Pagan and Christian Rome Part 22

[Ill.u.s.tration: Basilica of Nereus, Achilleus and Petronilla.]

The pavement of the basilica is sunk to the level of the second floor of the catacombs, in order that the graves of Nereus, Achilleus, and Petronilla could be enclosed in the altar, without being raised, or touched at all. The body of the church is divided into nave and aisles by two rows of columns, mostly of _cipollino_, some of which were stolen in 1871 by the farmer; the others were found in 1876 lying on the floor, in parallel lines from northeast to southwest, as if they had been overthrown by an earthquake.

A fragment of one of the four columns which supported the ciborium above the high altar has been found in the apse. This fragment contains a bas-relief representing the execution of a martyr. The young man is tied to a stake, which is surmounted by a cross-beam, like a [Symbol: T], the true shape of the _patibulum cruciforme_. A soldier, dressed in a tunic and mantle, seizes the prisoner with the right hand, and stabs him in the neck with the left. The weapon used is not a lictor's axe, nor the sword of a legionary, but a sort of cutla.s.s, which would be more likely to cut the throat than to sever the head from the body. The cross is crowned by a triumphal wreath, as a symbol of the immortal recompense which awaits the confessor of the Faith. The historical value of this rare sculpture is determined by the name, ACILLEVS, engraved above it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Execution of Acilleus.]

The character of the letters and the style of the bas-relief are those of the second half of the fourth century. Of the sister column, with the name and martyrdom of NEREVS, only a small bit has been found.

Another monument of equal value is a broken slab containing, in the first line, the letters RVM; in the second, the letters ORVM; and below these, the cross-shaped anchor, the mysterious but certain emblem of Christian hope. As the position of the symbol determines the middle point of the inscription, it is easy to reconstruct the whole text, by a careful calculation of the size of each letter:--

[Ill.u.s.tration: SEPVLCRVM FLAVIORVM]

"the tomb of the Flavian family," namely, of those relatives of Domitilla who had embraced the Christian faith.

Under the pavement of the nave, aisles, and presbytery, are numberless graves, some of which belong to the original catacombs, before they were cut and disarranged by the building of the basilica; others are built in accordance with the architectural lines of the basilica itself. A grave belonging to the first series, that is, to a gallery of the catacombs which had been blocked by the foundations of the left aisle, bears the date of the year 390; while a sarcophagus placed at the foot of the altar is dated Monday, May 12, 395. It is evident, therefore, that the basilica was built between 390 and 395, during the pontificate of Siricius.

No memorial of Petronilla, the third saint for whom the building was named, has been found within the sacred enclosure,--a fact not wholly unexpected, because the coffin in which her remains were placed is known to have been removed to the Vatican by Paul I. (755-756), at the request of the king of France. In November, 1875, a cubiculum was found at the back of the apse, connected with it by a corridor which opens near the episcopal chair. The walls of this pa.s.sage are covered with _graffiti_ and other records of pilgrims. The cubiculum contains two graves: one empty, in the arcosolium, the place of honor; the other, in front of it, of a much later date. The front of the arcosolium is closed by a wall, on the surface of which is an interesting fresco, which is here reproduced.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Petronilla and Veneranda.]

The younger figure, on the right, is Petronilla Martyr; the elder is a matron named Veneranda, buried January 7 (DEP_osita_ VI. IDVS.

IANVARIAS), in the sarcophagus below the picture. There is no doubt that Petronilla was buried in close proximity to this cubiculum. The story of her relations.h.i.+p to S. Peter has no foundation whatever; it rests on an etymological mistake, by which the name Petronilla is treated as a diminutive of Petrus, as is Plautilla of Plautius or Plautia, and Domitilla of Domitius or Domitia. Petrus is not a Latin name; it came into use with the spreading of the gospel, and only in rare and exceptional cases. The young martyr was named after a member of the same Flavian family to which this cemetery belonged, t.i.tus Flavius Petron, an uncle of Vespasian. Her kins.h.i.+p with the apostle must consequently be taken in a spiritual sense.

Towards the end of 1881 another remarkable discovery took place in these catacombs: that of a cubiculum which in style of decoration is unique. It looks more like the room of a Pompeian house than a Christian crypt. Its architectural paintings with groups of frail columns supporting fantastic friezes, and enclosing pastoral landscapes, might be compared to the frescoes of the Golden House of Nero, or those of the house of Germanicus on the Palatine; but they find no parallel in "subterranean Rome."

The name of the owner of this conspicuous tomb is engraved above the arcosolium: AMPLIATI. The size and the beauty of the letters, the peculiarity of a single cognomen in a possessive case, the fact that a man of inferior condition[160] should own such a tomb; that at a later period, a staircase had been cut through the rock, to provide a direct communication between the Via Ardeatina and the tomb, for the accommodation of pilgrims; the care used to keep the tomb in good order, as shown by later restorations,--all these circ.u.mstances make us believe that Ampliatus was a prominent leader of our early Christian community.

Such being the case, the mind runs at once to the paragraph of S.

Paul's Epistle to the Romans (xvi. 8): "Salute Ampliatus my beloved in the Lord," and one feels inclined to kneel before the tomb of the dear friend of the apostle. However, when discoveries of this kind happen, it is wise to proceed with caution, and examine every detail from a sceptical point of view. Doubtless the cubiculum of Ampliatus was made and painted in the first century of our era. The type of the letters engraved above the tomb is peculiar to painted or written inscriptions of the beginning of the second century. It is possible, therefore, that the name was at first painted on the white plaster, and engraved on marble many years after the deposition of Ampliatus. As regards Ampliatus himself, it is true that according to Greek tradition he died when Bishop of Msia,[161] but the tradition is derived from an apocryphal source. There are those who doubt whether all the salutations contained in S. Paul's epistle are really addressed to the faithful residing in Rome and belonging to the Roman community.[162]

Another difficulty arises from the fact that in the same cubiculum a tombstone has been found, inserted in the wall above the arcosolium, between two painted peac.o.c.ks, with this inscription: "Aurelius Ampliatus and his son Gordia.n.u.s have placed this memorial to Aurelia Bonifatia, wife and mother incomparable, and truly chaste, who lived 25 years, 2 months, 4 days, and 2 hours." Although the name Aurelius is not uncommon on tombstones of the first century in this very Cemetery of Domitilla, there is no doubt that the tablet of Aurelia Bonifatia belongs to a later period. The name Bonifatius--derived from _bonum fatum_, not from _bonum facere_ as commonly believed--did not come into use before the middle of the second century. At all events, Ampliatus, husband of Bonifatia and father of Gordia.n.u.s, may be the son, grandson, or even a later descendant of the man in whose memory the cubiculum was originally built.

Shall we recognize in this man the friend of S. Paul? I do not think the question can as yet be answered with certainty. Further excavations in the galleries radiating from the crypt may disclose fresh particulars, and supply more conclusive evidence.

The discoveries of which a summary description has here been given deserve a place of honor in the comments to Suetonius' "Lives of the Emperors." The exploration of underground Rome must be greeted with pleasure, not only by the pious believers in Christ and his martyrs, but also by agnostic students of cla.s.sical history. A tombstone, which on one side is inscribed with the records of the victories gained by the imperial legions, on the other with the simple and humble name of a Christian who has given his life for his faith, is a monument worthy the consideration of all thoughtful men. Christian archaeology has an intimate and indissoluble connection with cla.s.sical studies, and there is no discovery referring to the first century of Christianity which does not throw new and often unexpected light on general history, art, and science. Those made at Torre Marancia in 1875 ill.u.s.trate the history of Rome and the Campagna, after the fall of the empire. In the niche where the episcopal chair was placed,--behind the high altar, in the middle of the apse,--a rough hand has sketched the figure of a priest, dressed in a casula, in the act of preaching from his seat.

This sketch reminds us of Gregory the Great, when in this very cemetery of Nereus and Achilleus, in this very apse, he read one of his homilies from this episcopal chair, deploring to the panic-stricken congregation the state of the city, the queen of the world, desolated by famine, by pestilence, and by the Lombards, who at that very moment were burning and plundering the villas and farms of the surrounding Campagna.

CEMETERY AD CATAc.u.mBAS.[163] The cemetery near the church of S.

Sebastiano was originally called in an indefinite way _cimiterium ad catac.u.mbas_. The etymology of the name is uncertain. De Rossi suggests the roots _cata_, a Graeco-Latin preposition of the decadence, signifying "near," and _c.u.mba_, a resting-place. The word would therefore mean _apud accubitoria_, "near the resting-places," an allusion to the many tombs which surrounded the old crypt above and below ground. This crypt dates from apostolic times, or, at all events, from a period much earlier than the martyrdom of Sebastian, the Christian officer whose name it now bears.

The great interest of the cemetery is derived from the shelter which the bodies of the apostles are said to have had in its recesses during the fiercest times of persecution. The temporary transferment of the remains of SS. Peter and Paul, from their graves on the Via Cornelia and the Via Ostiensis, to the catacombs, is not a mere tradition. It is described by Pope Damasus in a metric inscription published by de Rossi,[164] and by Pope Gregory in an epistle to the empress Constantina, no. 30 of book iv. A curious entry in the calendar called _Bucherianum_, from its first editor, seems to point to a double transferment. The entry is dated June 29, A. D. 258:--

_Tertio Kalendas Julias, Tusco et Ba.s.so consulibus, Petri in Vaticano, Pauli in via Ostiensis--utriusque in Catac.u.mbas._

Since, in early calendars, the date is only appended in case of transferment of remains, archaeologists have suggested the theory that the bodies of the apostles may possibly have found shelter in the catacombs of the Appian Way a second time, during the persecution of Valerian (A. D. 258). Marchi a.s.serts that the evidences of a double concealment are still to be found in the frescoes of the crypt, some of which belong to the first, others to the third, century; but this hardly seems to be the case. I lowered myself into the hiding-place on February 23 of the present year, and, after careful examination, have come to the conclusion that its paintings are by one hand and of one epoch, the epoch of Damasus. However, whether they were laid there once or twice, its temporary connection with the apostles made the "locus ad catac.u.mbas" one of the great suburban sanctuaries. The cubiculum, called Platonia, was decorated by Damasus with marble incrustations. According to the Acts of S. Sebastian (January 20) he expressed the wish to be buried "_ad catac.u.mbas_, at the entrance of the crypt, near the memorial of the apostles." These events were represented in the frescoes of the old portico of S. Peter's, destroyed in 1606-1607 by Paul V. One of them showed the bodies of the apostles, bandaged like mummies, being lowered into the place of concealment; the other, Lucina and Cornelius bringing back the bodies to their original graves in the Via Cornelia and the Via Ostiensis.

A remarkable monument was discovered in the crypt four years ago. It is a marble bust, or rather the fragment of a bust, of the Redeemer, with locks of hair descending on each shoulder,[165] a work of the fourth century.

It is well known that the oldest representations of the Redeemer are purely ideal. He appears as a young man, with no beard, his hair arranged in the Roman style, wearing a short tunic, and showing the amiable countenance of the Good Shepherd. I give here a characteristic specimen of this type, a statue of the first quarter of the third century, now in the Lateran Museum.[166] Whether performing one of the miracles which prove his divinity, or teaching the new doctrine to the disciples, the type never varies. It is evident that the Christian painters or sculptors of the first three centuries, in drawing or modelling the head of Jesus, had no intention of making a likeness, but only a conventional type, n.o.ble and cla.s.sic, and suggestive of the eternal youth of the Word. A new tendency appears in Christian art towards the middle of the fourth century, the attempt to reproduce the genuine portrait of Christ, or what was regarded as such by the Orientals. The change was a consequence of the peace and freedom given to the Church, and of the cessation of that overbearing contempt in which the Gentiles had held a religion which they believed to be that of the vile followers of a crucified Jew. It had been considered prudent, at the outset, to present the Redeemer to the neophytes, who were not yet entirely free from pagan ideas, in a type which was familiar and pleasing to the Roman eye, rather than with the characteristics of a despised race. The triumph of the Church made these precautions unnecessary, and then arose the desire of exhibiting a truer portraiture of Christ. The first addition to the conventional type was that of the beard, and probably of the hair parted in the middle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The portrait head of Jesus in the Sancta Sanctorum.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE IDEAL ROMAN FIGURE OF CHRIST]

Ancient writers have left but little information about the personal appearance of the Saviour; and the vagueness of their accounts proves the absence of a type which was universally recognized as authentic.

Many doc.u.ments concerning this subject must be rejected as forgeries of a later age. Such is the pretended letter of Lentulus, governor of Judaea, to the Senate, describing the appearance of Jesus. In the same way we should regard the images attributed to Nicodemus and Luke, and those called _acheiropitae_ (not painted by human hands), like the famous one of the chapel of the Sancta Sanctorum,[167] the first historical mention of which dates from A. D. 752, when Pope Stephen II. carried it in a procession from the Lateran to S. Maria Maggiore, to obtain divine protection against Aistulphus. Garrucci questions whether it may not be that of Camulia.n.u.s, described by Gregory of Nyssa; or a copy of the image alleged to have been sent by the Saviour himself to Abgar, king of Edessa,[168] with an autograph letter. Must we consider these and other portraits, like the "Volto Santo" in the Vatican, as fanciful as the old youthful Roman type of the Good Shepherd? There can be no doubt that in some provinces of the East, like Palestine, Syria, and Phnicia, the oral traditions about the personal appearance of the Saviour were kept for many generations. It is also probable that the tradition was confirmed by some work of art, like the celebrated group of Paneas (Banias). With regard to this, Eusebius says that the woman with the issue of blood, grateful to the Saviour for her cure (Mark v., 25-34), caused a statue, representing Him in the act of performing the miracle, to be set up in front of her house; that it still existed when he wrote, and was held in great veneration throughout Palestine and the whole East. Sozomenos adds that Julian the Apostate subst.i.tuted his own statue for it, but that the imperial image was struck by lightning. This excited the wrath of the pagans to such an extent that they destroyed the group of Christ and the Woman, which Julian had caused to be removed. Ca.s.siodorus, Rufinus, Kedrenos, and Malala, a.s.sert that the head was saved from destruction. It has been suggested that the group did not represent the woman at the feet of the Saviour, but a conquered province kneeling before the Roman emperor and addressing him as her Saviour (SO????). But this explanation seems more ingenious than probable, because it implies that Christians, Eusebius included, had mistaken the portrait of a Roman conqueror for that of

Christ, which would have been so different in type, dress, and att.i.tude. At all events, the belief that the group of Banias was a genuine likeness was general in the fourth century. Eusebius contributed to make it known in the Western world; and to this diffusion we probably owe the second type of the Saviour's physiognomy, the bearded face, the large impressive eyes, the hair parted in the middle, and falling in locks on the shoulders.[169]

To this type belongs the bust discovered four years ago in the "locus ad catac.u.mbas." According to an ingenious hypothesis of Bottari, adopted by de Rossi, the Paneas group is represented on the Lateran sarcophagus, engraved by Roller in the second volume of his "Catacombs," plate 58.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Landslip in the Cemetery of Cyriaca.]

THE CEMETERY OF CYRIACA. This, the princ.i.p.al cemetery of the Via Tiburtina, was excavated in the hill above the basilica of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura. It is the one with which I have had most to do, because the building of the new Camposanto, together with the sinking of the foundations of the new tombs, has been the occasion of frequent discoveries. One of the characteristic features of Cyriaca's cemetery is the large number of military inscriptions from the praetorian camp which were used to close the graves, the name of the deceased Christian being engraved on the blank side of the slab. On December 23, 1876, a landslide of considerable extent took place along the southern face of the rock in which the catacombs are excavated, in consequence of which many loculi, arcosolia, and painted cubicula were laid open. I happened to witness the accident, and was able to direct the exploration of the graves. Among the objects discovered, I remember a pair of silver earrings, a necklace of gold and emeralds, sixteen inches long, clay objects of various kinds, gladiatorial and theatrical lamps, and nine Christian tombstones. One of them was engraved on the back of a slab from the praetorian camp, containing the roster of one hundred and fifty soldiers from the twelfth and fourteenth city cohorts (_cohortes urbanae_). Each individual has his praenomen, nomen, and cognomen, carefully indicated, together with the names of his father, tribe, and country. The men are grouped in companies, which are indicated by the name of their captains, such as the "company of Marcellus" or the "company of Tranquillinus," with the consular date of the year in which Marcellus and Tranquillinus were in command of that company. Another part of the same roster, engraved on a slab of the same marble and size, and containing many more names, was found a century and a half ago in the same place, and removed to the Vatican Museum.

One of the tombs, discovered during the following January, seems to have belonged to a lady of rank. A gold necklace and a pair of opal earrings were found in the earth which filled the grave. Relatives or friends of the occupants of the cubiculum had written on the plaster words of affection and devotion, such as "Gaia.n.u.s, live in Christ with Procula;" "Semplicius, live in Christ."

It is to be regretted that, in order to make room for the daily victims of death, the munic.i.p.ality of Rome should be obliged to turn out of their graves the faithful of the third and fourth centuries who were buried in the neighborhood of S. Lorenzo. In 1876 I witnessed the discovery of a section of the old cemetery at the foot of the hill of Cyriaca. The tombs were mostly sarcophagi, with reliefs, the subjects of which are taken from the Bible. One of them, carved in the rude but pathetic style of the fifth century, represents the crossing of the Red Sea, and the Egyptian hosts, led by Pharaoh, following closely on the Jews. The waves are closing over the persecutors, just as the last of the fugitives emerges safely on the land. The "column of fire" is represented, according to the Vitruvian rules, with base and capital; and the costumes of the warriors of the Nile are those of Roman _gregarii_, or privates, under Constantine. Another sarcophagus shows the Virgin Mary, with the infant Saviour in her arms, receiving the offering of the Eastern kings. A third represents a sort of pageant of court dignitaries of one of the Valentinians. Besides these and many other pieces of sculpture seventy-two inscriptions or fragments of inscriptions were dug up, mostly from the pavement of a ruined chapel, one of the seven by which the basilica of S. Lorenzo was surrounded in ancient times.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Inscription from the tombstone of a dentist.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Inscription from the grave of Alexander, a dentist.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Surgeon's instruments; relief on a tombstone.]

Another inscription, discovered in 1864, deserves attention on account of the instruments which are engraved upon it. It is a fragment from the tomb of a dentist named Victorinus, or Celerinus, with the representation of the instruments he used in extracting teeth. Such representations are by no means rare on gravestones. The other two specimens reproduced here are also from the catacombs. Alexander was a dentist; the unknown owner of the other slab was a general surgeon, yet the symbol of dentistry occupies the prominent place in his display of tools. In my experience of Roman or Latin excavations, in which thousands of tombs have been brought to light, I have hardly ever met with a skull the teeth of which showed symptoms of decay, or evidence of having been operated upon by a professional hand.

Specimens of filling are even more rare than those of gold plating. Of this latter process we have now a beautiful sample in a skull discovered in the excavations of Faleria, and exhibited in the Faliscan Museum at the Villa Giulia, outside the Porta del Popolo. The gold socket or plating of three molar teeth is still in excellent condition. And here I may recall the ancient law, mentioned by Cicero (De Leg. ii. 24), which made it illegal to bury a body with gold, except such as had been used in fastening the teeth.

THE CEMETERY AD DUAS LAUROS (of SS. Peter and Marcellinus).[170] To the left of the second milestone of the Via Labicana there was an imperial villa, named _ad Duas Lauros_ (the two laurels), where the empress Helena was buried by Constantine, and Valentinian III. was murdered when playing with other youths, in 455. Adjoining the tomb of the empress, which was described in chapter iv., pp. 197 sq., were two cemeteries,--one above ground, belonging to the "Equites Singulares,"

or body guards; the other, below. The latter was the largest of the Via Labicana, and was known in early Church annals under the same name as the imperial villa. In 1880-82 a third and deeper network of galleries was excavated for the sake of extracting the pozzolana, the beds of which support the tufa and the catacombs excavated in it. Some damage was done to the tombs, but the Italian proverb _Non tutto il male viene per nuocere_ proved true once more on this occasion. The excavation of the catacombs, which is generally a difficult and costly work, and sometimes impossible, when the owner of the ground above them objects to this form of trespa.s.sing on his estate, here became an easy matter, the earth being simply thrown into the sandpits from the catacombs above. The discoveries made on this occasion, added to the descriptions and drawings left by former explorers, give us a thorough knowledge of these labyrinths. The impression which they make at first is rather poor; but this is due chiefly to the ravages committed by early explorers.

The inscriptions are few and not particularly interesting, excepting one, which was discovered in 1873, and is written in excellent style: "Aurelius Theophilus, a citizen of Carrhae, a man of pure mind and great innocence, at the age of twenty-three has rendered his soul to G.o.d, his body to the earth." His native city, the Haran, or Charan of the Bible, where Abraham lived, is known in Church annals as one of the strongholds of paganism in Mesopotamia. When Julian the Apostate led the Roman armies against the Persians, in 362, he halted for some time at Carrhae, to perform impious and cruel sacrifices in the sanctuary of Luno. A description of the crime is given by Theodoretus in Book III. ch. xxvi. At that time Carrhae, in spite of its devotion to the old religion, had a bishop named Vitus, who died in 381, and was succeeded by Protogenes. According to Theodoretus, he succeeded in "cultivating that wild field which had been covered with idolatrous thorns." Aurelius Theophilus was probably a contemporary of these events, as the inscription on his tombstone belongs undoubtedly to the end of the fourth century. There are also a few inscriptions scratched on plaster, by pilgrims who visited the three historical crypts of Marcellinus and Peter, Gorgonius, and Tiburtius. To save devout visitors the trouble and danger of crossing the labyrinths, each of these crypts was made accessible directly from the ground above by means of a staircase. The _graffiti_ are found mostly on the sides or at the foot of these staircases, or else on the door-posts of the crypts themselves.

The historical and religious a.s.sociations of this catacomb are summed up and ill.u.s.trated in a beautiful picture representing the Saviour with S. Paul on his right and S. Peter on his left: and, on a line below, the four martyrs who were buried in the cemetery, Gorgonius, Peter, Marcellinus, and Tiburtius, pointing with their right hands to the Divine Lamb on the mountain. The heads of the two apostles are particularly fine, and the shape of their beards most characteristic.

This well-known fresco, preserved in cubiculum no. 25 of Bosio's plan, was discovered in 1851 by de Rossi, in a curious manner. Having obtained from padre Marchi permission to carry the excavations towards the cubiculum, and finding that the work proceeded too slowly for his impatience, he crept on his hands and feet for fifty yards along the narrow gap between the ceiling of the galleries and the earth with which they were filled, and reached the cubiculum nearly suffocated.

Here, by means of a skylight which was not obstructed by rubbish, he found that the place was used as a deposit for carrion, as the half-putrefied carca.s.s of a bull was lying under the famous fresco.

Many cubiculi were painted by one artist, whose power of invention was rather restricted. He has but two subjects: the story of Jonah, and the Symbolic Supper. Of this last there are four representations, all reproduced from the same pattern, of which I give an example. A family consisting of father, mother, and children, are sitting around a table, upon which the ????? or fish is served; the banquet is presided over by two mystic figures, Irene or Peace on the left, Agape or Love on the right. The head of the family addresses Peace with these words: "Irene, da calda!" and Love, "Agape, misce mi!" The last words are easily understood: "Give me to drink," the verb _mescere_ being still used in the same sense in Tuscany, where a wine-shop is sometimes called a _mescita di vino_. The meaning of the word _calda_ is not certain. There is no doubt, as Botticher says, that the ancients had something to correspond to our tea: but the _calda_ seems to have been more than an infusion; apparently it was a mixture of hot water, wine, and drugs, that is, a sort of punch, which was drunk mostly in winter.[171] The names written in charcoal above the princ.i.p.al inscriptions in this ill.u.s.tration are those of Pomponio Leto and his academicians.[172]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Symbolic Supper.]

Another artist distinguished himself in these catacombs, not from skill in design and color, but from the beautiful subjects chosen by him for the decoration of the walls and ceilings of three cubiculi,--compositions which may be called "The Gospel Ill.u.s.trated."

They have been admirably described and reproduced by photographs and in outline by monsignore Joseph Wilpert, in his book referred to in the note on page 354. The intuition of this learned man in detecting paintings which have been effaced by age, dampness, and smoke is fully appreciated by students of Christian archaeology: but on this occasion he accomplished a real _tour de force_. When, on December 19, I entered the cubiculum no. 54, in which the paintings are, and he began to point out to me outlines of figures and objects, I thought he was laboring under an optical delusion; I could see nothing beyond a blackened and mouldy plaster surface. My eyes, however, soon became initiated to the new experience, and able to read the lines of this curious palimpsest. The dark spots soon grew into shape, and lovely groups, inspired by the purest Christian symbolism, appeared on the walls. There are thirteen pictures, representing the following-named subjects: the annunciation, the three magi following the star (which is shaped like the monogram [Symbol: Chi Rho]), their adoration at Bethlehem, the baptism of our Lord, the last judgment, the healing of the blind, the crippled, and the woman with the issue of blood, the woman of Samaria, the Good Shepherd (twice), the Orantes (twice).

The catacombs of SS. Peter and Marcellinus have another attraction for students. Poor as they are in epitaphs and works of art, they contain hundreds of names of celebrated humanists, archaeologists, and artists who explored these depths in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and made record of their visits. When one walks between two lines of graves, in the almost oppressive stillness of the cemetery, with no other company than one's thoughts, the names of Pomponius Letus and his academicians, of Bosio, Panvinio, Avanzini, Severano, Marangoni, Marchi, and d'Agincourt, written in bold letters, give the lonely wanderer the impression of meeting living and dear friends; and one wonders at the great love which these pioneers of "humanism" must have had for antiquities, to have spent days and days, and to have held their conferences and banquets, in places like these.

In chapter i., page 10, of "Ancient Rome," I mentioned Pomponio's Academy, and its visits to the crypts of Callixtus. Since the publication of my book, the subject has been investigated again and ill.u.s.trated by Giacomo Lombroso[173] and de Rossi.[174] It appears that after the trial which the Academicians underwent at the time of Paul II., and their unexpected liberation from the Castle of S.