Museum of Antiquity Part 57

ZOTICVS HIC AD DORMIEN DVM.

"Zoticus laid here to sleep."

DOMITIa.n.u.s ANIMA SIMPLEX DORMIT IN PACE.

"Domitia.n.u.s, a simple soul, sleeps in peace."

NICEFORVS ANIMA DVLCIS IN REFRIGERIO.

"Nicephorus, a sweet soul, in a place of refreshment."

PRIMITIVS IN PACE QVI POST MVLTAS. ANGVSTIAS FORTISSIMVS MARTYR ET. VIXIT. ANNOS P.M. x.x.xVIII CONIVG. SVO PERDVLCISSIMO BENEMERENTI FECIT.

"Primitius in peace: a most valiant martyr after many torments.

Aged 38. His wife raised this to her dearest well-deserving husband."

LANNVS XPI. MARTIR HIC REQVIESCIT.

SVB DIOCLIZIANO Pa.s.sVS.

"Lannus, a martyr of Christ, rests here. He suffered under Diocletian."

NABIRA IN PACE ANIMA DVLCIS QVI BIXIT ANNOS XVI. M. V ANIMA MELEIEA t.i.tVLV FACTV A PARENTES

"Navira in peace; a sweet soul who lived sixteen years and five months; a soul sweet as honey: this epitaph was made by her parents."

SEVERO FILIO DVL CISSIMO LAVRENTIVS PATER BENEMERENTI QVI BI XIT ANN. IIII. ME. VIII. DIES V.

ACCERSITVS AB ANGELIS VII. IDVS. IANVA.

"Laurence to his sweetest son Severus, borne away by angels on the 7th ides of January."

MACVS PVER INNOCENS ESSE IAMINTER INNOCENTIS COEPISTI.

QVAM STAVILES TIVI HAEC VITA EST QVAM TELETVM EXCIP ET MATER ECLESIAE DEOC MVNDO REVERTENTEM COMPREMATVR PECTORVM GEMITVS STRVATVR FLETVS OCVLORVM.

"Macus (or Marcus) an innocent boy. You have already begun to be among the innocent ones. How enduring is such a life to you! How gladly will your mother, the church of G.o.d, receive you, returning to this world! Let us restrain our sighs and cease from weeping."

_Galleria Lapidaria._

PAX HIC MIHI SEMPER DOLOR ERIT IN AEVO ET TVVM BENERABILEM BVLTVM LICEAT VIDERE SOPORE CONIVNX ALBANAQVE MIHI SEMPER CASTA PVDICA RELICTVM ME TVO GREMIO QVEROR.

QYOD MIHI SANCTVM TE DEDERAT DIVINITVS AVTOR RELICTIS TVIS IACES IN PACE SOPORE MERITA RESVRGIS TEMPORALIS TIBI DATA REQVETIO QVE VIXIT ANNIS XLV. MENV. DIES XIII DEPOSITA IN PACE FECIT PLACVS MARITVS

Peace.

"This grief will always weigh upon me: may it be granted me to behold in sleep your revered countenance. My wife, Albana, always chaste and modest, I grieve, deprived of your support, for our Divine Author gave you to me as a sacred (boon). You, well-deserving one, having left your (relations), lie in peace--in sleep--you will arise--a temporary rest is granted you. She lived forty-five years, five months, and thirteen days. Buried in peace. Placus, her husband, made this."

_Galleria Lapidaria._

CHURCH OF S. SEBASTIAN "IN CATAc.u.mBIS."

I. INSCRIPTION OF POPE DAMASUS IN HONOR OF S. EUTYCHIUS, THE MARTYR, IN TWELVE VERSES (on the left hand on entering the church). These inscriptions are very numerous in the catacombs, and all of this beautiful calligraphy, and usually in Latin verse, not without elegance of style, though the construction of the sentences is sometimes not clear. Damasus restored all the catacombs, after they had been damaged during the persecution under Julian the Apostate.

EVTYCHIVS. MARTYR. CRVDELIA. IVSSA. TYRANNI CARNIFICVMQ. VIAS. PARITER. TVNC. MILLE. NOCENDI VINCERE. QVOD. POTVIT. MONSTRAVIT. GLORIA. CHRISTV CARCERIS. INLVVIEM. SEQVITVR. NOVA. POENA. PER. ARTVS TESTARVM. FRAGMENTA. PARANT. NE. SOMNVS. ADIRET BISSENI. TRANSIERE. DIES. ALIMENTA. NEGANTVR MITt.i.tVR. IN. BARATHRUM. SANCTVS. LAVAT. OMNIA. SANGVIS VVLNERA. QVAE. INTVLERAT. MORTIS. METVENDA. TOTESTAS NOCTE. SOPORIFERA. TVRBANT. INSOMNIA. MENTEM OSTENDIT. LATEBRA. INSONTIS. QVAE. MEMBRA. TENERET QVAERITVR. INVENTVS. COLITVR. FOVET. OMNIA. PRESTANS EXPRESSIT. DAMASVS. MERITVM. VENERARE. SEPVLCHQVM F

"That Eutychius, the Martyr, was able to overcome the cruel orders of the tyrant, and equally at that time the executioners' thousand ways of torment, the glory of Christ shewed. A new punishment follows the filth of the prison. They provide breaking of tiles on his limbs, to prevent sleep approaching. Twice six days pa.s.sed, food is refused. The saint is thrown into a pit, blood bedews all the wounds which the dread power of death had caused. In night, which usually brings sleep, sleeplessness troubles his mind. The place of concealment which held the limbs of the innocent, manifested them(?). He is sought for, being found he is reverenced, he benefits all things. Damasus shewed forth his exceeding merit; venerate his tomb."

2. ANOTHER INSCRIPTION IN THE SAME CATACOMB CHURCH (over a door on the right-hand side, looking towards the altar).

VISITET. HIC. PIA. MENS. SCTORVM. BVSTA. FREQVENTER IN. CRISTO. QVORVM. GLORIA. PERPES. ERIT

HIC. EST. CEMETERIV. BEATI. CHALIXTI. PAPE. ET. MARTIRIS INc.l.i.tI.

QVICVQVE. ILLVD. COTRICTVS. ET. COFESSVS. INGRESSVS FVERIT.

PLENAM. REMISSIONE. OMNIV. PECTORV. SVORV. OBTINEBIT PER. MERITA. GLORIOSA. CENTV. SEPTVAGINTA. QVATVOR. MILIV SCTORV. MARTIRV. QVORV. IBI. CORPORA. IN. PACE. SEPVLTA.

SVT VNA. CV. QVADRAGINTA. s.e.x. PONTIFICIBVS. BEATIS. QVI.

OMNES EX MAGNA. TRIBVLATIONE. VENERVT. ET. VT. HEREDES. IN. DOMO DOMINI. FIERET. MORTIS. SVPPLICIVM. PRO. CRISTI. NOMINE PERTVLERVNT

"Here let the pious mind often visit the tombs of the saints, Whose glory will be everlasting in Christ."

"Here is the cemetery of the blessed Calixtus, renowned Pope and Martyr. Whoever shall have entered it contrite and after confession, shall obtain full remission of all his sins, through the glorious merits of 174,000 martyr saints, whose bodies are buried here in peace, together with forty-six blessed pontiffs, who all came out of great tribulation, and suffered the punishment of death for Christ's name, that they might become heirs in the Lord's house."

PAINTINGS.

If the tombs of the early martyrs, before "the peace of the church,"

were commonly decorated with paintings at all, which is not probable, it is almost certain that some of those paintings have been renewed at various subsequent periods. The best monuments of the first three centuries are the tomb stones with inscriptions and small simple emblems incised upon them.

It is difficult to decide by the art of drawing only between the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth century. But this art was in the height of perfection in the first century, in the second it was still very good, in the third it had begun to decline, but not so rapidly as to justify the a.s.sumption that the very bad drawings in the catacombs belong to that period, with the exception of those already mentioned as not Christian. The drawing of the figures in the mosaic pictures in the vault of S. Constantia, which are of the first half of the fourth century, are decidedly better than any of the Scriptural subjects in the catacombs. The mosaic pictures of the fifth century on the sides of the nave of S. Maria Maggiore, published by Ciampini, are much more like them.

S. Paulinus, bishop of Nola, writing in the fifth century, says that he had painted a catacomb, _for the pilgrims_, and gives his reasons for doing so. He thought good to enliven the whole _temple_ of S.

Felix, in order that these colored representations might arrest the attention of the rustics, and prevent their drinking too much at the feasts. The _temple_ here evidently means the tomb or crypt in which the commemorative feasts were held, and were represented by paintings.

His expressions imply that such paintings were not then a received custom.

That the painted vaults in the catacombs were used for feasts on various occasions in the same manner as the painted chambers in the Pagan tombs, is evident from the manner in which several writers of the fourth and fifth centuries mention them; in addition to the letters of Paulinus of Nola and S. Augustine, and the hymns of Prudentius, there is also a remarkable pa.s.sage in a sermon of Theodoret on the Martyrs (written about A.D. 450):

"Our Lord G.o.d leads His own even after death into the temples for your G.o.ds, and renders them vain and empty; but to these [Martyrs] He renders the honors previously paid to them. For your daily food and your sacred and other feasts of Peter, Paul, and Thomas, and Sergius and Marcellinus, and Leontius, and Antoninus, and Mauricius, and other martyrs, the solemnities are performed; and in place of the old base pomp and obscene words and acts, their modest festivities are celebrated, not with drunkenness and obscene and ludicrous exhibitions, but with hearing divine songs and holy sermons, and prayers and praises adorned with tears. When, therefore, you would dilate on the honor of the martyrs, what use is there in sifting them?

Fly, my friends, the error of demons, and under their guidance seize upon the road that leads to G.o.d, and welcome their presence with holy songs, as the way is to eternal life."

Bosio enumerates six _cubicula_ or family burial-chapels in the cemetery or catacomb of Priscilla, and thirteen arched tombs with paintings. These pictures, of which he gives engravings, were far more perfect in his time than they are now. His engravings are good for the period when they were executed; but it was a time when all drawing was bad, slovenly, and incorrect, so that the general idea only of the picture is all we can expect. The costume and ornaments do not indicate any very early period of art, but rather a time when it had declined considerably. Costume in Rome, as in the East generally, was far more stationary and less subject to changes than in the West, and these _may_ be as early as the fourth or fifth century, but can hardly be earlier. Several of the martyrs buried in the Via Salaria suffered in the tenth persecution under Diocletian, called the great persecution, about the year 300: the decorations of their tombs, therefore, can not be earlier than the fourth century, and many of them have been restored or renewed at subsequent times. John I., A.D.

523, is recorded to have renewed the cemetery of Priscilla, and this probably means that he renewed the paintings in the style of his own time, as the greater part of the paintings now remaining are of the character of that period.

On comparing the costumes of the figures in this catacomb with those in the illuminations of the celebrated ma.n.u.script of Terence, usually attributed to the seventh or eighth century, and which can hardly be earlier than the fifth, we see at once that the long flowing robe was the ordinary costume of the period, and that the narrow scarf of black ribbon hanging over the shoulders, with the ends reaching nearly to the ground, was the usual badge of a servant. This seems to have been adopted as part of the costume of a Christian going to pray to G.o.d, whether in a church or chapel or any other place, emblematical of the yoke of Christ, as Durandus says. The surplice and stole of the priest of the Anglican Church is a more close copy of this ancient costume than any now worn in the Roman church. The rich cope, cape, or cloak was the dress of the Roman senator and of the Pagan priests; it was probably adopted by the Bishop of Rome when he a.s.sumed the t.i.tle and office of Pontifex Maximus, and after a time the custom was followed by other bishops and priests of his communion.

GLa.s.s VASES.

A valuable work on the ancient gla.s.s vases found in the catacombs was published by F. Buonarotti in Florence, nearly simultaneously with the work of Boldetti on the catacombs, and of Fabretti on the inscriptions found in them. This is the foundation of all the subsequent works on the subject; the figures are badly drawn and engraved, according to the fas.h.i.+on of the period, but many of the later works are not much better. The subjects are generally the same as in the paintings on the walls: the Good Shepherd, more numerous than any other; Adam and Eve, Moses striking the Rock, Noah and the Ark, the raising of Lazarus, Peter and Paul, generally busts--these are very numerous. Both the style of drawing and the character of the inscriptions indicate late dates and frequent copying from the same type. In one are three figures, S. Peter, S. Paul, with S. Laurence seated between them. S.

Agnes occurs frequently, always drawn as in the usual type of the eighth century. Other busts are evidently portraits of persons interred. In some are the father, mother and child;--one has the name of Cerontius; another of two busts, Cericia and Sottacus;--another is a family group, father, mother and four children; the name is partly broken off ....N ... BVSVISTRIS. P. Z. remains.--Abraham with a drawn sword in his hand, and Isaac with his eyes bound, kneeling at his feet, with the ram. A tall female figure with the hands uplifted in prayer; the inscription is PETRVS PAVLVS ANE possibly for AGNES.

Another similar subject consists of two figures seated facing each other; over the left hand figure the name CRISTVS, over the right hand one ISTEFANVS. Several of the subjects are distinctly Pagan; others are evidently from the Jews' catacomb, as two lions guarding the ark, and under them two of the seven-branched candlesticks, with leaves and vases and palm-branch.

S. CALIXTUS.