meet
with arcosolia, the introduction of which we have already
noticed as a sign of a later period than we have as yet reached.
* Sufra, p. 331. It i.- marked Ae5 on (he large map.
A second area We have seen how the original limits of the area were trans-
incorporated j • j 1 . •1
with the origi- gressed, in order to put the cemetery in communication with
nal cemetery. tne arenarium. Indeed, the legal protection being removed,
there was no longer any reason for observing the legal limits ;
and, since the adjacent area on either side of the little cross
road appear to have been in the possession of Christians, this
cemetery, which was, as we have seen in other parts of this
work, the most important of all that belonged to the Roman
Church, was enlarged by the addition of other area, which
were so connected with it as to form one necropolis. The
first area thus added was that on the opposite side of the Via
Appio-Ardeatina, marked V on the large map. The plan
opposite, which is drawn on a scale of kl^, being double the
characteristics size of those previously given, represents this area in its pre-
arfam !'ecolK sent condition, with its dimensions determined partly by the
gallery Sl, viz., 150 by 125 Roman feet. At first it was con
nected with our cemetery by the gallery S, but when the steps,
of which traces still remain, leading from Q into the latter
gallery were destroyed by subsequent works, a new entrance
was effected through the chamber A1 into a, which had been
the main ambulacrum of this second area. The most striking
peculiarity of the latter is the group of large chambers, a-, a3,
a*, a*, aa, and a7, situated opposite to each other on either
side of the ambulacrum. These evidently formed the earliest
and most important part of this hypogeum ; and, since the
arcosolia which they now contain are coated with a plaster of
an inferior kind to that which covers their walls, we may safely
adopt De Rossi's opinion that these cubicula were not origin
ally intended for sepulchral crypts at all, but for wine-stores.
In times of danger, the Christian proprietor of the vineyard
above put them at the disposal of the Church for places of
assembly, the original entrance being turned into a luminal e, and
they were then fitted with marble benches, which still remain,
and lighted by wide luminaria.'' When once connected with
* See the illustration, Kig. ft, p. 31, which represents a similar arrangement.
Mode of'Construction and Development. 349
Fig. 51.—Fourth Period. Union with a Second Area.

A'.B.—The shaded parts represent masonry below ground. The black parts represent
two buildings on the Via Appio-Ardcatina, and luminaria. The cnbiculum a3 con
tains the sarcophagus of St Mclchiades. For description, see Note G on Atlas.
the cemetery by the galleries S and /', the area gradually be

came intersected by galleries, and filled with loculi, and the
frequent occurrence of arcosolia in both galleries and chambers
oblige us to refer the construction of these to a later date than
the third period of excavation. J)e Rossi sees sufficient
grounds for supposing that the three-apsed building, situated
nearly in the middle of the frontage of the area, is one of the
fabrica constructed by St Fabian.*
Fourth period. The fourth period in the architectural history of this ceme
tery is marked by the appearance of arcosolia, which are some
times found adorned with slabs of marble. The chambers,
H1, P1, and Q3t, are thus identified with this period, and
the formation of Q4, with its arcosolia and luminare, necessi
tated the demolition of the steps which led from Q up into the
gallery S. From what has been already said of the second
area, it is evident that many of the passages and chambers in
it belong to this period, for they abound in arcosolia, and
many of the cubicula are adorned both with paintings and
marble, which are never found together in earlier construc
tions.
Fifth period. We now approach an epoch which has left its traces in
wiri^cartl'1'^ almost every portion of Roma Sotterranea. History has in
formed us that in the list terrible persecution which the
Church endured under Diocletian, not only were the faithful
forbidden to enter the cemeteries, and hunted out when they
evaded the tyrannical edict, but the cemeteries themselves
were confiscated, and handed over to the possession of
heathen. %. In order to prevent the profanation of the sacred
sepulchres, the Christians had recourse to an expedient, the
labour and expense of which proves its extreme necessity.
They filled up with earth all the principal galleries, and thus
rendered the cemeteries inaccessible either to friend or foe.
Evidence of The evidence of this extraordinary fact is deduced, not only
this.
* See p. 86. t See Fig. 52, which illustrates the fifth period.
J See above, p. 90.
from the condition in which most of the Catacombs are

found at the present day,* but, still more convincingly, from
the discovery of a series of galleries, the floor of which in
many parts must have been the surface of the earth with
which the older galleries had been thus filled. Fig. 52 is a
plan of part of the cemetery whose history we are tracing,
and in it these galleries are represented with a light shading to
distinguish them from those whose direction they sometimes
follow. Thus, along A runs the narrow gallery I1, one branch
from which crosses H and I in an irregular curve, while the
other terminates in a shaft immediately above As. Along B
runs a similar gallery, B\ which opens into V, and the
cubicula, Y1, Y2, and Ys. B5 and Z are excavated at a
higher level, and have no connexion with the more ancient
ambulacra. We shall confine our remarks to the little gallery
l1, and we must refer the reader back to the elevation, in Fig.
47, of the wall of A. The dotted line, al>, was stated to have
been the original line of the roof of the ambulacrum, and it is
evident that the loculi above that line could never have been
constructed while the floor of A was at its present level, or
even at its more ancient level marked by the dotted line cd.
Moreover, the doorway which may be noticed above the en
trance to H, shows that a b was the level of the floor of the gal
lery in whose wall that doorway was opened. This will be more
clear from the opposite Fig. 53, which is a transverse section
of A at the point where H falls into it. Here we can observe
the difference in width between the original ambulacrum and
the gallery I1, cut through its roof, and now destitute of any
floor. The latter gallery could only have been made at a
time when A was filled up with earth, and it was only by
means of this artificial floor that Pomponio Leto and his
companions were able to write their names on the ceiling of
* The great work of the Commission of Sacred Archaeology is the
removal of this earth, which, except in the important crypts cleared by St
Damasus, conceals the galleries now as effectually as in the year a.di 303.
this narrow gallery, where they now appear twenty feet from
the ground. Fig. 53 also gives us a longitudinal section of
the branches of I1, which crossed that gallery a little above
the roof of H. A bridge of brickwork has recently been
Fig. 53. — Section ofGallerict A and H, and afV.

thrown across the ambulacrum to supply the place of the
earth which has been removed, but it is worthy of notice that
I1 does not break through the roof of H, nor into the chamber
A5, which it could hardly have failed to do, unless those exca
vations had been filled with earth when I1 was in use.*
This earthing-up of the galleries marks a fifth period in the
history of our cemetery, to which we may, without hesitation,
assign the date of the Diocletian persecution, a.d. 303.
A sixth period commences with the cessation of persecution,
* 53 a'so illustrates our remarks upon the depression of the origi
nal level of A, which is now entered from II by a sharp incline. That it
was not lowered, however, so much as had been anticipated, appears from
the floor of A5 being considerably below the present level of A, from
which it is entered by steps.
Z
Sixth period, when the faithful eagerly sought access to the tombs of the
Peticc of thc .
Church. saints. The staircase A was re opened and restored, although at
îa?|Vgalleries a somewl1a,; higher level, shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 47,
and thus an entrance was effected into the crypts of the Popes
and of St Cecilia. The earth, however, was not removed from
other less remarkable portions of the cemetery, and hence it
became possible to excavate the little galleries just described.
An inscription in one of them bears the date, a.d. 321 ; the
shafts (as m in Fig. 53) for extracting the earth prove them
to have been made in a time of peace, while the inscriptions
and other characteristics show them to have belonged to a
period anterior to the age of St 1 )amasus.
Fig. 54.—Last Period. Works ofSt Damasus.

N.B. -The luminaria and masonry, which reaches the surface, are represented biack.
Subterranean masonry by daik shading. Galleries of sixth period by lighter
shading.
Last period. The last epoch in the architectural development of the sub
Works of St
Damasus. terranean cemeteries is marked by the extensive alterations of
the indefatigable Pope Damasus. The restored staircase A
proved insufficient for the crowd of pilgrims who came from
all parts of the world to satisfy their devotion at the tombs of
the martyrs. St Damasus therefore constructed the staircase
by which we now descend directly to the crypts of the Popes
and St Cecilia. It is marked P in the accompanying plan,
from which it will be seen that it occupies a large portion of
the gallery Q. In fact, the brickwork which sustains it
blocked up some of the cttbicula, and reduced the dimensions
of others. The raising of the floor and ceiling of the chamber
A1, and the passage through it into the second area, probably
belongs to this period ; and also the chamber P2, and the
vestibule M, with its luminare, and passage R, leading to Q\
of which the former entrance had been stopped up. The en
largement of the crypt of St Cecilia and its luminare, and the
adornment and lighting of the papal crypt, which could not be
enlarged without " disturbing the ashes of the saints," were
certainly carried out under the special direction of St Dama
sus.
We have confined our attention to the successive develop- A illirJ area-
ments of this one area, and therefore have not alluded to a
third area * intimately connected with the second area by the
ambulacrum o,f which is continued throughout its entire length.
The dimensions of this third area are exactly the same as that
of the second, and its architectural characteristics prove it to
have been not of an earlier, and probably of a later date. The
arcosolium appears frequently, and the luminare, but the loculo
a mensa never. At the same time the disguised figure of the
Cross, and the double, and often triple chambers for purposes
of sacred assembly, prove it to have been occupied before the
age of persecution had ceased. In fact, the dated inscriptions
of this area (among which is the celebrated one of the Deacon
Severus) range from the latter part of the third century to the
tenth year of the fourth.
A glance at the large map shows how this last area is con- Other art*.
nected with the cemetery of St Soteris, comprising the four
* Marked VI. in the large map. t See Fig. 51.
356 Roma Sotterranea .
area VII. VIII. IX. X., which were once, in all probability,
separate cemeteries, and the peculiarities of which have been
noticed in a previous chapter.*
Labyrinth We have thus traced the successive development of the
connecting the
different area, most important group of sepulchral galleries in the Cata
comb of St Callixtus, from its first commencement as a pri
vate cemetery, to its final embellishment by St Damasus as
the centre of the vast necropolis with which, in course of
time, it had become united. We have also called our readers'
attention to the striking manner in which the most remark
able facts of the history of the Catacombs, already deduced
from documentary sources, have been at each successive
period confirmed and illustrated by the testimony of the
Catacombs themselves, as represented by this particular ceme
tery which we have examined. This testimony would be still
further strengthened if our space permitted us to examine with
equal minuteness the other area?, and especially that scarcely
less important and ancient one which contains the tomb of St
Cornelius. Our account, however, of the architectural history
of the Catacombs, and even of this particular cemetery, would
be incomplete if we were to omit all mention of that vast and
bewildering labyrinth of galleries which fills the ordinary visi
tor with astonishment, and which it is impossible, even on an
accurately-drawn map, to reduce to any regular system. We
have already described these galleries, which are found at two
different depths below the surface, the horizontal plane of each
piano of which is pretty generally observed. From the charac
teristics already mentioned,! we may safely conclude that both
piani of this labyrinth belong to an age posterior to the regu
lar construction of the hypogeum within the legal limits of the
separate arctc. The union of these into one vast necropolis
was not effected without difficulty, owing to the widely differ
ent levels at which their principal galleries had been exca
vated ; and the attentive observer who traverses a portion of
* Seep. 128. t Seep.
this labyrinth on his way from the tomb of St Cecilia to that
of St Cornelius, will not fail to recognise the points of junction,
and will appreciate the ingenuity with which the fossors accom
plished their task.
We must again repeat that we by no means venture to affirm Application to
that the successive architectural changes which we have traced generally*'
in the Catacomb of St Callixtus, are to be found in all the
subterranean Christian cemeteries of Rome. No doubt each of
these had its own characteristics, and possibly its own architect ;
but yet we are quite justified in supposing that the cemetery
which we have examined, placed at so early a period under the
immediate care of the Pope, and committed by him to the
Archdeacon of Rome, must have furnished a pattern, followed
with more or less exactness by those who had the charge of
less important cemeteries. We may, therefore, sum up the
testimony of the Catacombs as to their successive develop
ment, in the following general remarks.
When the Roman Christians of the apostolic age com- Summary of
menced the excavation of subterranean cemeteries, the work Jâdual
was comparatively new. It was carried on in a rock the con- development
of a Catacomb
sistency of which was unknown, within the narrow limits of a from its com-
legal area, and for the use of a people as yet few in number. melKement >
Consequently, they did not think of constructing spacious
chambers with ceilings of perilous dimensions, neither did
they contemplate the construction of more than one piano,
nor again did the necessity of economising space lead them
to excavate galleries dangerously near to each other. Hence
the most ancient part of a Catacomb is found to consist of a
gallery, extending as far as the limits of the area permitted.
Small cubicula were then constructed as circumstances might
render necessary, with entrances from this gallery ; and when
this single gallery became insufficient for the wants of the com
munity, other galleries and cubicula were excavated at con
siderable intervals from each other.
As time went on, certain further modifications became
through divers necessary. The galleries having been increased in length and
modifications .
necessary to number, the necessity of great economy of space was forced
creased ac- upon tne attention of those who had the charge of the ceme-
commodation; tery, and the experience which had been gained by the fossors
of the consistency of the rock enabled them to practise this
economy in various ways. Thus we find more cubicula on
either side of the galleries, and these latter are made more
lofty by lowering the floor, so as to receive many more tiers of
loatli ; while, in new excavations made during this period
space was economised by the galleries being made narrower
than before. The loculi themselves were made smaller, and
space was saved by their being formed wide at the shoulders,
and narrow at the feet. The fossors also found it practicable
to cut galleries with a comparatively thin wall of rock between
them, and at the angles of their intersection, where the fria
bility of the tufa would not admit of full-sized loculi being
cut, these portions were turned to account by being made to
receive the bodies of infants. Even these expedients failing
at length to supply sufficient space, the fossors conceived the
idea of excavating another piano either above or below the
first. The decorations of this period also show that the fossort
had become more accustomed to the material in which they
were working. The most ancient ornamentation had been
formed entirely of stucco and brickwork, but now we find
cornices, columns, pilasters, brackets, and even chairs,* cut out
of the solid rock. The shape of the loculi was in time diversi
fied by the introduction of the arcosolium, and the chambers
themselves varied in many instances from their former rectan
gular shape, and are found of an hexagonal or octagonal figure,
and sometimes with apses at one or more of the sides, t
or to avoid A later period shows signs of the protection of the laws hav-
the search of
persecutors; ing been removed, and the cemeteries no longer manifest the
same careful observance of the limits of the geometrical area.
The shafts communicating with the open air, constructed during
* Sec Fin- 7, page 32. t Sec examples in Area X in Alias.
this period, are not square apertures for conveying light and
air into the cub'uula, but are round pits, generally situated just
above the crossing of the galleries, and were evidently made
principally for the removal of earth. The fossors, no longer
confined within certain prescribed limits, constructed at this
period very large crypts and wide arcosolia, and, at the same
time, to satisfy the requirements of a large Christian popula
tion, we find a multitude of poor miserable galleries full of
loculi, but destitute of all ornament It is also during this
period that we meet with studied contrivances for conceal
ment from persecution. The regular staircases were demol
ished, and instead of them were constructed secret passages
leading into caves and sandpits. As a last resource, many of
the galleries were filled with earth in order more effectually to
conceal the tombs of the saints, and preserve them from the
profane insults of the Pagan occupiers of the confiscated ceme
teries. Finally, in this period we notice indications of the until its aban-
gradual abandonment of the practice of subterranean inter- burial-place*
ment. Many of the galleries terminate in portions which
contain no loculi, or in which the loculi are marked in outline
on the wall, but have never been excavated ; and even in
some of the spacious crypts we find the spaces for arcosolia
sketched out, but the arcosolia themselves have not been con
structed. Of course, in the more celebrated historical crypts,
more striking characteristics are to be discerned, but the fore
going remarks apply to the Catacombs as a whole.
CHAPTER III.
ANALYTICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PLAN OF THE MOST IMPORT

ANT AREA OF THE CEMETERY OF ST CALLIXTUS.
N.B.— The reader should open the Plan while studying this Chapter,
and should refer also to the elevation in Fig. 47, p. 342.
Staircase A. ' I "HE staircase which originally formed the entrance to the
_L principal gallery of this area was thoroughly and min
utely examined by the brothers De Rossi in May 1865. The
inclination of the steps enabled them to determine with accuracy
the upper portion of the flight, of which nothing now remains,
but the original position of which is indicated by the dotted
lines. The first remains appear about ten feet below the sur
face of the soil, and extend to a depth of about thirty-nine feet
underground. The plan indicates a wall of "brick-work and
tufa on each side of the staircase for a short distance, but the
greater part of the length is excavated out of the living rock.
As we have before remarked, there are evidences of two flights
of stairs constructed at different periods. The original flight
had steps covered with slabs of marble, and walls coated with
very fine stucco, and adorned with narrow bands of a bright
red colour. This flight of steps, however, bears signs of having
been demolished and interrupted in many portions of its length ;
and hence another flight was constructed on foundations com
posed of masonry resting on such of the original stairs as
remained entire. This flight of stairs is indicated by the dotted
line in Fig. 47, to which we must refer our readers, as well as to
the plan at the end of this analysis. The numbers and letters
arc alike in both, being those used by De Rossi.
A 2. Wall resting on a step of the earlier staircase.
A 3. Similar construction on three steps.
Analysis of the Cemetery of St Callixtus. 361
About half-way down the stairs, on the left, we find a large Staircase A 4.
sepolero a mensa divided so as to contain three bodies. It is
shaped like that of St Cornelius, and lined with white stucco,
but the filling up of the niche above the mensa is of rough
masonry covered with coarse plaster, as also are the materials
used to stop the loculi which are on either side of the staircase.
These are, therefore, of later construction than the original
ambulacrum to which the steps lead.
Three or four loculi have been cut in the staircase itself, A 7.
evidently between the period of its demolition and that of the
construction of the later staircase upon its ruins. And near its A 9.
lower extremity, two large sepulchres have been constrncted,
each between four and five feet in depth, and so wide as to
appear like small galleries passing beneath the staircase. In
the sides of one of these sepulchres are three loculi closed in
the usual manner, while the other is so divided as to contain
nine bodies each in a separate niche. The mouths of these A 10.
sepulchres are covered with tiles placed roof-wise, so as to bear
the weight of the staircase afterwards built over them. The
last few steps of the original flight, indicated by dotted lines, A 11.
have been entirely destroyed, evidently with the design of not
leaving even the least remains of them on the side walls, so that
any one attempting to enter the cemetery would have had to
make a leap of some five feet in order to reach the floor of
the ambulacrum. In the vertical wall thus left a sepulchre for
several bodies was afterwards found, the ruins of which still
remain.
The second staircase is about thirty-three inches above the A 13.
first, and this difference in level necessitated the construction
of a flight of steps in order to reach the cubiculum A, on
the right, and likewise to enter the gallery L on the left.
The ambulacrum which we have now entered was cleared Ambulacrum
of earth at the beginning of 1856, but it had been visited by A-
Koldetti and other explorers, who have left memorials of their
visits in the galleries leading out of it. As we pass along
between chambers A3 and A3 we notice that the walls are A 16.
much ruined, almost up to the roof; but that immediately Its roof,
under this they are in good preservation for the space of two
loculi, and that here they do not spring from the same base
line as do the lower portions of the wall. The loculi of this
higher portion are smaller than those at a lower level, and both
the roof and walls are plastered and ornamented with paint
ings, which cannot be distinguished when we stand on the
ground. This upper portion, of which a section is given on
page 353, must therefore have been excavated when the whole
of the lower part of the ambulacrum was filled with earth, and
this earth, which formed the floor of the small gallery above,
enabled the companions of Pomponio Leto to write their
names, Parthenius and Gallus, on the roof of the gallery,
lis door. Turning our attention from the roof of the gallery to its floor,
we observe that we have to ascend two steps in order to enter
the chamber A„ and at the door of chamber A3 a similar
Ambulacrum ascent indicates a corresponding depression of the level of the
A 17. floor. On the opposite side of the gallery the same peculiarity
strikes us even more forcibly, for while the roof of the gallery I
is horizontal throughout, the floor, for about half its length,
rises gradually from the point where it meets the ambulacrum
A 18. A. When, however, we reach the door of chamber we
find the floor of this chamber at the same level with the
ambulacrum, showing that this chamber was constructed sub
sequent to the depression of level. At the entrance to the
A 19. gallery H, the level of which is about two feet higher than
that of A, there are to be seen traces of two steps, which have
now become worn into an inclined plane. The difference of
level is shown in the section on page 353, which proves that H
must have been formed before the floor of A was lowered.
Almost opposite to H is the entrance to the chamber A5,
which is entered by descending two steps, as may be seen in
the above-mentioned section. This cubiculum, therefore, was
constructed after the floor of the ambulacrum had been
lowered, and in anticipation of a more considerable depres
sion than was actually carried into effect. The same section
shows the narrow gallery above the ambulacrum A, and the
traces of the original roof of that ambulacrum. It also repre
sents a portion of the small gallery I„ the shaft for removing
the earth from which falls exactly on a line with the wall of
the chamber As. The modern bridge, which now crosses the
ambulacrum A, had no counterpart in the ancient remains,
and was only constructed by the Commission of Sacred
Archaeology to enable the gallery I, to be traversed, now that
the earth which formed its floor has been removed from the
galleries A and H.
We next descend five steps, now worn into an inclined plane Ambulacrum
(see page 344), and reach the entrance to the gallery G, which A "°'
is formed at the lowered level of A, and the way into which
would not have been practicable when the floor of the latter
was first made. This opening, therefore, of the gallery G was
constructed after the level of A had been lowered. Nearly
opposite to G is the entrance to the cubiculum A6, the floor of
which is very slightly below that of the ambulacrum, of which
we have readied the lowest portion, so that here we see the
design carried into effect, which the lower level of A5 has
shown us had been intended also there, but not carried out.
The state of the walls of the ambulacrum is so ruinous in this
part as to have required them to be sustained by modern
masonry. The entrance to the gallery F was first opened at
the higher level, and then lowered to the new level, as appears
from its great height, and also from the tufa not having been
entirely cut away from the lower portion of its walls. Close
beside A6 is a large sepulchre A 23, marked in the plan, a 23.
resembling a sepolero a mensa, except that it is too near the
ground, and seems to have been closed like a simple Ioculus.
The entrance to the gallery E must evidently have been con
structed after the depression of the floor of A ; while D, like
F, bears evident signs of having been cut away to meet the •
lower level after its original construction. As we approach
the corner AC, the left wall is observed to be strengthened a 26.
for a considerable portion of its height by constructions of
tufa and brick-work, while the corner itself is entirely filled
up with a solid pillar of the same materials, having merely a a 27.
narrow passage through it, along which only one person could
pass at a time. Along the whole length of A, numerous in
scriptions have been found in fragments which have fallen
from the loculi, and they are for the most part in the Greek
language.
Returning again to the foot of the staircase, we enter the
cubiculum A„ the original floor of which was thirty-three Cubiculum \t.
inches lower than it is at present, and from the line where the
fine white stucco, with red lines upon it, now ends, we arc
able to determine the corresponding elevation of the roof.
364 Roma So'tier ranea.
The left wall of the original chamber is entirely gone, and was
removed in order to enlarge the chamber, and to make room
for the entrance through it into the second and third area of
the necropolis, which being at a higher level, required the
elevation of the floor of this chamber. Both the door and
loculi are quite in ruins.
Cubiculum k . A2 is approached by two steps, and is lined with stucco, on
which are painted the frescoes in Plate XII. 1 ; XIV. 2. An
examination of the stucco at the lower part of the walls shows
that the original floor must have been lowered about eight
inches. Near the door on the right hand is a square pedestal
or seat made of tufa, and covered with a slab of terra-cotta,
and to the left is a little staircase leading to a higher piano of
the cemetery, but evidently much more modern than the
chamber.
CubiculumA. ^ The chamber A, is square like the last, and similarly deco
rated. The floor is about eleven inches above the level of
the ambulacrum. This chamber is called by the guides the
Capella dci Sacramenti from the liturgical paintings on the
walls. See Plate VII. ; XI. 1 ; XII. 2, 3 ; XIV. 3. See also
page 263.
Cubiculum A 4. The succeeding chamber, A4, is decorated in the same way,
but the stucco is of an inferior quality. The roof is so low as
to be hardly six feet two inches above the floor, which is of
coloured marbles arranged in a geometrical pattern. De
Rossi has, however, ascertained that the original floor is be
neath this pavement, and that in consequence of the ambu
lacrum A not having been lowered to the depth once contem
plated, this original floor was raised so as to be on a level
with the ambulacrum, thus accounting for the unusual lowness
of the ceiling. This, as well as A3, has a loculo a mensa in the
wall directly opposite the door ; the side walls are also pierced
by two loculi, one above the other. Above the loculo a mensa
two loculi for children have been irregularly cut at a later
period. The explorers of the fifteenth century had pene
trated into this chamber, and left their names, Parthenius,
Gallus, Matthias, Jhomas, which are now barely visible.
CubUulum A The cubiculum As resembles the preceding in its form and
decorations, and there is reason to suppose that the floor,
which is now two steps below the ambulacrum A. had been
raised like that of the chamber A4, since the original ceiling
has been removed, and a new one made at a sufficient elevation
to admit of an additional range oiloculi all round the chamber.
This later portion is covered with a very inferior kind of
plaster, and has a barrel-roof, instead of the flat or cruciform
vaulting found in all the preceding cubicula. See dotted lines
in Fig. 53.
A6 resembles the other chambers in form and decoration, Cubiculum A6.
but on either side the lower tomb is a loculo a mensa, with the
sepulchre lined with marble and forming a bisomum, although
in each case they have been closed like a common loculus.
The end of the chamber, however, is entirely occupied with
one large sepolero a mensa divided for two bodies, each division
being lined with marble. The iron bars which supported the
mensa are still to be seen. At a later period it became neces
sary to strengthen this wall with masonry, and to this period
must be assigned the two marble pilasters which now stand
on either side of the sepulchre, and the vertical slab of
Grecian marble which once covered the whole space between
these pilasters. The marble pavement still remains upon the
floor. Within this chamber was found the epitaph—
SERGIVS ALF.XANDI
CAECILIE FAVSTAE
COIVGISVEBENE
MERIENTI FECIT.
The staircase and ambulacrum B is parallel to A, and very Staircase B.
wide and lofty, but it has suffered not only from the changes
made in ancient times, but from the carelessness with which
the possessors of this property in the last century adapted it
for the purposes of a wine-store. Both tombs and walls were
recklessly destroyed to make receptacles for the butts of wine,
and the gallery was entered from a modern staircase made
beneath the three-apsed chapel which we have noticed above
the second area. This staircase has now been blocked up,
and the point where the ancient steps must have reached
the surface of the soil is marked in the plan by the dotted
lines.
A wall closing up the staircase at about half its length. B 29.
From this point the upper portion of the staircase was de-
prived of half its width in order to make a space for the
narrow flight of steps B5, which lead down to the galleries Z
and Y. Near this wall the staircase B retains traces of the
same fine stucco, with its ornament of thin red lines, which
we observed on the walls of A. Almost immediately below
this wall the steps have been demolished, as we observed
had been done in the case of the parallel flight, and evidently
at the same period ; the traces of them, however, remain on
the side walls. Here was found the remains of a small sarco
phagus, ornamented with dolphins, and bearing the inscription
AOITAIANOC • KAT - nPOH EiAriN AI1PIA; and another
inscription in Latin to hasei.lica, apparently on a step of the
staircase.
Staircase B 32. A small opening on the left leads into a rectangular cham
ber coated with coarse plaster, and almost destroyed by a
B b4. modern passage which passed close above it. The entrance
to the gallery B4, cut through so many loculi, shows the damage
done to the sepulchres in B in its formation, although a point
was chosen with special care that the damage might be as
small as possible. The wall on the right is all in ruins. On
the left wall may be observed a line of loculi, near the roof,
evidently belonging to a different period to those below them,
from which they differ in size and arrangement. These in
dicate the existence of a gallery, similar to I, in the ambulacrum
A, excavated when B was filled with earth, and probably com
municating with B4 after the staircase was blocked up, since it
has no other outlet apparent, and must have been on the
same level with that gallery. From the entrance of B4 to the
bottom of the flight, the steps are well preserved and covered
with slabs of terra-cotta.
Ambulacrum The ambulacrum itself is paved with large tiles, all of which
B- bear the stamp opus doliare ex prjEDiis domini n et figl
novis, that is, according to Marini, from the imperial manufac
tory of Marcus Aurelius. As we approach the entrance to the
gallery B3, communicating with the arenarium, we notice the
wall on either side of that entrance is sustained by masonry of
tufa and brick-work, and that the entrance itself has been cut
through some of the loculi ; an evident proof of its having been
made at a later period than the ambulacrum. The masonry,
however, does not reach the present roof, because at the time
Analysis of ike Cemetery of St Callixtus. 367
that it was built the roof had not been raised to its present
elevation by the excavation of the small gallery B4.
On the right hand, now at a somewhat high elevation, is a Ambulacrum
sepolero a mensa, 37, which is important as proving the present
floor of the ambulacrum to be at a considerably lower level
than when it was originally constructed. And a practised eye
will at once perceive that the adjacent entrance into I was 13 1.
originally opened at a level which corresponded to that required
by the tomb. The entrance to H, on the contrary, is little B H.
more than six feet high, and could not therefore have been
made use of when the floor of the ambulacrum was nearly four
feet above its present level. From the arrangement of the
loculi, however, it appears that an entrance into H was contem
plated in the original design, although not carried into effect
until after the depression of the pavement of B. The masonry
on either side of H, and other signs, show that H was once
continued in a direct line into B, but was at a later period
moved about twenty inches. to the left.
On the left the wall is much broken, and on the right we see '
that the gallery G was commenced originally from this end, B G.
although it appears to have been only commenced and not
proceeded with until the ambulacrum was deepened. The
small gallery in the roof is very discernible at this point. The
entrance to F shows the same traces of having been opened B F.
after the level of B had been lowered, which we observed in the
entrance to H. The passage B„ cut through three loculi, and B B
even now of a very moderate height, could not have been made
until after the deepening of the ambulacrum. Immediately
above this door we perceive in the roof the termination of the
small upper gallery. From the holes high up in the left
wall, it would seem that the fossors began at the high level to
open a way into the gallery E, but never carried out their
design, probably because the wall was afterwards filled with
loculi.
The entrance into D was made at the high level, and then, B 1).
as at the other end, excavated so as to suit the reduced level
of B. The wall above this entrance is modern, and belonged
to the wine-stores constructed here in the last century. The
opening into T5 is also modern. It is worthy of notice that
the point where B and C meet is not a sharp angle, as is usually B C.
the case in the meeting of catacomb galleries, but a curve.
This peculiarity is an additional work of antiquity, for it suggests
the thought that at the period when these galleries were first
formed, the work of thefossors had not yet settled into a system.
Few loculi appear to have been cut in this corner, and those
few at a later period, so that
Gallery B Which connects this area with a neighbouring arenarium, need
not, and did not, belong to the earlier periods of this part of the
cemetery, even though its entrance did not occasion the demoli
tion of any loculi. After a few steps we come upon a modern
opening which leads into the area of St Sotere, excavated at a
higher level than that which we are now describing.
Gallery B3 Appears hardly to have been formed and filled with loculi,
when it was perceived that its direct leading into B endangered
the discovery of the whole cemetery. It was accordingly half
blocked up by a thick wall, and then entirely closed at the
point where it fell into T,.
Gallery R Led into the arenaria through T, and B4, and Bj, into Y and
Z, the latter being entered by the steps cut through the upper
part of the original flight B.
Ambulacrum The ambulacrum which unites A with B was cleared out in
L' 1863, and is wide and very lofty. The marks of a change of
level are not very apparent in the gallery itself, but having
been proved to the very ends of A and B, the same change
must necessarily have been effected in C. The loculi in this
gallery are large, arranged in order, and with numerous niches
for lamps, &c. Some of the large tiles, bearing the stamp of
the manufactories of the emperors M. Aurelius and Commodus,
C 49. 50. remain still in the hculi. Two large loculi are to be seen on
the right immediately after turning the corner out of B„ and
C 52. further on in the left wall is a sepolero a mensa. These being
near the floor, are marked in Fig. 48 as having been con
structed subsequently to the deepening of the gallery. Above
the sepolero a mensa is an opening in the wall near the roof
made by excavators of the last century, who were making their
way from a higher set of galleries in the ana of St Kusebius,
and through this opening must have fallen into the ambulacrum
C several fragments of inscriptions belonging to that area, and
differing entirely in character from the other inscriptions found
here. One of these has the of which no other instance
occurs in this area; and of another the remainder has been

found in a gallery of the area of St Eusebius.
The entrance to C, is cut through loculi, and therefore of Gallery (.'..
later date than the ambulacrum ; the gallery is full of earth,
and unexplored ; but above the entrance, we see in the section
on page 342 another passage which must have crossed C when
the latter was full of earth, and which is continued almost
until it meets D. The passage is in direct communication
with the area of St Eusebius, and appears to have been
deepened considerably after its first construction, either by
modern excavators or by graves having been made in its floor.
See the section of it gs in Fig. 48.
Another doorway leads into the gallery C„ which apparently Ct,
belongs to the same system of passages as C„ and bears marks
of having been formed about the same time. The fragments
of inscriptions found in these two galleries are of a character
similar to those in the ambulacrum itself.
D is a lofty gallery, excavated, as we have seen, during the D.
first period of the area, and afterwards deepened like the
ambulacra A, B, which it connects. Many inscriptions, the
majority of which are in Greek, have been found in this
gallery, which was explored in the winter of 1862-63.
E was excavated, as we have seen, subsequently to the E.
depression of the level of A„ and throughout its whole length
is never more than six feet high. Many of its loculi are closed
with tufa constructions.
F Was opened at the high level of A, and then cut away to F.
correspond to the depressed level at which it enters B. The
little passage F, was evidently excavated afterthe lowering of
the floor, for it carefully avoids breaking into E.
It was afterwards demolished in part, in order to make way Well Ff,
for a well of ancient construction, but still holding water. The
well is furnished with foot-holes, in order to admit of a man
descending to clean it, as may be seen in all other ancient
wells connected with the Catacombs.
G, on the contrary, commenced from B at the high level, and Gallery G.
was continued so as to fall into A after the level had been
lowered.
H commenced from A at the high level, and fell into B after H.
2 A
3?o Roma Sotterranea.
the floor of that ambulacrum had been lowered. Its floor was
paved with marble. The change in its direction near its con
junction with B we have already noticed, and careful observa
tion shows that change to have been made at the same time
with the sinking of the staircase H2. The pavement here is
composed of tiles of the date of Marcus Aurelius. The stair-
Siairra&e Ha. case H3 is at first excavated in tufa with loculi in the walls, it
is then flanked with thick walls of tufa and brickwork, in which
some loculi have been scooped out. About half-way down
the staircase, on the left, is seen a doorway in the wall, with
an arch turned over it, but walled up, apparently a gallery
commenced, and speedily abandoned. On the right is seen
a half-open loculus, within which, instead of a skeleton, was
found a little terra-cotta sarcophagus containing the body of
an infant. The upper portions of the loculi in this place are
not flat, but somewhat arched, and the roof of the staircase
breaks into the gallery I, which is half blocked up by the
masonry sustaining it. The staircase, after all, remained use
less, for it was found impossible to use, for sepulchral purposes,
the gallery into which it leads. The tiles are in many cases
stamped with the mark of the manufactory of M. Aurelius.
CubiculumW , The cubiculum H„ whose entrance is immediately opposite
to H,, differs from all the chambers we have hitherto described,
in the very inferior plaster with which it is lined, in the barrel
roof, and especially in the double arcosolia, w hich are here met
with for the first time in this area. These circumstances justify
De Rossi in assigning to it a later date than that of th» stair
case Ha.
tiallcry I. The gallery 1 was originally excavated at the high level of
A and B, as we have seen from the openings into both those
ambulacra. It was afterwards cut away so as to correspond
with the new level, and thus it is found at present, with its
floor sloping downwards from the middle each way towards
A and B, while the middle portion itself remains still at the
higher level. The walls arc much damaged by the rude
attempts to convert it into a wine cellar in the last century,
and scarcely any inscriptions have been found in it. The
opening by which the majority of visitors pass into this gallery
from the crypt of S. Cecilia is quite modern, but a little farther
on, on the left hand, we may, by climbing to the top of a heap
Analysis of the Cemetery of St Callixtns. 371
of rubbish, penetrate into the little crooked gallery I„ which Small Gallery
here crossed this gallery when it was filled up with earth, in >.
its way from A5 to the crypt of S. Cecilia, where it seems to
have terminated. It contains a number of small loculi, all
open, above one of which is traced on the mortar the sign of
the cross thus +. There are signs of an intention of excavat
ing two branches of this little gallery along I, in a similar
manner to those which we have noticed along A and B, but
the intention appears never to have been carried into effect.
The modern constructions along the part of the gallery I,
usually traversed by visitors, are the work of the Commission
of Sacred Archaeology, and were rendered necessary by the
rude staircase which had been made into the crypt at this
point, at the time when it was used as a cellar.
We now enter L, the first gallery which branches off from the Gallery L.
ambulacrum A, and which still retains some traces of the fine
smooth plaster with which it was originally coated. We have
already seen how the construction of another flight of stairs
into A rendered it necessary to make the steps by which we
now descend into L. At the bottom of these steps, we notice,
on the right hand, traces of the original wall having been cut
away in order to widen the passage ; and similar traces may
be observed beneath the luminare which now gives light to
that which originally formed the end of this gallery, proving
that the crypt of S. Cecilia was originally entered through the
Papal crypt. Slight traces also appear of the deepening which
this passage must have undergone when the original level of
A was lowered.
At the entrance to L, we see in the pavement and on the Papal Crypt
walls traces of the original level having been about a foot '••
higher than it is at present. The door of this crypt, which is
the central and most important in the Catacomb, as having
been the burial-place of the Popes of the third century, is five
feet wide, and constructed of brick-work. The plaster which
covers it is covered with graffiti, the majority of which are at
a higher level than would naturally have been chosen by those
who wished to write on the wall, so that these graffiti would
seem to have been upon the plaster at the time when the
pavement was lowered. Others being cut off in the middle
must have been written previous to the widening of the door,
3/2 Roma Sotterranea.
and consequently to the construction of the arch above it

which is covered with three coats of plaster, two of them
decorated with painting. The crypt itself is now almost
entirely reconstructed with modern masonry, for the ruinous
condition in which it was found when cleared of earth in
1854 rendered this absolutely necessary for its safety. It is
impossible to determine whether the original chamber has
loculi in its walls, or what was the nature of its roof, so many
successive works have succeeded each other in this important
crypt. See the description, pp. 130-150.
The earliest modification of this chamber appears to have
been the slight lowering of the level of the floor, the traces of
which remain in the lowest range of loculi, and especially in
the large sepulchre at the end of the crypt, which had its para
pet made in the best style of imperial lateritial work. At the
same period with this parapet was formed the little passage
leading into the crypt of S. Cecilia, as the form of the parapet
itself shows, and as is proved still more convincingly by the
brickwork of the passage being of the same kind as that which
covers the parapet. This was afterwards covered, first with
white plaster, then again with rough mortar, in order to attach
to it slabs of marble, and lastly, the roof was lined with mosaic.
Above the large sepulchre, which must originally have been a
loculo a mensa, we cannot see any traces either of other loenli,
or even of plaster. In front of it are two steps, the lower of
which has four holes, in order to receive the pillars that sup
ported the maisa of the altar which here stood out, with the
episcopal chair behind it. A fragment of marble in the
corner shows the chamber to have been once lined with
similar slabs.
The right-hand wall, when it was first discovered, contained
nothing but its eight large loculi, two of which, close to the
floor, had space for marble sarcophagi. Among the rubbish
was found the mensa of a tomb, with a vine sculptured on its
edge in very low relief ; and on the edge of another was carved
the insc ription OTPBANOCE. . . . Between the two sets of
loculi stood a pillar, of which the base is still in its position,
and a wall forming a sarcophagus jutting out into the chamber
in front of the loailus makes a continuation of this base.
Remains of a similar arrangement on the left hand wall justify
the restoration of De Rossi, while in the roof above the broken
column, which is here in its original position, is the shaft of
a second luminare, now blocked up. The wall near the
entrance is formed of masonry, with traces of an inferior kind
of plaster. The base and mark in the wall of a small column
still remain at the left hand side as we enter, while above the
door is the space for the oblong tablet of a large inscription.
In the wall, on the other side, is a niche for a lamp, or for
the vessel in which was burned the hallowed oil of which St
Gregory the Great speaks. A similar niche is right in front of
the entrance in the left wall of the gallery L. The papal crypt
had a barrel roof, greatly occupied by the large luminare. The
pavement was of marble, and covered tombs made beneath it,
the inscription upon one of which is still in its place, AHMHTPIC
K AT • jff ir • KAL • IOTN—Demetrius, buried on the 20th of May.
See De Rossi's restoration of this crypt, Plate XV.
The chamber La has its three principal walls entirely covered Otbkulum \.r
with a thick wall of brickwork, which has considerably reduced
the size of the cubiculum. The arches in these walls have been
much destroyed, and the toculi of the primitive walls behind
them have suffered also. Still, enough remains to show that
they were covered with fine white smooth plaster, that the
roof was vaulted in the cruciform manner, and, like the walls,
adorned with fresco. The central figure in the roof is that of
Orpheus, Plate XI. 2. All the characteristics of this chamber
are those of the very earliest portions of the area.
The vestibule M is constructed entirely of masonry, and De Vestibule M.
Rossi confesses himself unable to account for its peculiar form.
Its walls are lined with plaster covered all over with graffiti.
Here were found a number of polygonal paving-stones of basalt,
evidently having formed part of the pavement of the cross
road which we have called the Via Appio-Ardeatina.
The portico to the crypt of S. Cecilia is excavated in the Portico N.
tufa, and sustained by brick arches. The inscriptions on the
loculi found here apparently belong to the period of S. Damasus.
At the end of N a narrow passage runs close behind the crypt
of S. Cecilia. That crypt itself is entered by two steps, above Crypt nf S.
which are arches in brickwork. But behind the right hand êc'll:l °'
wall of the entrance we see these loculi which mark the posi
tion of the gallery Q, before the works of Pope Damasus had
374 Kama Sotterranca.
completely transformed this portion of the Catacomb. Enter

ing the crypt, we notice on the left, opposite to the tomb of S.
Cecilia, a piece of brickwork forming the segment of a circle,
which, when complete, was the pit in which the little gallery
I, lost itself. This pit, and the end of the gallery afterwards
incorporated into the crypt, were distinct from it when first
constructed. The chamber itself, therefore, must have been
of the restricted dimensions represented in the plans of the
third and fourth periods of excavation in pages 345, 349.
CuHculum Pr The chamber P, has its entrance almost blocked up by the
staircase P, which has been already described, page 355. The
walls of the chamber are in a very ruinous state, and the loculi
broken. It is not easy to determine whether the arcosolium at
the end of it was made within a pre-existing recess, or whether
the brickwork and marble with which it has been adorned wêre
later additions; but it is certain that before these portions
were added, with the inscription to Dasuniia Qiririca which
occupies the lunette, there was a simple loculus, closed with a
slab of marble, which these constructions afterwards covered.
Above the door was found in 1854 the inscription of the' year
290 :—
ViniV F1MVS R VII KA SKP
DIC • Hit ET MAX ' COS.
Vibius Fi'tins died (recessii) August 26th, when Diocletian for the fourth
time and Maximums were Consuls.
p The cubiculum P2 is in a most ruinous state; the left wall

being quite broken away, and the left only sustained by
masonry, the plaster has nearly all fallen. From its position
this chamber appears to have been constntcted about the same
time with the staircase P. The passage leading to it is sus
tained by masonry,
nailery Q. The gallery Q has now been occupied by the staircase P,
but formerly formed a communication between the gallery S
and the crypt of S. Cecilia. The tombs formerly excavated
in its floor have been destroyed by the constructions which
support the staircase P ; but within one of these tombs, near
the entrance to Q„ were found two plumbahr, or leaden balls
covered with a shell of bronze, and each fastened to a bronze
chain. It is possible that these might have been weights for
scales, but history records instances of even these weights

being used as implements of torture, and the burial of these
in the Christian's tomb certainly favours the supposition that
they had been the instruments of his martyrdom. The walls
of this gallery are strengthened by masonry 'in order to sustain
the staircase P. On the left wall, among this masonry, may
be seen traces of a flight of broad steps in the tufa leading up Q 7s-
to S. These steps must have been demolished before the
entrance to Q, could have been made, otherwise it would not
have been of sufficient height to have admitted any one into
that chamber. The entrance to S was afterwards closed with
a wall when the staircase P. was made, although the outline
of a door was traced on this wall, as if it had been at one time
contemplated to reopen that passage.
The plaster near the entrance to Q, is covered with graffiti, CuUculttm Q .
most of them in Greek, and apparently belonging to the third
century. The chamber itself, together with the others in this
gallery, was cleared out in 1855. The right hand wall of it, cut
in the tufa, is now in ruins, but preserves the traces of rather
large loculi. Part of the left wall is in ruins, another part filled
with ancient masonry, and the remainder with the whole lower
end of the chamber is faced with a solid wall of stone and brick
work, with four pieces of marble jutting out like brackets about
seven and a half feet from the ground. This brick-work forms
a solid arch, which fills half the roof of the chamber. The
other half is taken up by the luminare, which together with
the passage R, giving access to this chamber when the substruc- Passage R.
tions of P had blocked up the original doorway, show that this
chamber was one of the important shrines of the Catacomb.
The graffiti and the inscriptions confirm this evidence.
On the opposite side of the gallery is another chamber Qa CuiiculumQ.
with a barrel roof, the luminare in which formerly received light
from that of Q, but was blocked up by the building of the stair
case P. Nevertheless, a window was opened over the door, in
order to compensate to some extent for this loss, and at the
same time the chamber was coated with plaster, which is con
sequently not of so fine a kind as that of which some remains
are to be seen in Qt. The loculi are large, and those near the
ground are sunk below the floor. On the left side is an arcoso-
lium, but its arch is of the same construction as the masonry
at the door, so that its antiquity is not greater than that of the
staircase P. Some remarkable sarcophagi were found in this
chamber, as also in Q,. They are described in page 298.
CubiculnmQy We have seen that the entrance to Q3 was formed after the
demolition of the 'stairs 78, leading to S. At the end of this
chamber is seen a large arcosolium once covered with marble.
The parapet of this tomb is so high that it would have been
impossible to have used the mcusa as an altar, if the priest had
stood on the present pavement. This is a proof of the floor
having been lowered ; in fact, we descend a step on entering it.
The inconvenient height of the mensa of the arcosolium was
remedied by a little step covered with a slab of giallo antico
marble which now stands in front of the tomb. A small passage
in the left hand corner leads into another chamber, with a little
gallery stretching out of it, in which is an arcosolium, so arranged
as to avoid falling into Ql which must have been in existence
before these appendices to Q, were made.
Qt. The chamber Q4 has two arcosolia in its right hand wall, one
lined with marble, and the other with fine white plaster. In
the left wall are loculi. A massive wall for the support of the
staircase fills up a considerable part of the chamber on the left,
and the roof is pierced by a large luminare.
Gallery S. It appears from the marks of the pickaxes of the fossors in
the walls that the gallery S was first commenced at the end
where it was united to the gallery Q, although it is somewhat
higher than the level of that gallery, and corresponds to that
of the adjacent area, with which it was connected by the
passage b. (See plan on page 349.) On the plaster of the loculi
are graffiti in Greek, e.g., THCCTPEEIC - MXHC8H ZHCH and
ATTIKEIANOC. Some of the loculi have been broken through
in order to make an entrance to b, which proves that the
gallery S existed previous to its being made the means of con-
Cubicula necting the two area. The cubicula S2, S3, S4, are all constucted
s« s3> s4 with barrel roofs, and contain arcosolia. Immediately beneath
CuhUulum S the cross road is the entrance to the cubiculum Ss, of similar
construction, in the left wall of which only one loculus appears,
evidently from a fear of weakening the rock beneath the stair
case A, which must, therefore, have been in use when this
chamber was made. Opposite the entrance to S, is the way
into another gallery, S„ leading into the labyrinth, clearly of
Analysis of the Cemetery of St, Callixtus. 377
much later date than the gallery from which it branches off.
The cubiculum S7 is similar to the others along this gallery,
but its roof is damaged by a passage from the labyrinth having
broken into it. In a loculus on the left is the inscription
MOTCIKIA still in its place.
The gallery T is a continuation of B3, and connects that Gallery T into
passage with the arenarium. Its floor slopes continually {0_arcnarium-
wards the level of the arenarium, and its roof is cut in steps,
sinking as much as nine and a half feet in a very short space.
The galleries T, and T,, and others which branch off from it,
are narrow and low, as is also the chamber T,, which contains
a large loculus a mensa. The loculi in U are large, and con- U.
tained several fine inscriptions in Greek and Latin, e.g., EICTEP-
KOPI ; KAI ' NATAAEOC; AGATEMERIS - SPIRITVM - TVVM -
INTER • SANCTOS. U, and U2 are branches of the arena
rium, but contain a few loculi. Some of the loculi in the
gallery V are still intact, but most of them are destroyed, as V.
also in V,. V3 leads into the arenarium, which is evidently V V ,
more ancient than this gallery which here opens into it.
The vast gallery of the arenarium, with its branches X„ X3, Armarium X.
X3, needs no description, and the secret passage X4, leading X4.
into it, has already been described, page 347.
The gallery Y, with its dependencies, is low and narrow, y.
and at the level of the galleries excavated above the earth
which filled up the main ambulacra. Three cubicula Y„ Ya,
Y3, are of the rudest description ; while Z is merely a continua- Z.
tion of the hypogenm entered through Bs, and a portion of it
breaks into the roof of the chamber Q2.
The reader who has had patience to study this analysis will
easily perceive how fully it justifies the account of this area
given in the last chapter, and will be able to estimate the
magnitude of De Rossi's labours in thus analysing every por
tion of this vast necropolis.
A P P E NDIX.
Note A (page 15).
The discovery of the tomb and body of St Hyacinth by Father

Marchi deserves to be told in detail, as showing how innocently
a false tradition may be created about the possession of such or
such a relic by any particular church.
On the evening of Good Friday, March 21, 1845, one of the men Discovery of
employed in discing in the Catacombs, came to F. Marchi, in thet°ml> ? . !
„ _ „ °u i f . u- u j u v. Hvacmlhm
Roman College, with a slip of paper in his hand, on which were .
these words,—" DP. 111. Idus Sf.pteur Yacinthus, martyr,"—
which he said he had just copied from a stone that was still inclos
ing a grave in a chapel of the Catacomb of St Hermes (or Sta.
Basilla, as it is sometimes called). This excited not a little surprise
in the learned Father, who knew from ancient calendars, martyr-
ologies, and other sources, that the two brothers, St Protus and
St Hyacinth, had suffered martyrdom together under the Emperor
Valerian, and that they had been buried in this Catacomb on the
1 1 th of September ; but he imagined that their bodies had been long
since removed to other churches. Arringhi * states that they were
translated from the church of San Salvatore, in Trastevere, to that
of San Giovanni dei Fiorcntini, under Clement VIII., in the year
1592. However, when Father Marchi visited the spot on Monday
morning, in company with a painter and an architect to draw
illustrations of the chapel, he satisfied himself that it was indeed
a grave that had never been opened ; he observed also that the
chamber in which it was, was only one of five chambers, all con
nected together, receiving light from a very large luminare, and
having a double approach by staircases from two opposite sides,
just as he had before noticed in the principal churches in the
Catacombs of St Agnes, St Helen, and St Praetextatus. In a
* Arringhi, ii. p. 235.
word, the place had every arrangement necessary for accommo
dating a large number of the faithful, just as one would expect at
the tombs of such famous saints as St Proms and St Hyacinth.
Moreover, turning over the heaps of earth which encumbered the
pavement, he found a fragment of marble, with the words, Sepul-
CHRUM PROTI Wyartyris), and this placed it beyond a doubt that
here had certainly been the burial-place of those two glorious
martyrs, and that one of them still lay in his original tomb.
But because this discovery contradicted the popular belief and
the claims of the Church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, F. Marchi
rightly judged it advisable to proceed with unusual care and cir
cumspection ; he therefore left the grave exactly as it was, and
spent the next three weeks in a diligent investigation of every
record he could discover which could throw light upon the history
of the two brothers ; paying frequent visits to the chapel, however,
in the meantime, accompanied by cardinals, bishops, prelates, and
others, whose devotion or curiosity led them to the spot. The
result of his historical researches was most satisfactory. He found
that about a century after their martyrdom, the chapel in which
they had been buried was so blocked up with earth, that Pope
Damasus was obliged to repair it, and that, according to his usual
habits, he took the opportunity at the same time of putting up an
epitaph of verses in their honour ; also that Pope Symmachus, in
the beginning of the sixth century, had again restored the chapel,
and that the bodies of the martyrs were still there at the end of the
seventh century.
The next trace of them belongs to the middle of the ninth cen
tury, when it is recorded that Leo IV. placed under the high altar
of the church of SS. Quattro Coronati, the heads of St Protus,
St Sebastian, Sta. Prassede, and others, together with the bodies
of fifty-seven martyrs, taken either from the cemeteries or from
other churches. Now, we know that Paschal I. had translated the
body of Sta. Prassede to the church dedicated to her honour, and
that Gregory IV. had translated that of St Sebastian to the basilica
now known by his name, but before that time called after St Peter
and St Paul, whose bodies, as we have seen, once found a temporary
resting-place there ; and although we do not know who had trans
lated the body of St Protus, yet we are certain that it had been
done at some time prior to this, for Leo would never have removed
the head only, and left the rest of his body in the Catacombs, since
the motives assigned by his predecessors for removing the martyrs
bodies from the Catacombs at all was, " ne remanerent neglectui"
that they should not remain exposed to neglect and irreverence in
the midst of such a chaos of ruins. Leo's act can only be cx
Appendix.
plained by supposing that some church was already in possession
of the whole body, and that he did not choose to deprive them of
more than a part ; and this church can have been no other than
that already spoken of, the church of San Salvatore in Trastevere,
for from hence it was undoubtedly transferred to the church of the
Florentines at the close of the sixteenth century.
The reader will observe that there is no mention in this account
of Pope Leo's proceedings, of either the whole or part of the body
of St Hyacinth ; yet if this had been within his reach, it is impos
sible that he should have overlooked it, when he went out of his
way so far as even to rob other churches, in order to enrich his own
with all the precious relics he could find.
How then could the Florentines assert that they had the bodies St Hyacinth's
of both the brothers ? They were told so by the church of San reIics ™PposeJ
Salvatore, where an inscription in the pavement under the high [£ose
i altar expressly said, " Sub hoc lapide requiescunt sanctorum cor- Protus. Why?
poragloriosissimorum Protiet Hyacinthi." But this inscription was
not older than the fourteenth or fifteenth century, and between this
and the eighth or ninth century there was abundance of time to
confound the memory of the original translation of the relics.
Moreover, there was in the same church another inscription, or
rather half of it,* half of the epitaph written by Pope Damasus,
and in this Hyacinthus was named as well as Protus, and every
body knew that both had suffered together, and that they had been
buried in the same chapel, and that the body of St Hyacinth was
not to be heard of anywhere else. It was but natural, therefore,
that they should conclude that as they certainly had the body of
the one brother, so also they had that of the other.
But was not the mistake discovered when the relics were re
moved to San Giovanni ? Christopher Castelletti, who has left
us an account of the translation, says that they dug beneath the
stone until they came to a large marble case ; that they opened
this, and found no entire bodies, for that other churches had been
enriched at various times with some portions of them ; but he adds
that there were a great many bones. There were legs, arms, ribs,
one jawbone with teeth, and several loose teeth. This account
exactly confirmed all that F. Marchi had been able to discover
from an examination of the history. Here is no mention of two
bodies. On the contrary, there is a conjectural explanation why
two bodies could not be found. Nor does there appear to have
• The other h:df was, and is, in the church of the Quattro Coronati ; and F. Marchi
conjectures that the inscription had been divided at the same lime as the body. There
seems no other way of accounting for ha'f of it being in San Sall-atore, and the other
half in the Quattro Coronati.
Roma Sotterranea.
been any head at all, only a single jawbone and some loose
teeth, which might have been accidentally left when Leo IV.
separated the head of St Protus from its body.
Why they Still the question remained, why did not those who originally
were not extracted the body of St Protus, extract also the body of St
removed
those of Stwith Hyacinth?. ^ —But. this,
. . too, was soon answered,. when , »
i. wMarcni
Protus. came on Saturday, the 19th of April, with the Pope's Sacristan
(an Augustinian bishop) and other dignitaries, and with two or
three of the excavators, to open the grave itself. One of the
restorations effected by Pope Damasus, or by Pope Symmachus.
had been an entirely new pavement, made of tufa and Roman
cement, which in that damp place, under the open luminare, had
become as hard as any stone. St Hyacinth's grave had been ex
cavated in the very lowest tier of graves in the wall. Still the
whole of it had been above the level of the original pavement, but
now it was half above, and half below, the upper and more modern
pavement, so that it was not until some portion of this had been
broken, that the excavators were able to remove the marble slab,
and expose the interior of the grave. Moreover, the crumbling, in
secure nature of the soil was such, that it was manifest the whole
wall on that side would inevitably give way, now that its last stay
had been removed. And so it happened ; not immediately, in
deed, but within a few days, so that the whole chapel is again a
mass of ruins ; and it was through a fear of this disaster that former
generations had left the grave undisturbed.
Discovery of We must not omit to mention the interior of this grave, because
relics of St it brings to light two or three interesting features in the history of
1 lyacinlh. the Catacombs, which we have not had a convenient opportunity
of mentioning elsewhere. At first sight it appeared to be full of
mud, and the uninitiated began to fear that after all their care they
were only to be rewarded with disappointment. F. Marchi, however,
soon explained to them, that where the rain-water came pouring
down a luminare, it brought much of the soil of the Campagna
along with it ; but that though it penetrated the lower graves, and
tilled them with mud, yet this only destroyed the unformed bones
of infants, not those of a full-grown man, such as St Hyacinth was.
He immediately began to divide the mud, therefore, w ith a piece of
cane, and soon brought to light the bones of a man ; only, instead
of being in their natural condition, they were partly burnt to a
cinder, and all had manifestly been subjected to the action of fire.
We c.mnot account for this, since the genuine Acts of the martyr
dom are lost.
Lastly, when these bones were removed into broad daylight, and
were being examined by a professor of anatomy in the Pope's
Appendix. 383
Palace, F. Marchi observed several gold threads, crossing and re-
crossing one another, lying amid the earth and about the bones ;
and when these had been collected and submitted to a professor of
natural philosophy, he declared it certain that the body had been
wrapt up in some very precious material ; whether it was what we
call cloth of gold, or whether it had been stuff or silk embroidered
with gold, he could not say, as only these threads had survived.
This is a valuable confirmation of what we already knew, not only
from the testimony of Euscbius and others in individual historical
cases, but also from Iiosio, Boldetti, and other collaborators, who
had observed the same phenomena in many graves of martyrs
which they had opened. Boldetti especially mentions one, in
which all the bones of the skeleton were perfect excepting a
broken skull, and the fragments of the cloth of gold only covered
this one spot of the whole body. The relics of St Hyacinth now
rest under one of the altars in the newly-restored basilica of St
Paul fuori U mum.
Whilst these pages are passing through the press, another histori- Discovery of
cal monument of early Church history has been recovered ; and ""°j'1^' ''i*i°
although on this occasion we are not indebted to De Rossi for the nlent l„ ifjftjj.
discovery, yet we certainly are for its identification, and the most
interesting commentaries by which he has illustrated it.
In the month of August 1866, a tablet of the Acts of the Fratres
Arvales was discovered in the vineyard of Signor Ceccarelli, about
five miles from Rome, on the Via Portuensis ; the same place where
the first large discovery of monuments of this heathen sodality had
been made in the sixteenth century. Further examination brought
to light, in the same place, about thirty more considerable frag
ments ; and it was shrewdly noticed by Hcnzen, the learned
Prussian antiquarian (under whose direction the excavations were
being made, at the joint expense of the court and the archaeological
societies of his country), that these fragments were not mixed
together promiscuously, but that a certain chronological order
might be observed in their arrangement ; thereby showing clearly
that they must have originally belonged to some building on the
very' spot where they were now found. The walls to which they
had been attached had perished ; and large portions of the tablets
themselves had been carried away ; but the fragments which
remained had lain for centuries precisely where they had fallen.
Several other fragments, however, were found on the top of the
hill ; and these were not arranged in any kind of order. More
over, there were found amongst them fragments of Christian
epitaphs of the fourth century. This discovery was wholly un
looked-for, as there had been no previous knowledge of the exist
ence of a Catacomb in this neighbourhood. As the work of exca
vation proceeded, small columns, bases, and capitals, were brought
to light, all of which seemed to indicate the same age and style of
architecture as we were already familiar with in the ruins of the
Hospital of Pammachius at Porto, and other monuments of the
fourth century. At last, a piece of marble was turned up, the frag
ment of an architrave, bearing only three letters complete, sti, but
these of unquestionably Damasinc character. The presence of a
Christian monument was now certain ; and by and bye the entrance
to a Catacomb was detected, and lastly the Catacomb itself. On
the staircase by which we descend to it, we find monograms, of the
form d in Fig. 27, represented in page 230; and in the first gallery
there is a painting of a Good Shepherd, quite of the usual kind,
excepting that on the dress there is a crux gammata (see Fig.
27, k, page 230), such as we see on the tunic of the fossor Diogenes,
belonging to the ay;e of Damasus.* On the wall of a small cubi-
culum is a much later painting, of our Blessed Lord sitting in the
midst of four saints, each holding a crown in the hand, and having
the name written at the side, just as in the case of St Cornelius
Identification and Cyprian (Plate V.) The first of these names it is impossible
of Cameierium now to decipher ; of the second, we can only see SCA . . . TRIS ;
Generosaad t^ t others are plain, scs t favstinianvs, scs t RVFINI.n
Sextain r > >
Philippi. {Rujinianus). De Rossi at once conjectured that the obliterated
name must have been of siMPl.lctvs, and that he had before him
some memorial of Saints Simplicius and Faustinus, who were
drowned in the Tiber in the persecution of Diocletian, and buried
in the cemetery of Gencrosa super Filippi, or,, as it is some
what differently expressed in the Acts, Juxta locum qui appellator
Sextum Philippi vid Portuensi, and of their martyred sister, St
Beatrice, who was afterwards buried near them.
The owners of the vineyard kindly made some excavations under
his directions, and soon brought to light ruined walls of a small
Christian oratory, once adorned with mosaics, and two or three
more fragments of the Damasinc inscription, which gave VSTINO .
viatrici. This, of course, confirmed De Rossi's confidence in the
truth of his conjecture ; but the subject presented many and
unusual difficulties, which he has only now succeeded in clearing
up, in the first number of the Bullettino for this year.
We will state both the difficulties and their solution as briefly as
we can, for they are worth attending to, as illustrating various
points which have been often insisted upon in this volurne. First,
how could a Christian cemetery have been excavated under the
* i user. Christ,j. 594.
Appendix. 385
very temple and grove of a heathen sodality in the days of Diocle
tian ? and secondly, how can the position of this cemetery, so near
to Rome, be reconciled with the description of the cemetery of
Generosa given above, juxta Sextum Philippi; since we have the
testimony of Ethicus, a Christian writer of the fifth century, that
the farm called Sextum Philippi (which he tells us was also called
pradium missale) was seven or eight miles further down the river,
near the island now called Isola sacra ?
As to the first difficulty, it is well known to all who have studied Sts.Simplicius,
the subject of the Fratres Arvales—so important in its bearing B™trj""bua_"d
upon disputed questions of Roman chronology during the Imperial r\K<\ under de-
period— that when Marini published his great work upon them, all serted grove of
the fragments of their tablets which had been discovered ranged je^p\g e°
between the reigns of the first emperors and that of Gordian, about
A.d. 238. Marini expressed an earnest hope that tablets of a later
date would one day be discovered, but that hope has never been
realised. De Rossi —observing that the last writer who mentions
these Fratres is Minucius Felix, a cotemporary of Gordian, and
the last magistrate who enumerates the title cf Priest of this
Pagan college among his dignities, belongs to the very same age,
—conjectured, with his usual sagacity, that the college must have
been either abolished or incorporated with some other, or, at
least, fallen into disrepute and neglect, about that time. This he
announced in a paper published in the Annali dell' Istituto di
Corrispondenza Archeologica in 1858, and the recent discovery sin
gularly confirms the statement, for the latest date which has been
found is of the year 225. There is nothing, therefore, strange or
improbable in the supposition that, at a time when entrance to the
usual Christian cemeteries was forbidden by the Emperor Diocle
tian, a new place of burial should have been provided here where
the bodies of the martyrs Simplicius and Faustinus had been re
covered from the Tiber. This account of the origin of this ceme
tery is the more certain, because, although it is singularly perfect
(never having been disturbed apparently at any time, excepting for
the translation of the relics of the Saints by Pope Leo II.*), yet
not a single Christian epitaph has been found more ancient than
the days of Diocletian, nor any vestige of the more primitive signs
and symbols. On the other hand, the use of the monogram is
frequent, and there are several epitaphs with consular dates of the
age of Damasus. Moreover, it is important to observe that this
Catacomb is connected with an arenarium, like those mentioned
in this volume at p. 332 ; and this we have pointed out (p. 88) as
. Lib. Pontif. in loc. He translated them tu the Chuich of St liibiana.
one of the characteristics of those parts of the Catacombs which
This discovery belong to the times of persecution. The numerous openings of
confirms our ^ arenarium on the side of the hill would have rendered the
Jlistorv of the ....
Catacombs secret construction of a small cemetery here a matter of no great
and the Acts difficulty, even in the days of Diocletian, and there is absolutely
of these Mar- reason to suppose that it was used extensively at any time. On
tyrs. rr '
the contrary, it is but a small Catacomb even now, and seems to
have had one central shrine, as it were ; the tombs of the martyrs
that have been named. CK'er these, Pope Uamasus raised a little
oratory or basilica, so arranged that through a window in the apse
the worshippers could look in upon the sacred graves. A small
gallery was also excavated, which would lead them directly from
the oratory to this cubiculum, whilst the adjacent galleries were
blocked up, as we have seen in the neighbourhood of the tomb of
St Eusebius (p. 168), to prevent the pilgrims from going astray
and losing the object of their pious search. For these saints were
once held in great veneration ; their festival was kept on the 29th
of July ; special lessons and prayers in their honour may be seen
in the office-books of Gelasius and St Gregory the Great ; and
their names even have a place in the Litanies in the most ancient
MSS. both of England and France.*
The second or topographical difficulty may be dismissed more
summarily. The Acts of Saints Simplicius and Faustinus, and the
inscription on the front of the old marble sarcophagus, which may
still be seen in the precincts of St Mary Major's, connect their
place of burial with some place known as Filippi, or Sexturn
Pliilippi ; and a geographer of the fifth century describes this spot
as being several miles farther clown the river. A careful examina
tion, however, of all the passages in which this place—deriving its
name from Philip—is mentioned, had already led Bosio to suspect
that the name belonged to a considerable tract of country, viz.,
all the low land which stretches out towards the sea, beyond the
height on which this cemetery has been excavated, and which is the
last spur of Monte Verde and the whole range of hills on that side
of the Tiber. If we accept this simple explanation of the term,
there is no longer any inconsistency between the locality of the
cemetery just discovered and the descriptions of it in ancient
monuments. On the contrary, there is a special fitness in the
word used in one of those descriptions, which speaks of the ceme
tery as being super Filippi. This is a subject, however, which
need not further be discussed in this note. But the discovery of
another Catacomb, agreeing so exactly in all its phenomena with
• Mabillon, Analects, t ii. p 670. Martenc de Div. Off., p. 63o. Monni dc Pccnit. in
App.. p. 65.
Appendix. 387
the general theory of their history, as laid clown by Dc Rossi and
explained in these pages, was too important a fact to be altogether
omitted.
Note B (page 22).

The "Acts of the Martyrdom of St Cecilia," published by Bosio Two versions
in 1600, and republished by Laderchi in 1722, were taken from a g^lie ^cts °f
late MS. in the possession of her church in Trastevere. The Greek compared.
version of Metaphrastes was made from an older MS., of which
Latin copies also are extant ; and it will be worth while to set side
by side a passage of the Acts as it stands in each of these two
versions. The additions in the later MS. which we have italicised
are very significant.
Almachius ordered Cecilia to Almachius the Prefect orders
be brought before him, and he Saint Cecilia to be brought be
asked her, What is your name ? fore him. And he asked her,
She answered, Cecilia. What is your name ? She an
swered, Cecilia, among men ;
but, what is much more dis
tinguished, I am a Christian.
A. said, Of what condition are A. said, Of what condition are
you ? you ?
C. answered, I am free, noble, C. answered, I am a Roman
and of senatorial descent (clar- citizen, distinguished, (illustris),*
issima). and noble.
A said, 1 ask you about your A. said, I ask you about your
religion. religion, for we knovj that you
are noble by birth.
C. answered, Your question Saint Cecilia said, Your ques
ing then took a very foolish be tioning took a very foolish exor
ginning, to expect two answers dium, to expect two answers to
to be included in one enquiry. be included in one enquiry.
A. said, Whence have you so The Prefect A. said, Whence
great presumption in answer have you so great presumption
ing? in answering ?
C. said, From a good con Saint C. said, From a good
science, and a faith unfeigned. conscience, and a faith un
feigned.
A. said, Do you not know A. said, Do you not know
what power 1 have ? what power I have ?
* The vagueness of this word marks a Liter date than the exact specific words used
m the other version.
The Blessed C. said, And do
you not know whose spouse I
am t
A. said, Whose t
Saint C. said, Of our Lord
jêsus Christ.
A. said, I know you to be the
wife of Valerian.
C. said, You know not what Saint C. said, O Prefect, you
power you have ; for if you know not yourself what power
question me about your power, you have ; for if you question
I will manifest it to you by me about your power, 1 will
most true assertions. manifest it to you by most true
assertions.
A. said to her, Tell me what A. the Prefect said to her, If
you know. you know anything, tell me. /
shall be delighted to hear a dis
coursefrom your mouth.
C. said to him, The power of Saint C. said, In proportion
man is as when a bladder, &c. as you are delighted, so shall
you be judged. Nevertheless,
listen. The power of man is as
when a bladder, &c.
It is clear from the prologue to these Acts that their compiler
lived at a time subsequent to the triumph of Christianity ; yet it is
difficult to believe that he had not access to the genuine official
documents of the trial, or at least faithful copies of them, when he
wrote this detailed account of the examination, for in its older and
simpler form it has all the preciseness of the legal forms of a
criminal process.
AW* C (page 68;.

THE CHAIR OF ST PETER.
" The Chair of The term Cathedra Petri has, in the course of ages, gathered
l'uterûsetl in round it so many associations of the supreme authority in the
' Catholic Church, that we are apt to regard it solely in its moral and,
of course, most important signification, and to forget that within
the bronze seat supported by the colossal figures of the four Doctors
of the Church there is an ancient chair which Roman tradition as
serts to have been actually used by the Apostle St Peter. Among
the Essavs of the late Cardinal Wiseman is a learned and interest
Appendix. 389
ing paper which exposes the absurdity of Lady Morgan's amusing
blunder in confusing this venerable relic with an ancient chair at
Venice, and so pretending that on the Chair of St Peter was to
be found the Mussulman formula. The Cardinal, however, was
obliged to be content with descriptions and drawings of the true
chair, which were two hundred years old, as the relic had never
been seen by man since Alexander VI I. had placed it in its present The real Chair
position. Commendatore De Rossi has been more fortunate : for, nas !ieen re-
ccntlv t?x-
at the eighteen hundredth anniversary of the martyrdom of the posej.
Apostlcs, in 1867, Pope Pius IX. commanded this venerable relic
to be exposed for the veneration of the faithful, and full opportuni
ties were given for a close and scientific examination of it from
every point of view. The illustration given here is carefully copied
from a photograph taken during the exposition of the Chair, and

will assist our readers in following the description of it which we
proceed to give.
T.— DESCRIPTION OF THE CHAIR.
It is composed
The Chair has four solid legs composed of yellow oak, united by Qf tWo kinds
horizontal bars of the same material. In these legs are fixed the of wood.
iron rings which make the whole a sella gestatoria, such as that in
which the Sovereign Pontiff is now carried on state occasions, and
such as those which the Roman senators began to use in the time
of Claudius, The four oak legs were evidently once square, but
they are much eaten away by age, and have also had pieces cut
from them as relics. These time-worn portions have been
strengthened and rendered more ornamental by pieces of dark
acacia wood, which form the whole interior part of the chair, and
which appear to have hardly suffered at all from the same causes
which have so altered the appearance of the oak legs. The panels
of the front and sides, and the row of arches with the tympanum
above them, which forms the back, are also composed of this wood.
But the most remarkable circumstance about these two different
kinds of material is, that all the ivory ornaments which cover the
front and back of the chair are attached to the acacia portions
alone, and never to the parts composed of oak. Thus the oak
framework, with its rings, appears to be of quite a distinct antiquity
from that of the acacia portions with their ivory decorations.
Ornamented These ivory ornaments themselves, again, are of two distinct
with ivories, kinds of workmanship. Those which cover the front panel of the
also of two
kinds. chair are square plates of ivory, disposed in three rows, six in a
row, and have the Labours of Hercules engraved upon them, with
thin lamina of gold let into the lines of the engraving. Some of
them are put on upside down, and their present use is evidently
not that for which they were originally intended. The other
ivories, on the contrary, fit exactly the portions of acacia which
they cover, with the architecture of which they correspond, and
they appear to have been made on purpose, and never to have
been used for ornamenting any other article. They consist of
bands of ivory, not engraved, but sculptured in relief, and represent
combats of beasts, centaurs, and men, and in the middle of the
horizontal bar of the tympanum is a figure of a crowned emperor,
holding in his right hand a sceptre which is broken, and in his
left a globe ; he has a moustache, but no be.ud, and Dc Rossi
conjectures he may be intended for Charlemagne or one of his
successors. Two angels, one on cither side, offer him crowns, and
two others bear palms. The style of the carving and of the ara
besques corresponds to the age of Charlemagne. The Labours of
Hercules are of a much more ancient date, but Ue Rossi does not
think them as old as the first century.
The tradition Before passing on to consider the historical notices of this vener
of its antiquity able relic, it may be well to observe, that although a more accurate
presents no
archxological description of the Chair of St Peter than Cardinal Wiseman was
difficulties. able to obtain from the works of Torrigio and Febeo prevents our
Appendix. 39i
adopting his hypothesis that this was the ivory curule-chair of the
Consul Pudens, yet the most rigid criticism has nothing to object
against the traditional antiquity of the oak frame-work of this chair.
When the inner part of acacia was added, and adorned with bands
of ivory, the ancient ivories which cover the front appear to have
been put on, and it is not at all uncommon to meet with copies of
the gospels, reliquaries, and other valuable works of the early
medieval period, which are ornamented with ivories representing
subjects of Pagan mythology. At that time Paganism was dead
in Europe, and its treasures of art were transferred to innocent
and often to sacred uses ; but when the struggle between the in
fant Church and the dominant power of heathen idolatry was still
raging, the Christians, as we have seen in our Chapter 011 Sculp
ture, were extremely cautious in their admission of scenes of Pagan
mythology, and would not have been likely to allow them to remain
undefaced on so sacred an object as the Chair of St Peter. On
the other hand, all that the Cardinal urges as to the introduction
of the use of the sella gestatoria by the senators, precisely in the
reign of Claudius, is most valuable, as showing what was regarded
in those days as a special honour, and therefore one antecedently
probable to have been conferred by a convert of senatorial rank
upon the Chief Pastor of the Church, to whom, in the words of the
Liber Fontijicalis, " the chair was delivered or committed by our
Lord Jesus Christ." *
2.—HISTORICAL NOTICES OF ST PETER'S CHAIR.
In order to prove satisfactorily from historical sources that the Cathedra Petri
relic now venerated as the Chair of St Peter was so regarded from ll5e<1 111 a ltera
3 sense
the earliest ages of the Roman Church, it will be necessary not
only to trace a chain of testimonies up to apostolic or quasi-apos
tolic times to the cathedra. Petri, but also to produce good evidence
that the expression cathedra or sedes Petri is to be understood not
merely in a metaphorical and moral, but also in a literal and
physical sense, for instance, when we read in the pages of Bede t
that Ceadwalla, king of the West Saxons, converted by St Wilfrid,
went to Rome to be baptized, and died there a.d. 689, and that
Pope Sergius I. put up in St Peter's an epitaph which stated—
" King Ccadwalla, the powerful in war, for love of God left all, that he might visit
and see Peter anJ Peter's Chair, and humbly receive from his font the cleansing waters,"
we might reasonably think that as "Peter" is put metaphorically
for his successor Pope Sergius, so " Peter's Chair" might not im-
* " Hie [Clemens] ex prxccplo Beat! Petri suscepit Ecclesiam, et Pontificatum gnber-
uandum, sicut ci fueiat a Dumiuo Jesu Chrislo cathedra tradita, vel commissa."—Lib.
rant., c. iv. t H. E. v. 8.
probably be a metaphorical expression for Rome, the seat of his
jurisdiction ; and hence we could not from such passages as this
conclude that any certain reference was intended to a visible
material chair, such as that of which we have given a description,
by Ennodius, Our first authority, then, shall be one who leaves us in no doubt
a.D. 500. upon this point. Ennodius of Pavia, who flourished at the end of
the fifth and beginning of the sixth centuries, introduces Rome as
rejoicing in having become Christian, and puts into her mouth the
following words : " Ecce nunc ad gestatoriam sellam apostolictr con-
fessionis uda mittunt limina candidates ; ,et uberibus, gaudio ex-
actore,fletibus collata Dei beneficio dona geminantur." * " See now
the dripping thresholds send forth the white-robed [neophytes] to
the sella gestatoria of the Apostle's Confession ; and amid floods
of joyous tears the gifts conferred by the kindness of God are
doubled," i.e., in the two sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.
In this passage Ennodius brings vividly before us the scene pre
sented by the Baptistery of the Vatican, when the newly baptized,
with joyful emotion, passed at once from the font to receive Con
firmation from the Bishop seated in the sella gestatoria, which
appears to have been then a conspicuous object at St Peter's
shrine.
Inscription in This passage is illustrated by some lines from the Codex of Ver-
BaptUtery. dun> g fragment 0f the fourth or fifth century—
" Isite insontes ccrUstiflnmine lotas
Pastoris Summi dextera signal eves.
Hue undis generate vent quo Sanetus ad unum
Spiritus ut capias te sua dona ?>ocat."
" In this place the right hand of the Chief Pastor seals the sheep who have been
washed in the heavenly stream. O thou who ha>t been bom again in the waters, come
to that one place whither the Holy flhost calls thee to receive His gifts."
The lines preceding these in the same Codex were written at the
entrance of the Baptistery —
" Sutnite perpetuam saneto de gurgite vitant
Cursns hie sstJidei, mors nbi sola peril.
Koborat hie anintos divinofontt lavaerum,
Etdum membra madent, mens solidatur aquis. m
Ahjcit apostolicor geminatum sedis honorem
Christus et ad corlos hune dedit esse T'iam :
.Yam cut siderei commisit limina r/gni
Hie kabet in templis altera elaustra Poli."
" From this sacred font draw everlasting life ; for this is the stream of faith in which
death alone is destroyed. Here the washing of the font of God gives strength to
souls, and while the limbs are moistened, the mind is made strong in the waters. Christ
has added double honour to the Chair of the Apostle, and given him to be the way to
heaven ; for he to whom He committed the portals of the kingdom above, has here in
the churches another gate of heaven."
* Apulog. pro Synodo, apud Sismond. Opp. torn. L p. 1647.
Appendix. 393
From these lines we gather that the Baptistery of the Vatican in
which they were inscribed, was " an honour doubled by Christ to
Peter, and to the Chair of the Apostle," and that there was in that
Baptistery a distinct place where the neophytes were sealed and
enriched with the gifts of the Holy Ghost by the hand of the
Supreme Pastor. Now, comparing this with the passage of En-
nodius, we perceive that the sedes apostolica is not mentioned only
in its moral, but also in its literal and material sense ; and that in
the fifth century at least there was solemnly preserved in the Bap
tistery of the Vatican a sella geslatoria, upon which, or in front of
which, the Pope used to sit when he conferred the Sacrament of
Confirmation.
A remarkable testimony to the same fact is the evident allusion By St Dama-
to it in the inscription which St Damasus put up in this Baptis- sus in fo"rth
tery which he had built— century ,
" Una Petri sedes unum verumque lavacrum."

Again, in the inscription on the tomb of the immediate successor
of Damasus, we read that Pope Siricius—
" FONTE SACRO MAGNUS MERUIT SEDERE SACERDOS." *
Now, the usual place for the Bishop's throne was in the apse of
the basilica, and therefore if it is recorded that Siricius " was
counted worthy to sit as High Priest at the Sacred Font," it is
clear that " in the Sacred Font," i.e., in the Baptistery, was placed
the chair to which the Bishop of Rome owed his pre-eminent rank
as the Sacerdos Magnus, and, in fact, the magnificent Baptistery of
St Damasus is described by Prudentius as " the Apostolic Chair."
With these authorities to guide us, we read the epitaph of Cead-
walla in an entirely new light, and we cannot doubt that the
" Chair of Peter " which he is described as leaving home to see,
was none other than the famous sella geslatoria which the Saxon
king could not fail to visit when he received the sacrament of re
generation in " Peter's Font."
Our next authority shall be St Optatus of Milevis, who published and St Op-
the first edition of his work against the Donatists during the ponti- tatu:>-
ficate of St Damasus, and the second during that of St Siricius.
The Donatists boasted of having in Rome a bishop of their sect.
Optatus opposed to them the line of Roman pontiffs from Peter to
Damasus, and to Siricius, "all occupiers," as he pointed out, " of
the same Chair; " and proceeded—" In fact, if Macrobius"(the Don-
atist bishop) " be asked where he sits in Rome, can he say, In the
Chair of Peter?" [in cathedra Petri) " which I am not aware that he
* Gruter Inscr. pp. 1163, to, and 1171, 16.
394 Roma Sotteyranca.
has ever seen with his eyes, and to whose shrine he, as a schismatic,
has not approached." * The Chair, therefore, on which Damasus,
and afterwards Siricius, sat as pontiffs, was in the time of St
Optatus regarded not only morally, but materially, as the Chair
of St Peter, and was seen by the eyes of those who approached
ad Petri memoriam, i.e., to his basilica on the Vatican.
Now, it is impossible that this Chair could have been so generally
regarded in the fourth century as having belonged to the Apostle
St Peter and his successors, unless there had been at the time an
ancient tradition to that effect. Before St Damasus placed it in the
Baptistery of the Vatican, it must have been preserved elsewhere,
perhaps in the very crypt of St Peter's Tomb, or in the Basilica
of Constantine. At any rate, before the Diocletian persecution,
and in the course of the third century, Catholics professed, in the
presence of heretics who did not attempt to deny it, the same tra
dition which St Optatus opposed to the Donatists concerning the
Chair in which the successors of St Peter presided over the Church.
This comes out with striking clearness in the Poem against Marcion,
usually appended to the works of Tertullian, and which from in
ternal evidence clearly belongs to the third century. Towards the
end of Book iii., this ancient author enumerates the Bishops of
Rome, and commences the list with these lines :—
" Hoc calhedra, Petrus qua scdcrat ipse, hcatum
Maxint<i Koiua Linum primum considereJussit."
" In this Chair in which Peter himself had sat, he ordained Linus fiisl to sit with him
[as bishopj established in Great Rome."
These words certainly suggest the idea of a material chair, and
this literal sense becomes still more certain when we recall the
language of St Optatus and Ennodius. In fact, with the light
thrown upon the expression Cathedra Petri by the passages of
those authors, it is impossible to avoid observing, that in many of
the works of the early Fathers in which that expression occurs, its
force is immensely increased if we suppose them to have used it
with a full knowledge that the very chair of the Apostle was pre
served in Rome as the visible witness to, and symbol of, the
St Cyprian. apostolic foundation of her line of Pontiffs. Thus, when St Cyprian
wrote of the Roman Sec being vacant by the martyrdom of St
Fabian, " cum locus Fabiani, id est locus Petri et gradus cathedra
sacerdotalis vacant," t the force of the expression is greatly increased
if we understand him to have had in view the venerable chair, " in
which Peter himself had sat/' and on which his successors, down
to St Fabian, were enthroned.
* St Optat. ad Parmci>. ii. 4. t Epist. so-
Appendix. 395
The celebrated passage of Tertullian, De Prascript. c. 36, loses Tertullian.
all its significance if we regard him as ignorant of the existence of
this venerable relic. He invites all heretics to test their doctrines
by the living tradition of the Apostolic Churches : " Percurre ecele-
sias apostolicas, apud quas ipsa adhuc cathedra apostolorum suis
locisprasideut. . . . Si Italia adjaces,habes RomamP' "Go through
the Apostolic Churches, where the very chairs of the Apostles still
preside in their places. ... If you are near Italy, you have Rome."
The Church of Jerusalem preserved the ipsa cathedra of St James ;*
Alexandria venerated the ipsa cathedra ofSt Mark ; t and Tertullian's
long residence in Rome must have familiarised him with the ipsa
cathedra " in which Peter himself had sat."
Another passage of the same work of Tertullian states : " Roman-
orum [ecciesia] Clementem a Petro ordinatum edit." " The Church of
the Romans proclaims Clement to have been ordained by Peter." J
Yet the ancient catalogues place both Linus and Cletus before
Clement. At any rate, this passage of Tertullian shows the
antiquity of the account afterwards inserted in the Liber Ponti-
ficalis, that Linus and Cletus had governed the Roman Church
while the Apostles were living, and that Clement had been ordained St Clement
by Peter himself as his successor, and had been enthroned by him ordained by
.... St Peter,
in his own Chair. This tradition forms the subject of one of the
frescoes recently brought to light by Father Mullooly in the sub
terranean Church of San Clemente. It is true that a full account
of it is found in the apocryphal Clementines, but it does not there
fore follow that the whole story is fabulous, for these pages abound
in examples of valuable historical truths, having been buried under
a mass of doubtful and sometimes fictitious stories.
We have now traced up the testimonies to this celebrated relic, Summary of
from the fifth century to the age when men were living who had evidence to the
conversed with the contemporaries of the Apostles themselves, (jhair'^ °f ' 6
All this time it was regarded by Christians in various parts of the
world as the very pledge and symbol of apostolic succession and of
true dogmatic teaching. It was the object of a festival, celebrated
alike by St Ambrose at Milan and St Augustine in Africa ; and
the relic itself was deposited by St Damasus in the Basilica of the
Vatican, where it remained throughout the fifth and at the begin-
ing of the sixth century : and there is every probability that it is
directly alluded to in the epitaph of Ceadwalla at the close of the
seventh century. During the middle ages the mention of it becomes
merely incidental, principally in accounts of the enthronizations of
the Pope, and in liturgical books ; so that instead of this Chair of
St Peter having been an invention of the credulity of the barbarous
* Eu*eb. H. E. vii 19, yz. t Vales, in ibi<i. t c. 32.
396 Roma Soiterranca.
ages, it barely maintained during those ages the veneration paid to
it from apostolic times, and was never adduced, as in earlier days,
as an important weapon for the confusion of heretics. We learn
from incidental notices, that every year, on the 22d of February, it
used to be solemnly carried to the High Altar of St Peter's, and
that the Pope was then seated in it. The historians of the Vatican
relate, that it was translated from one chapel of the Basilica to
another, until Alexander VII., two centuries ago, enclosed it in
the bronze monument, where it remained concealed from the eyes
of all until the summer of 1867. It is impossible, or, to say the
least, in the highest degree improbable, that a new chair could have
been surreptitiously substituted for that mentioned by Ennodius,
and placed by St Damasus in the Vatican Baptistery. The sella
gestatoria exposed for veneration in 1867 corresponds exactly with
Ennodius' description, for the rings which render it gestatoria arc
fixed in a portion clearly distinguishable from the more modern
additions to the Chair ; wherefore we conclude that from a historical
and archaeological point of view, we are justified in regarding as
true the venerable title which a living tradition has never failed to
give to the Chair of St Peter.
3.—ANOTHER CHAIR OF ST PETER IN THE CEMETERY

OF OSTRIANUS.
Where was the It is by no means clear that "the oil from the chair in which
Chair of St Peter the Apostle was first enthroned" was taken by the Abbot
came the^/m John from the Vatican, where undoubtedly the venerable relic
at Monza. which we have described was to be seen in the days of St Gregory
the Great. On the contrary, it appears among olca taken from
various shrines on the Via Salaria Nova, and the care with which
the index of the oils at Monza is grouped on the papyrus MS.
makes us hesitate long before admitting that a mistake has been
made in this instance. Between the Via Salaria Nova and the
Via Nomentana there was a lane, beside which was situated a
crypt, where, according to Bedc, the bodies of the martyrs Papias
and Maurus, who had been baptized in prison by Pope Marcellus,
were buried, and the place was called " Ad Nymphas B. Petri, ubi
baptizabat," or, as we read in the Mirabilia Urbis Roma, "the
cemetery of the Font of Peter." Now, since all the other olea of
the Abbot John are noted down in the precise order in which he
must have collected them as he passed from one shrine to another,
we cannot avoid the conclusion that when he stopped to collect the
olea at "the Font of Peter" on his way from the Via Salaria to the
Via Nomentana, there must have been at that cemetery a Chair which
was venerated as the "series ubiprius sedit Petrus Apostolus." The
Appendix. 397 o
Hieronymian Martyrology marks January 18 as " Dedicatio cathedra
S. Petri apostoli, qua primum Roma sedit." This same day is
marked as the Feast of St Peter's Chair at Rome in the martyrolo-
gies of Ado and Bede, and in other ancient records, and it is never
said ubi primus or prior, but always the adverb prius or primum,
so that the reference is evidently not to the line of Roman Pontiffs
of whom he was the first, but to some other chair in which he after
wards sat. All ancient authors record two journeys of the Apostle
to Rome, one in the time of Claudius, and another in the reign of
Nero ; and these two journeys afford an easy explanation of his
having had two well-remembered places of abode, and two chairs
treasured up with affection and veneration by his children in the
gospel. The antiquity of the cemetery of Ostrianus has been
shown already,* and the description of one of its crypts by Bosio
reads, as De Rossi observes, extremely like an account of the very
spot in which this chair was venerated. But all trace of the chair
itself has disappeared, and no legend, or even fable, is left to per
petuate its memory. The supposition of its existence is only
offered as the simplest way of accounting for many strange associa
tions which seem to have hung about this crypt, which, though
insignificant in size, was yet styled cameterium majus ; and of
unravelling the otherwise inextricable confusion in which the
history of the two Feasts of St Peter's Chair is involved.
4.—THE TWO FEASTS OK ST PETER'S CHAIR.
The establishment of the Roman Church by St Peter as the Feast of
perpetual seat of his divinely-received primacy was never disputed January 1
until the sixteenth century; when the straits to which the clear
teaching of Holy Scripture and the Fathers reduced Protestant
controversialists, impelled some of the more unscrupulous of them
boldly to assert that St Peter was never at Rome at all, that he
never made it the seat of his apostolic jurisdiction, and never
watered with his blood the foundations of that long line of Pontiffs
whose history is the history of Christianity. " It was," says the
Abbd Gueranger, " in order to nullify, by the authority of the
Liturgy, this strange pretension of Protestants, that Pope Paul IV.,
in 1558, restored the ancient Feast of St Peter's Chair at Rome, and
fixed it on the 18th of January. For many centuries the Church Feast of
had not solemnised the mystery of the pontificate of the Prince of February
the Apostles on any distinct feast, but had made the single feast of
February 22 serve for both the Chair at A ntioch and the Chair at
Rome. From that time forward the 22d of February has been kept
for the Chair at Antioch, which was the first occupied by the
" Pp. 67, 68.
Apostle." * And in fact all the niartyrologies from the eighth
century downwards mark that clay as " cathedra Petri in Antiochia"
or "apud A ntiochiam," or " qua sedii apud A ntiockiam." Ue Rossi,
however, observes that ancient documents anterior to the eighth
century make no allusion to Antioch in connexion with the feast of
February 22. Thus the Gregorian Liturgy simply marks that
day as " cathedra S. Petri," t and in one MS. of that book it is ex
pressly added i'ii Roma. In the times of St Leo the Great this day
was celebrated in the Vatican Basilica with a large concourse of
bishops, and was called "dies Apostoli;" while in the Iiuchcrian
Calendar, which marks the greater feasts of the Roman Church
restored lifter the Diocletian persecution, we tind it noted as " natale
Petri dc cathedra." The sermon attributed to St Augustine on this
festival makes no mention of Antioch, but states : " The institution
of to-day's solemnity received from our forefathers the name of the
Chair (cathedra), because Peter, the first of the Apostles, is said to
have received on this day the chair of the episcopate. Rightly,
therefore, do the Churches venerate the feast of that see (sedis)
which the apostle undertook for the salvation of the Churches."*
St Ambrose in his sermon for this feast merely expounds the
gospel, without any allusion to the special object of the festival.
Ptolemxus Silvius in the fifth century registers the Feast of St
Peter as on the 22d of February ; and the Gothic-Gallican sacra-
mentary assigns to the same day a Mass, the collect of which
begins : " O God, who on this day didst give blessed Peter to be
after Thyself the head of the Church,'' &c. § The same Mass
however, in the later edition of this sacramentary, reformed in the
eighth century, was transferred to the 1 8th of January. ||
February 22, We gather from these authorities that an ancient tradition ex
St Peter's isted in the Church that the famous words, " Thou art Peter, and
Primacy.
upon this rock," &c., were addressed by our Lord to his chief
Apostle in the month of February, and that the 22d of that month
was especially dedicated to the celebration of the institution of the
primacy of St Peter, and that in Rome this festival was made still
more marked by the solemn enthronisation of the supreme Pontiff
in the very Chair which the Apostle himself had once used. This
is confirmed by the words of the Gothic Liturgy, which declare :
" God committed the keys of heaven to a man compacted of the
earth . . . and set on high the throne of the supreme See. The
% Liturgical Ycar. Christmas, vol ii. p. 331. Jan. 18. Duffy, 1868.
t S. Greg. Magn. Opp. iii. p. 312. ed. Maur.
I S. Aug., Serm. 15, De Sanctis.
§ Mabillon, Litnrgui Gallicana, p. 226. " Deus qui hodicrna die bcatum Petnim
post te dedisti caput ecclesix, cum te ilie vere confessus sit ct a te digue pncl.uu*
sit," &c. I Ibid., p. 121.
Appendix. 399
episcopal Chair of blessed Peter, this day exposed, [for veneration]
is the witness." * It is equally clear that there is no mention of
Antioch, as connected with this feast, until the eighth century. Two
difficulties, however, remain to be cleared up, viz., How did the
dea of Antioch become connected with the feast of February 22 ?
and also, How did the Feast of St Peter's Chair in Rome, on the
18th of January, find its way into the martyrologies of the eighth
and ninth centuries ?
The latter question appears to be satisfactorily answered by the January 18, his
supposition of the Chair, which, we have shown, was venerated at comingi°
the cemetery of Ostrianus. This Chair did not, indeed, like that
in the Vatican, symbolise St Peter's primacy, but it did symbolise
his first coming to Rome, whatever may have determined the
particular day on which that chair was venerated. The other
question it is impossible to determine with any certainty, but the
suggestion of Do Rossi commends itself as probable, viz., that the
copyists of the ancient Roman Calendar, finding the 1 8th of January
marked as '-'.cathedra S. Petri qua primum Roma sedit," and not
understanding why another Feast of St Peter's Chair at Rome
should be kept on February 22, inserted the words " apud Antiochiam "
in order to explain the anomaly. The Feast of St Tecla, with the
title of diseipula Pauli Apostoli, who went to Antioch in Pisidia to
hear St Paul, and a certain St Gallus, a martyr of Antioch, being
celebrated on the same day, may have led to the insertion of the
word which has perplexed so many antiquarians, and which re
ceives no explanation from any records of the Church of Antioch
which have come down to us.t
Note D (page 102).

The treatise of St Augustine, De Curd pro Mortul's GerendA, was St Augustine
written about a.d. 421. St Paulinus of Nola had written to him, ^"^j
saying that a certain widow had pressed him to allow her son near't">^
Cynegius to be buried in the Church of St Felix ; and that he had Saints,
consented to her petition, thinking that these desires of pious souls
could not be altogether foolish (non esse inanes motus animorum
religiosorum ct Jidelium pro suis ista curantium) ; that it was, in
fact, one mode of asking for the help of the saints, &c. He asks,
' Mabillon, I. c, p. 298.
t Mr Wright has lately published a valuable Syriac m.irtyrolngy of the fourth century,
from a M.S. of the year 412, in which the martyrdom " in the city of Rome, of Paul the
Apostle, and of Simon Peter, the Prince of the Apostles," is commemorated on the 28th of
December {Journal of Sacred Literature and Biblical Records for January 1866).
St Gregory of Nyssa and St Sophronius of Jerusalem assign the same date to the festival
of the two Apostles.
however, for the opinion of St Austin— Does it profit a man's soul
that his body should be buried after death near to the shrine of
some saint ? (apud sancti alicujus memoriam.)
St Austin answers, first, that there are many whom it does not
profit at all, viz., those whose lives were so good that they need
no such help, and those who were so bad that they cannot be
benefited by it. Next, he quotes 2 Macch. xii. 43, and adds, that
even if this had not been written in the Old Scriptures, the author
ity of the Church would have been of no small weight in this
matter, which always provides that the recommendation of the
faithful departed should have its place among the prayers which
the priest pours forth to God at His altar. Then he enters into
the rationale of the thing, and says, quoting St Matt. x. 28-30, that
even the absence of any burial at all cannot bring any real loss to
the soul ; that all that concerns a funeral is more for the consolation
of the survivors than the good of the deceased ; nevertheless, that
it is a part of religion to respect the bodies of the dead, which have
been the instruments and temples of the Holy Ghost ; and that if
it be an act of religion to bury the dead, the choice of a place for
the burial can hardly be altogether indifferent. He conceives the
benefit of being buried near the shrine of a saint to be this : that,
when we call to mind the place of our friends' burial, we may com
mend them to the saints near whom they lie, that being received
by them as by patrons, they may be helped by their prayers with
God ; but without those prayers of ours he does not think the
place would be of much use. (Adjuvat defuncti spiritual, non
mortui corporis locus, scd ex loci mcmoriA vivus [matris] affectus.)
The Church prays for all who have died in the communion of the
Catholic Church, under a general commemoration, without any
mention of names, that those who have no children or parents,
friends or relatives, to perform this work of piety in their behalf,
may receive it at the hands of the Church as the common mother
of us all.
"How the martyrs help men is a question," he says, "which
passes the powers of my understanding. Nevertheless, that they
do so is certain. Whether they themselves are present by virtue
of their own power at one and the same time in so many differ
ent and distant places, either at their shrines, or wherever else
they are felt to be present ; or whether they remain in a place
suited to their deserts, far removed from all converse with mortal
things, yet praying in general for all the needs of their petitioners
(just as we pray for the dead, to whom nevertheless we are not
present, and we neither know where they are nor what they do),
and Almighty God, who is everywhere present, neither confounded
Appendix.
and made one with us, nor yet removed to a distance from ust
hearing their prayers, gives these consolations to those to whom
He thinks it right to bestow them amid the miseries of this life,
by means of the ministry of angels everywhere dispersed, and thus,
by His wonderful and ineffable power and goodness, commends
the merits of His martyrs wherever He pleases, when He pleases,
and as He pleases, but especially by means of their shrines, be
cause He knows it to be expedient to us for the building up of our
faith in Christ, for confessing Whom they have suffered —This is
a matter higher than 1 can reach, more abstruse than I can pene
trate ; and therefore I dare not define which of these two it is, or
whether both perchance may be true, viz., that these things some
times happen by means of the very presence of the martyrs them
selves, sometimes by means of angels assuming their persons. I
would rather inquire of those who know ; for some one perhaps
may know, though not he who seems to himself to know and is
really ignorant ; for they are the gifts of God, who gives some
things to some men, and others to others, according to the testi
mony of the apostle (l Cor. xii. 7-1 1)."
After this full and explicit discussion of the question by the great
Doctor of the West, it is hardly necessary to quote any other
witnesses. The reader, however, who desires it, will find similar
testimony in St Ambrose's sermon on the death of his brother, and
in his epitaph upon him ; in a sermon of St Maximus of Turin
(Horn, lxxxi.); and in several epitaphs collected by Le Blant,
Inscriptions Chretiennes dc la Gaule, &c., tom. i. pp. 396, 471 ;
ii. p. 219.
Note E (page 184).

The Libei Pontificalis attributes to St Felix, Pope about the Mass said over
year 270, the institution of the law that Mass should be celebrated Jjje 5^'L5 °^
on the sepulchres of the martyrs. Baronius, however, and others f^m thei ear-
are of opinion that the practice had been universal and long estab- liest ages,
lished, before there was any legislation on the subject. The testi
mony of the fourth and fifth centuries is very explicit and abund
ant as to the practice of those days. St Ambrose speaks of the
martyrs Gervasius and Protasius in this way. He says that he
had intended to be buried there (under the altar) himself, because
it seemed to him fitting that the priest should rest where he was
wont to offer the holy sacrifice whilst alive ; but that he yields the
place to the martyrs to whom it is due, for that those triumphant
victims ought to be where Christ is the victim [ubi Christus hostia
2 c
est); only He who died for all lies upon the altar, they who were
redeemed by His passion lie below it : * in which last words he
seems to intend a reference to the language of the Book of the Apo
calypse, VI. 9-1 1. That which St Ambrose testifies about Milan,
Prudentius testifies about Spain ; the sepulchres of St Eulalia at
Barcelona, and of St Vincent at Valenza ; also, as we have seen,
of St Hippolytus in Rome.f St Jerome % also, about the tombs of
Saints Peter and Paul, in the same city ; and he appeals at the same
time to the practice of all the bishops throughout the world,
or on altars We need not suppose, however, that the altar was always imme-
near their diately over the grave, though doubtless this was the more usual
graves. practice. Prudentius speaks as though, in the case of St Hippoly
tus, the altar was only near his tomb (" Propter ubi apposita est ara
dicata Deo'); and both Bosio and Boldetti seem to have found in
stances in which the altar was placed in the middle of the cham
ber, not on a tomb in the walls, just as we have seen that it was, at
one period, in the Papal crypt.
Neither were the mensa of these altar-tombs always fixed and
immovable. On the contrary, in three or four instances they have
been found with massive bronze rings inserted in them, by which
they could be lifted off, and a sight of the martyr's relics obtained.^
St Martin of Tours is said to have been the first saint, not a mar-
tyr, whose tomb became an altar. || When altars were multiplied
in churches, it was a rule universally observed that the altar must
contain some relics, and there still remain many indications of the
ancient practice in the prayers and ceremonies of the Liturgy.
Traces of this The prayer in the mass immediately after the Confiteor, when first
practice in the t|ie priest goes up to the altar, contains these words : " We beseech
present Ordo . y , merits ofr the
, saints
. , ,. are .here „— Oramus
Mhsiz whose relics
te per merita sanctorum quorum rcliquiee hie sunt"—and the priest
kisses the altar. Moreover, the little recess in the altar-stone, in
which these relics are placed, is called the sepulerum, in manifest
allusion, as it would appear, to the ancient practice of which we
have been speaking ; and the act of depositing the relics in this
sepulerum is so essential a part of the consecration of an altar,
that should they by any accident be removed or lost, it is not
sufficient to replace them by others,—the whole altar must be con
secrated afresh.
and in the con- The details of the prayers and ceremonies appointed for the con
secration of an secration of an altar, and especially for this portion of it, recall in
the most striking manner the burial of the saints and martyrs of
# Kpist. xxii. 15. t Perisleph. Hymni III. V.
; adv. Vigilant. { Rom. Sott. i. 169, 285.
U Grcppo. Dissertations sur I'Histoire du Culte des Keliques, p. it>.
Appendix. 403
old. The bodies of the dead were often carried to the cemetery
in which they were to be deposited on the eve before the day of
burial ; and so, in like manner, the relics about to be placed in the
sepulerum of an altar are brought to the church on the previous
evening, in some vessel prepared and blest for the purpose. Three
grains of incense are enclosed in the same vessel with them, like
the spices and perfumes with which the bodies of the saints were
so frequently buried ; and ecclesiastics keep watch before them all
night, reciting the office of the saint whose relics they are. Then,
in the office of Consecration the next day, these relics are carried in
solemn procession, and anions the hymns and prayers used on the
occasion, the vision of St John, already referred to (Apoc. vi. 10),
holds a conspicuous place. Finally, the consecrating bishop closes
the sepulchre, and secures it with mortar, in the very same way
in which the fo.isors formerly closed tombs in the Catacombs.
The rapprochement between these two functions cannot be acci
dental. It is clearly the result of an unbroken tradition. It
prevails in the Greek Church as well as the Roman.
It has been pretended by some writers that the doctrine of the Doctrine of the
Church underwent some change when the arcosolia, or tombs of J. hristian sacri-
the martyrs, became also altars for the celebration of the Holy of StVi "poly-
Eucharist. It has even been recently asserted that none of the tus, &c.
Fathers before St Cyprian knew anything of a sacrifice in which,
or an altar on which, the Body of Christ was offered. Dr Dollin-
ger, however, has shown in his commentary on the Philosophu-
mena, that St Hippolytus, who lived before St Cyprian, clearly
taught this same doctrine, and that the same may be said also of
many Greek Fathers who lived immediately after St Cyprian, and
who certainly did not borrow their doctrine from the Latin writings of
the Bishop of Carthage. The earlier Greek F"athers, indeed, avoided
the expressions which were in use as designating Pagan altars.
They either spoke of " the holy table," or they used the word that
had been introduced to designate the Jewish altar, which also was
quite unknown to the Greeks. They did not use Buôs or toxdpa, Names used
but Bviriaari,piov. It is not till a constitution of the Emperors *°r t'le a'tar-
Theodosius II. and Valentinian in the fifth century, that the first of
these words is used in speaking of a Christian altar. The Chris
tians of the Latin Church, on the contrary, had no hesitation in
designating their altars by the names ara and aliare, though they
had been hitherto used in a Pagan sense. In fact, the expression,
'• holy table," would have conveyed the same meaning to the Latin-
speaking heathens as the word ara. When the Christians were
reproached by the heathens for having no temples or altars like
other religions and nations, they admitted the charge in the sense
Roma Sotterranea.
in which the heathens used those terms, and with good reason.
Nevertheless, Origen speaks of the altars to be met with in Chris
tian Churches ; and although Occilius, in Minucius Felix, speaks
of Christians having no public altars visible to the Pagans, yet St
Cyprian gives the Pagan Demetrius clearly to understand that
they had their altars in secret. Compare also the language of St
Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews (xiii. 10), " We have an altar
whereof they have no power to eat who serve the tabernacle."
Note F (page 310).

Origin of the The oldest writers confess that the pallium had been in use from
Pallium, time immeraorial, and that its origin was lost in antiquity. The
most natural and probable account of it, however, is certainly that
to which reference is made in the text, and which is supported with
great skill and learning in the treatise, De Pallii Origine, pub
lished in Rome in 1856 by Monsignore Vcspasiani.
He observes that the scholars of the most famous heathen philo
sophers used to adopt the dress, as well as the principles, of their
masters, and that the handing on of the mantle, or upper garment
of the master served to designate his legitimate successor. It may
easily be shown that among the early Christians also, a certain
religious meaning and value was attached to the wearing the
mantle of any great saint or doctor, as though a more intima'tc
and immediate communion were thereby established with the origi
nal owner of the mantle. Thus, the great St Athanasius gave his
to St Antony ; and when St Paul, the hermit of Egypt, prayed St
Antony to bring it to his cell, and to wrap his body in it for
burial, St Antony took the hermit's mantle from off his shoulders,
and ever afterwards wore it on all great occasions of solemnity.
When St Ignatius, Patriarch of Constantinople, was habited in the
episcopal vestments, we rend that "they reverently put on him the
venerable cloak of St James, the brother of our Lord, which had
lately been brought from Jerusalem, and which Ignatius received
with the same respect and veneration as though he had recog
nised in it its former apostolic owner."
But other examples are still more important as involving the
principle of succession to office by him to whom the mantle was
transferred. Thus, we read that Metrophanes, who occupied the
see of Byzantium in the time of Constantine, took off his pallium,
and laid it on the altar, charging that it should be preserved and
delivered to his successor. And still more distinctly, Liberatus
the Deacon, in his history of the Nestorian and Eutychian heresies,
Appendix. 405
testifies as an essential part of the ceremony of consecrating and
enthroning the Patriarchs of Alexandria. " It is the custom at
Alexandria," he says, " for him who succeeds to the deceased
bishop, to keep a vigil by the corpse of the deceased, to lay the
dead man's head upon his own head, and then, having buried him
with his own hands, to take thepallium of St Mark and to place it
on his own neck, after which he is held legitimately to occupy his
place." Thus, the pallium, or mantle of St Mark, was religiously
handed on from one of his successors to another in the see of Alex
andria, and its possession was accounted an important token of
the legitimate possession of that dignity and office.
The origin of the Roman pallium seems to have been precisely
the same. The oldest writers agree in referring its first use to the
immediate successor of St Peter, and say that it implied the pos
session of plenary jurisdiction, i.e., of succession to the jurisdic
tion enjoyed by St Peter. Moreover, it has always been described,
and is still described, as pallium de corpore S. Petri. It is always
blessed on the feast of his martyrdom,—the very day, that is, on
which its first transfer was made, if not materially, yet morally,—
and, when blest, it is laid upon the apostle's tomb.*
It is always assumed by each successive Pontiff at the altar
above that tomb, and used to be delivered to archbishops or their
procurators only at the same place. When it was conferred upon
any one, it was always given as to a person holding the place of
the Pope for the time being, acting as his deputy and representa
tive within certain limits. Thus, Pope Vigilius sends it to Auxan-
ius, holding the see of Aries, as a fitting ornament to one ''acting
in our stead? Pelagius sends it to another occupant of the same
see, as "our vicar." St Gregory the Great sends it to many, but
the same condition is always implied, and generally expressed.
This sculpture, then, of Elias giving his mantle to Eliseus, seems
really to typify, if it does not sometimes directly represent, our
Lord giving His commission to St Peter, and St Peter, not deem
ing himself worthy to receive it, holds forth his hands under the
cover of his cloak, just as it has been mentioned in the text that he
is always represented as receiving the Book of the Law from our
Blessed Lord with the same outward token of reverence.
This note has been abridged from an article contributed by the
writer, to the Rambler of July 1856.
■ It used to be laid upon his Chair, until that relic was inclosed in bronze, and ele
vated to the position described in Note C.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ATLAS OR LARGE MAP,

AND PARTICULARLY OF AREA V.
The following notes upon some other portions of the cemetery of St Cal-
lixtus may be added to the short explanations given in the Atlas itself, as a
kind of supplement to the Analysis of Area III. They are intended to
explain the Section, Fig. 44, page 336, and also the Plan, Fig. 51, page
349=—
Area I. The most ancient portion of Area I is the staircase D,;,r 1, leading to a
gallery about 37 feet beneath the surface of the ground. This gallery,
Fig. 44. which in Fig. 44 is marked U, leads to the doorway X, which is the
L. entrance to the cubiculum duplex, the frescoes on whose walls have been
described as probably belonging to the first century. The gallery was
originally continued at the same level, but the same reasons which wc have
noticed in page 343, led here also to that level being depressed, so that a
B. flight of steps now leads from U to a lower level, BGI. B may be found
Dh 1, in the Atlas as I, a gallery leading to three cubiciila, while another
short gallery, G, at right angles to it, springs from the foot of the same
staircase, and by an entrance opposite to I leads to the crypt of St Cor-
D/i 3. nelius, X)h 3. The traces of another staircase, afterwards destroyed, are
Crypt of St to be found at D/t 2, and Dh 4 is the vast ruined monument of which some
Cornelius. notice is given in page 123. The long gallery of the third piano is con
nected with g in Fig. 51.
Pagan tombs. Between Area I and the cross-road is a small hypogeum, V)h 5,
apparently of the age of Alexander Severus, which marks the limits of the
area on this side. On the other it is equally limited by another hrpogeum,
Ch 4, which does not appear to be more ancient than the end of the third
century. Another small sepulchral cell, which may have been a Christian
chapel, and w hich stands immediately opposite the present entrance to the
Catacomb enclosure, is marked Ch I. A small Pagan columbarium may
be noticed near the Via Appio-Ardcatina, A^- 1.
Area III. Areae III. and IV. have been fully described in our Analysis. It will
suffice to mention that Be 1 is the staircase A, and IV 3 the staircase B of
the Plan ; Be 2 is the staircase by which we now enter the crypt of St
Cecilia, which is marked Be 5, and that of the Popes, Be 4. Tie 6 is the
passage leading to the crypt Me 7, or Q', in which w ere discovered several
Area IV. sarcophagi. V>f I and By 2 are described in the Analysis as Q3 and Q4;
and Ce 5 and Ce 6 as A' and A2; while Ae 1, 2, is the secret passage
described as x', and of which an account is given, page 347.
\rea V en'arKed P'an °f Area V. is given in page 349, where its connexion
with Area III. is explained; and the three-apsed building above ground,
1, together with the square building CV3, are stated to be remains of
ancient Christian oratories of the time of St Fabian. t>4, C/l, C/2,
Appendix. 407
Cf 3, are there marked respectively o', a', a', and c. It may be worth Description
while to describe that Area according to those letters, observing that the of Fig- 51-
gallery S1 is represented in this Atlas as transgressing the limits of the
area, which is an error of the artist.
The wide though irregular gallery a was originally entered by a stair- a.
case, now demolished, but of which the remains still exist in the long
luminarc which may be seen on the Plan. It terminated anciently at Cf3,
where it now breaks through locuti and passes the limits of the area.
Along this ambulacrum are several arcosolia, some of which are decorated
with frescoes, and on the right and left are the entrances to cubicula.
a, is a chamber containing three large arcosolia, formerly lined with
marble, and having figures on the ceiling which represent classical personi
fications of the seasons, &c., without any distinctively Christian allusion.
This ceiling is evidently much more ancient than the arcosolia, and confirms
I)e Rossi's opinion that this and the opposite chambers were originally in
tended simply for secular purposes.
a, is a large chamber whose walls were once lined with marble, which
still remains on the bench which goes round three of its sides, and also on
the pavement, where is the inscription, PaVLVS EXORCISTA DEP. MaR-
tvries VI. A deep and wide recess at the end of the chamber once con
tained an immense sarcophagus, probably that of St Melchiades, the cover
of which, shaped like the roof of a house, still remains. Its corners are
decorated with bassi rtlievi of a shepherd and sheep. The remains of
frescoes on the ceiling of the chamber resemble those of a2 in style and
subject, except that here we see the Oood Shepherd and the Raising of
Lazarus. lioth cubicula are well lighted by the same wide luminarc as in
Fig- 6, page 31.
The two chambers, at, at, are of a date posterior to the arcosolia in alt a,.
at, a,, and each have in one corner a small table of tufa similar to
that described in the crypt of St Cornelius, page 184.
A long narrow chamber, on the principal arcosolium of which are two of a„.
the graffiti to Sophronia mentioned page 132. This and the opposite "i'
chamber are much filled up by modern constructions deemed necessary for
the safety of the hypogeum.
A gallery, b, unites a with the gallery S, connecting this hypogcum w ith b.
Area III. It contains several large loculi, one of which is marked on the
Plan as closed by a wall. Nearly opposite this, and just belore the gallery
passes the limits of the area into the labyrinth, is an arcosolium beautifully
painted, although the lunette has been almost destroyed by graves. The
ceiling has an orante, and on either side Daniel and Jonas are painted in
separate compartments.
De Rossi calls c a subterranean piazza. Over the door which leads from c.
it into. a cubiculum are to be seen the names of the first visitors of the
Catacombs in the fifteenth century, see page 2. Out of this piazza extends
d, a gallery in a very ruined condition, and which falls into the ambulacrum '/.
0 by a rapid descent near the point of iunction. This portion of of, however,
seems to have been of a later period than the rest of the gallery. Only one
4o8 Roma Sotterranea.
dt. cubiculum is entered from this gallery, and this is elaborately painted—the
lower portion of the walls have a lattice-work pattern, and the upper por
tion fruit, flowers, birds, and pulti. A head of Oceanus is on the ceiling,
the luminare of which is adorned with the bust of a man holding a book,
with his name in white letters below. His face seems to have been origin
ally painted on canvas, which has been removed, so that now we have only
the faint outlines of his features. The chamber was originally designed for
a single arcosolium, which was decorated with frescoes, and had above it a
painting of the Good Shepherd, which is now all but gone.
d%, c The galleries </2 </3 and e are still unexcavated.
f Is a small gallery with large loculi in it, and contains a staircase leading
to a lower piano, which is also reached by the little staircase in A*.
o Is an ambulacrum which extends throughout the whole length of Area
VI., taking its rise from the foot of the staircase, Ce 2. It was afterwards
continued to meet the gallery d, and pushed forward until it fell into a.
The cubkula o', o\ o", are poorly constructed, apparently after the
o'. time of Diocletian. In o'4 are written on the walls the names of visitors of
the fifteenth century, Cc 4.
Area VI. The staircase O2 is remarkable for its leading both to the higher and
lower piano of the area, which were apparently excavated at nearly the
same period.
Crypt of St Turning to the left in the lower piano, we come at once to the crypt of
Eusebius. St Eusebius, Del, described page 167. Further on still we come to two
more cubicula on opposite sides of the gallery, of which the one marked
Calocerus and Dd I is the crypt of Calocerus and Parthenius, mentioned page 1/5-
Parthenius. Between these two crypts a gallery crosses the ambulacrum, which after
wards breaks through the wall of gallery C in Area III., as shown in Fig.
Area VII. Continuing our course along the ambulacrum, we pass into Area VII.,
the centre of which De Rossi has discovered in the cubiculum Dd 4, which
was once the principal staircase of this area, and of the three others which
appear to have been constructed subsequently. The last of these (Area
VIII.) had afterwards a staircase of its own, Dr 2. Opposite to the door
of Dd 4 is a gallery which leads us to the cubiculum duplex of the Deacon
Severus. See page 93. The remaining areae are not yet sufficiently
excavated to enable us to give a detailed account of them.
INDEX.
Abercius, St, Epitaph of, 217. Aurelian, edicts of, 54, 89.
Acts of Martyrs, their value, 21 Authors on Catacombs, modern, I ;
(see Cecilia and Perpetua). ancient, 17.
Ad religionem meam pertinentes, .Autun, epitaph at, on Eucharist,
meaning of, 61. 218.
Agapitus, St, deacon and martyr,
144- Baptism of Christ, 119, 252 ; sacra
Agnes, St, on glasses, 286 (see ment of, 264, 265 ; symbols of,
Catacomb). Noe, 240 ; Jonas, 243.
Alaric, Rome taken by, 103. Baronius, Cardinal, 3, 156.
Alexander, St, l'ope, martyrdom Basilicas over tombs of martyrs, 96.
and burial, 01 ; cemetery of, 81, Bishops, burial of, 138; in Rome,
334- 140.
Alexandria, Catacomb paintings of, Boldetti on Christian antiquities, 1 1.
221. Boniface IV. translates relics from
Allegorical (see Paintings). Catacombs, 107.
Almanac (sec Filocalus). Bosio, his life and labours, 5-8.
Altar in Papal crypt, 135 ; in crypt Brandea, a kind of relic, 23.
of St Cornelius, 184; over relics, Bruttia Crispina, 70.
401 ; consecration of, 402 ; doc Buonarrotti on gilded glasses, 12.
trine of, unchanged, 403 ; words Burnet, his ignorant remarks on
used for, 403. Catacombs, 11, 318.
Anacletus, St, Pope, erected me- Burning of dead not Christian, 59.
moria of St Peter, 64.
Antherus, St, Pope, his work, 18; ] Caius, St, Pope, 145.
his epitaph, 137, 142. Callixtus, St, deacon to Pope
Apamea, coins of, representing Noe, Zephyrinus, 83-86 ; cemetery of,
241. 83, 110-185,336-378; identified,
Apostles, paintings of, 237 ; sculp 117; distinct arete in, 120, 122;
tures of, 308 (see Peter and maps of, 121 ; first area of, 126,
Paul) ; Catacombs in age of, 63, i30. 338-355 ; second area, 127,
64. 74. 75- 34S ; third area, 127, 355.
Arcosolium, 30 ; age of, 350. J Calocerus and Parthenius, their epi
Arenarium, sometimes connected taph and tomb, 145.
with Catacombs, 28, 323, 327, Canon of Council of Elvira on
329-331. sacred pictures, 191.
Aringhi, his edition of Bosio, 7. Catacomb, the name, 109.
Annies, pratres, 385. Catacomb of St Agnes, 27, 29, 31.
Asclepiodote, epitaph, 207. . . St Alexander, 81.
Augustine, St, on cemeteries, 90 ; St Balbina, 128, 129.
on milk as symbol of Eucharist, St Callixtus (see Callixtus).
228; on fish and bread, 215 ; on St Commodilla, 65.
intercession of martyrs, 400. — St Domitilla, 69-74.
Roma Sotterranea.
Catacomb of Generoses, 384-386. Chair of St Peter in Vatican, its
St Hermes, 323. description, 389 ; its history,
St Hippolytus, 98. 391 ; in cemetery of Ostrianu-,
. Ostrianus, or Fons Petri, 396 ; two Feasts of, explained,
67, 396. 397-
St Prxtextatus, 76-81. Children, Three, in paintings, 245 ;
St Priscilla, 66, 330. on glasses, 280, 290 ; in sculp
St Sebastian, 108, 112- ture, 313.
117. Christ, paintings of, 119, 252;
St Soteris, 128. symbols of, e.g., Orpheus, 199 ;
Catacombs, discovery of, I ; early the Good Shepherd, 199, 234 ;
visits to, 2 ; general description the Fish, or 1X6X0, 207-212;
of, 25 ; locality of, 25, 33 1 ; monogram of, 230.
number and names of, ix. , 27; Christians did not bum their dead,
Christian origin of, 28, 56, 59 (see Cemeteries) ; Roman,
317-332 ; excavated on high legal position of, 34 ; at first
ground, 334 ; in tufa granulare, regarded as a Jewish sect, 40 ;
319, 325 ; in various piani, 337 ; persecuted by Nero, &c., 42 ; their
within certain prescribed limits, cemeteries protected, 45 ; per
47, 120, 340; at first small, 61 ; sons of noble rank, 35 ; even of
used for worship, 54, 348 ; for the imperial family, 36.
hiding-places, 89, 346 ; martyr Christian art, 186-316 (see Glasses,
doms in, 87, 88 ; disuse of for Paintings, Sculpture, Symbols) :
burial, 95, 103 ; frequented as antiquity of, 187, &c. ; can be
shrines, 31, 97, 104 ; described traced to Apostolic times, iSS,
by St Jerome, 97 ; by Prudentius, 197 -, growth of, 190 ; checked
98 ; damaged by indiscreet devo by persecution, 191 ; early history
tion, 96, 100, 102 ; repaired by of, 196 ; not formed entirely on
Popes, 97, 104, 105, 354 ; relics Pagan models, 19S ; classes of,
translated from, 106 ; finally 200.
abandoned, 108, 359 ; redis Chrysanthus and Dana buried in
covered, 33; history of, 63-109; arenario, 328.
Jewish, 58. Ciacconio, his researches. 4.
Cecilia, St, her tomb, 151, 158, Columbaria, Pagan, 57 ; never
160 ; her family, 160, 164; her Christian, 60.
history, 152, 163 ; her Acts veri Cornelius, St, Pope, his account of
fied and corrected, 162 ; various the Roman clergy, 92 ; his family,
versions of them, 387 ; her body 177; his epitaph, 117, 118; why
translated by Paschal I., 1 54; in Latin, 177; his sepulchre,
found incorrupt in sixteenth cen 175-185 ; near an arenarium,
tury, 154; statue of, 157 ; crypt 327 ; painting of, with St Cy
of, 151-166; its original form, prian, 181.
34", 37 Clement, St, Pope, 17 ; basilica of,
Cemetery, the term of Christian 74-
origin, 29 (see Catacomb) ; gra Contraternities, burial, 49 ; some of
dual development of a, 338-359. them Christian, 53.
Cemeteries protected by Roman Cross disguised, 127 ; various fonns
law until the middle of third cen of, 229, 230.
tury, 45, 83 ; invaded by Pagans, Crypt (see Catacomb, Cecilia, Cor
54, 88 ; proscribed by Valerian, nelius, Popes, &c.) ; of St Lucina,
55 ; restored to Christians, 87 ; 27, 122-126, 336, 337, 356.
confiscated by Diocletian, 9° ; Cupid and Psyche, 261.
restored, 90, 146 ; ecclesiastical Cyprian, St, painting of, 1S2.
administration of, 91-93, lot ;
all extramural, 56. D'AGlNCOURT,damagedone to Cata
Cerealis et Sallustia cum xxi., ep'af- combs by, 13 ; on Christian art,
fUo, 185. 186.
Chairs ol tufi in Catacombs, 31, Damasus, St, Pope, his love for the
128. Catacombs, 96, 102; value of hi»
Index. 41 1
inscriptions, 20, 97 ; his inscrip ing, 292 ; represented in sculp

tion to St Agnes, 286 ; his in ture, 302, 305.
scription in baptistery of Vatican, Eusebius, St, Pope, remarkable
390; his inscription in cemetery incident in life of, 172 ; epitaph
ad Catacumbas, 1 14; his inscrip of, 167 ; broken and recopied,
tion at tomb of St Cornelius, 179, 171 ; its interpretation, 172.
180; his inscription at the tomb Eutychianus, St, Pope, his epitaph,
of St Eusebius, 105, 167-174 ; 137, 143-
his inscription at tomb of St Evelyn, John, his visit to the Cata
Januarius, 80; his inscription at combs, 10.
tomb of St Marcellus, 1 74 ; his
inscription at tomb of St l'eter Fabian, St, Pope, 17, 137, 142.
and St Paul, 334 ; his inscription Fabretti on inscriptions, 11.
at tomb of Papal crypt, 118, 147 ; Faustinianus, an inscription, 82.
his inscription at tomb of Six- Felix, St, Pope, 401.
tus II., 144; his labours, 354, Felicissimus, deacon and martyr,
355- in paintings, 73, 245 ; in 144.
Daniel Fidentibus in Domino, significance
sculpture, 303, 307. of, 62.
De kossi, Gio. Battista, his method ' Filocalus, Furius Dionysius, his
of research, 15 ; his chief sources almanac, 19; his inscriptions,
of information, 16 ; his recon 170.
struction of early history, 93. Filippi ad Stextum, cemeteiy of, 386.
De Rossi, Michel Stefano, brother Flavius Clemens, 37 (see Do-
of the Commendatore, his success mitilla).
in mapping the Catacombs, 121 ; Flavius Sabinus, 37.
his analysis, 360. Fratres Arvales, the, 385.
De Winghe, his sketches in Cata
combs, 4. GARRUccI, Padre, S.J., on gilded
D. M., meaning of, on Christian epi glasses, 12, 277 ; on Jewish Cata
taphs, 59.
Domitian, Emperor, his Christian comb, 58.
relatives, 39, 42. Glasses, gilded, found in Catacombs,
Domitilla, St, 39, 69 ; her ceme 275-294 ; two recently found at
tery, 69-74 ; bronze medal found Cologne, 277, 289 ; date of, 279 ;
in, 284 ; sarcophagi in, 295. subjects on, 280 ; their probable
use, 283, 291, 293.
Ecci.esia FRATRUM, significance Good Shepherd, in paintings, 274,
of, 53- 234238; in sculpture, 299;
Edict, first, against cemeteries by statues of, 304 ; Pagan examples
of, 261, 298, 299.
Valerian, 54, 87 ; revoked by Grajjiti
Gallienus, 87 ; renewed by Aure- of three kinds, 131 ; in
lian, 89 ; by Diocletian, 90 ; of Papal crypt, 130, 144 ; in crypt
Milan, 90, 95. of St Cecilia, 161 ; in crypt of St
Eleutherius, St, Pope, 64, 163. Cornelius, 184.
Elias taken up to heaven, in sculp Gregory the Great, Pope, on burial
ture, 250, 310. of St Peter and St Paul, 115,
Knnodius of Pavia on St Peter's Gregory 1 16 ; on relics, 23.
Chair, 392. of Tours, St, on a martyr
dom in Catacombs, 88.
Epitaphs of Popes, 137 ; episcopal, Hippolytus,
very rare (sec Eusebius and Da- his cemetery, 98; his
masus); of St Abercius, 217; of festa in fourth or fifth centuries,
Autun, 218. 99; his statue, 313; his Paschal
Canon, 314.
Eucharist, Holy, symbolised by fish Hyacinth,
and bread, 215-224; by milk, St, his body discovered
225-229; doctrine of, illustrated by Padre Marchi, 15, 379.
by paintings of second and third
centuries, 222, 266-271 ; consti ITIKERARIKS of seventh century,
tution of St Zephvrinus concern 22, 23, II1, 112.
Januarius, St, tomb of, 79, 80. near to, 102 ; this practice de
Jerome, St, on Catacombs, 97 ; on fended and accounted for by St
the ivy or gourd of Jonas, 243. Augustine, 399.
Jews protected by Roman laws, 41 ; Martyrologium, Ilieronymianum,
occupied Trastevere, 278. 17 ; Bedx, Adonis, &c, 21.
Jewish Catacombs, 58. Melehiades, St, Pope, recovered the
John and Paul, Saints, buried within confiscated cemeteries, 90, 91 ;
the walls, 106. the last Pope buried in Cata
John III., Pope, directs mass to be combs, 95, 146 ; his tomb, 146,
said in Catacombs, 105. 349-
Jonas, history of, in paintings, 243, Merivale, Mr, not correct as to
244 ; in glasses, 290 ; in sculp early Christian burial, 59.
ture, 304, 305. Misson, his rash assertions, II.
Monogram (see Christ).
KALENDAR of St Ilippolytus, 314. Monza, papyrus MS. at, 23.
Moses, in paintings, 247 ; taking off
Lamb, a symbol of Christ, Figs. 37, his shoes, 248 ; when striking the
38; of Christians, 103, 225. rock typifies St Peter, in paint
Lazarus, raising of, in paintings, ings, 248, 265 ; in glasses, with
247, 271 ; in sculpture, 302, 304, name Petrus, 2S6 ; and in sculp
3<A 3 i3- ture, 302.
Leo III., Pope, his care for ceme
teries, 107 ; his decorations in NICOlAS I., Pope, visited Cata
crypt of St Cornelius, 183. combs, 108.
Leo IV., Pope, translated relics Nimbus, use of, in determining
from Catacombs, 107. dates of pictures, 193.
Liber Poutificalis, account of, 20. Noe in the ark, in paintings,
Linus, St, Pope, his sepulchre, 65. 240-242 ; in sculpture, 305 ; not
Liturgical paintings, 262-274. copied from Pagan coin, 241.
Loculo a mensa, 30.
Lucius, St, Pope, his epitaph, 137, Ol.EA from shrines taken away as
i43- relics, 23
Lucina, St, probably Tomponia Optatus, St, fresco of, 166.
Gra:cina, 124; crypt of, 122, Ordo canarum, its resemblance to
I26, 337; frescoes in, 103, 185, the Christian Kalendar, 53.
201, 224, 225. Orpheus, type of Christ, in paint
Luminare, 31, 127, 129, 165, 348. ing. 199. 373 ; in sculpture, 300.
Ostrianus, cemetery of, 67, 396.
MABIlLON de cultu sanctorum iguo-
toritm, 12. Pallium, origin of, 310, 404.
Macarius, his Ilagioglypta, 4. Paintings, determination of date of,
Magi, adoration of, in paintings, 192 ; by nimbus, 193 ; by letters
246, 257 ; in sculpture, 301, 311. on dress, 195 ; by choice of sub
Malmesbury, William of, 22, 62. ject and treatment, 195 ; Gnostic,
Marangoni, his labours in Cata 199 ; allegorical, 233-238 ; Bibli
combs, 12. cal, 239-250; of Christ, 252, 253 ;
Marcellus, St, Pope, 90. of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Marcellinus, St, Pope, 90, 93, 279. 254-260 ; of St Joseph, 260 ;
Marchi, Padre, S.J., his labours of Isaias, 258 (see Moses, Magi,
and writings, 14; the first to &c.) ; liturgical, 262-274 ; sym
insist upon the Christian origin of bolical, 202-231.
Catacombs, 318. Panvinius, Onophrius, on Christian
Mark, St, Pope, buried in St Bal- cemeteries, 32.
hina, 95, 129. Papyrus MS. at Monza, 23.
Martyr vindicates equivalent to Paschal I., St, Pope, his translation
canonuatus, 143. of relics, 107 ; of St Cecilia, 155.
Martyrs, vast number of, 148 ; they Paul, St, the Apostle, his tomb, 65.
assist us by their prayers, 400 ; Paul I., Pope, his translation of
desire of Christians to ho buried relics. 106.
Index. 4i3
Perpetua, St, Acts of, 226. Roman festa in fifth centurv, 98,
Peter, St, his tomb, 64, 113, 116, 281.
139 (see Chair) ; represented as Roman laws regarding burial, 44,
Moses, 286-289 (see Moses). 45-
Peter and Paul, Saints, burial and Rome taken by Alaric, 103 ; by
translation of, 113-116 ; feast of, Totila, 105 ; by Vitiges, 104; by
281 ; Damasine inscription to, Astolphus, 106.
114; figured on glasses, 281; Rosatio, a Pagan ceremony, 129.
symbolised the Roman Church,
285. Sarin us, the deacon, his epitaph,
Philosophumena, its testimony to 102.
Catacombs, 83, 85. Sebastian, St, cemetery of, 108,
Policamus, painting of, 165. 112-117.
Pomponia Gracina, 39. Sentia Renata, epitaph of, 60.
Pomponius Bassus, 124; sarcopha Sergius I., Pope, his epitaph to
gus of, 311. Ceadwalla, 391.
Pomponio, l.eto, 2, 352, 362. Sergius II., Pope, translates relics,
Pontianus, St, Pope, 142. 107.
Popes, early register of burial of, Severano, Padre, editor of Bosio, 7.
19 ; at first buried in Vatican, Severus the deacon, his cubiculnm,
and then at San Callisto, 86 ; ' 93-
epitaphs of, 137; officially known Sfondrati, Cardinal, finds the body
to Pagan governors, 19; crypt of, " of St Cecilia, 155.
130-150, Siricins, St, Pope, inscription by,
PP. for Papa, in use in third cen 180.
tury, 93 ; PP. Rom., 183. Sixtus II., St, Pope, his martyrdom,
Prayers for dead, 131 ; to departed 77, 87, 143 ; inscription to, 144 ;
saints, 132. prayers to, 1 32.
Prjetextatus, Catacomb of, 76-81 ; Sophronia, graffiti of, 132.
discovery of, 77 ; paintings in, Soter, St, Pope, 141.
78, 79 ; martyrdom of St Sixtus Soteris, St, cemetery of, 113, 128,
II. in, 143. 355-
Priscilla, Catacomb of, 66 ; sepul Stephen, St. Pope, confused with
chre of Pudens and his family, 66 ; St Sixtus II., 144.
ancient painting of Blessed Vir Sylvester, St, Pope, buried in a
gin in, 258. basilica, above ground, 95, 107,
Ptolomieus Silvias, 398. 146, 3°8.
Symbolism, 203 ; rules for inter
QuiRINUS, St, tomb of, 80. preting, 204.
(Juirinus, a Bishop of Siscia, 165. Symbols, anchor, 204 ; sheep and
QualtroCoronati buried in urinaria, dove, 205 ; fish, 207 ; fish and
325. 327- dove, 212; fish and bread, 213 ;
Good Shepherd, 234 ; Noe, 240 ;
RECORDS, ancient, of Kama Sotter- Jonas, 243.
ranea, 17.
Relics, different kinds of, 23 (sec Tkrtullian, his testimony to the
Cecilia, Peter, Sec.) condition of Christians at end of
Restutus M. Ant. inscription, 62. second century, 19, 36, 37, 41,
Kama Sotterianea, the name, 1 ; of 43, 51, 84; on cemeteries, 52,
Bosio, 7. 54 ; styles the Church Jerusalem,
Roman Academy, the, 2. 134 ; explains symbols of dove
Roman burial-grounds adapted for and ark, 242 ; milk, 226 ; the
Christian cemeteries, 46 ; burial rock, 247, 264; fish, 211; the
confraternities, 48; their rules, 50. paralytic, 266 ; the use of the
Roman Church symbolised by St I pallium by Christians, 267 ; the
Peter and St Paul, 285 (see custom of painting the Good
Christians). Shepherd on chalices, 291 ; T in
Roman clergy in time of St Cyprian, Greek and Latin regarded as a
92. form of the Cross, 230.
Theodclinda, Ijueen, relics sent to, Vatican, Afemoria of St Peter in,
23. I 64, 65 : Popes buried there, 64 ;
Tituli or parishes of Rome, 91. Christian museum of, 13, 275
Tufa granulare, 319, 32 1 ; litoide, ' (see C'hair).
319; chairs cut in, 32,358. Vigilius, Pope, restored Damasine
inscriptions, 105, 1 70.
Urban, St, Pope, 141, 163, 164, Volcanic strata around Rome,- 319.
182.
Zephyrinus, St, Pope, entrusted
Valerian, his edicts against Chris- the first public cemetery toCallix-
tian cemeteries, 54, 87. tus, 83, 85 ; buried there, 141.
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Plate XVIII

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This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized

by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the

3ME ACCOUNT OF THE ROMAN CATACOMBS

CEMETERY OF SAN CALLISTO

COMPILED FROM THE WORKS OF COMMENDA TORE. DE ROSSI

THE interest which the Roman Catacombs have

works published by others, such as the Spicilegium

epitome—already begun —of his labours in the fields of

thus its conclusions are drawn from a source quite

Easter Tuesday, 1869.

AT THE END OF THE VOLUME.

ROMAN EMPERORS. A.D. POPES. PLACE OF BURIAL.

NERO. First Persecution, . 67 PETER, In Vaticano juxta Palatium

GREATER CEMETERIES. LESSER CEME ! CEMETERIES

List of Cemeteries— Continued.

GREATER CEMETERIES. LESSER CEME CEMETERIES

16. Tbrasonis, S. Saturnmi.

in the den of lions, and the three children—Adoration of the

pateme, with small medallions let into the glass—Whether these

ITS LITERARY HISTORY.

ON the last day of May, a.d. 1578, some labourers, Discovery,

newly enkindled flame of love for Christian antiquities. Nearly

Joannes Macarius, (the Grecised form of Jean l'Heureux ;) and

* Roma Sotterranea, opera postuma di A ntonio Bosio composta disposta

such as could be supplied from the works of other authors.

those who wrote about them were generally more influenced by

* Bottari, Rom. Sott. t. i. pref. p. v.

* Evelyn's Memoirs, edited by Bray, 1819, pp. 153, 164.

years, but who, unfortunately, did not possess sufficient know

* Osserr'azioni sopra i eemcteri dci SS. Afartiri ed antichi cristiani tit

sixteen or seventeen years, an accidental fire destroyed all his

of his subterranean exploring expeditions, whom he soon

pilgrims from foreign countries, who carefully put on record all

astical property is restored after a persecution, it is to the

mianum, and there had been at least three versions or editions

ORIGIN OF THE CATACOMBS.

THE daily-increasing celebrity of the Roman Catacombs General de-

Flu. [. —Gallery with Tombs.

Tig. 2 - Plan ofArmaria 'at St Agnes.

Sometimes, however, the niche retained the rectangular form,

Those of the arcosolia which were also the tombs of martyrs

there the Bread of life, brought to them by the assistant priests

THE SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS POSITION OF THE FIRST

downwards," says Mr Merivale, " Jews had thrust themselves

from the pages of a Pagan historian* that we knew of the pro

* Tacitus Hist. iii. 65, 75.

Christian faith. It is in speaking of this lady that Eusebius

it was considered the glory of her character.* It must be

* " Mox in gloriam vertit."—Anna!, xiii. 32. t Acts xviii. 12-17.

mentions the expulsion of the Jews from Rome under Claudius,

* Acts xviii. 2. t Joseph. Ant. xiv. 10, 8. J lb. xviii. 3, 5.

under the shadow of that most famous religion, about whose

the Christians worshipped Christ as God; and the Emperor's

ROMAN LAWS AND CUSTOMS AFFECTING BURIAL.

* Cic. De Legibus, ii. 24.

and it was only under very special ciicumstances, says Ulpian,

Hitherto we have considered the facilities afforded by the Funeral con-

allowed them for travelling expenses. If the master of the

or in drinking, or in indecent excesses, but in feeding and