Museum of Antiquity Part 55

In the Roman Campagna there were forty-three catacombs, whose names are recorded in inscriptions, in martyrologies, and in the Pontifical Registers used by Anastasius, since republished, with additions, in various forms, and repeated in substance by Baronius in his Annals, and Panvinius in his treatise on the Cemeteries. Aringhi reckons on the number at fifty-six, and from the account of Signor de Rossi it appears that the number is now reckoned at about sixty. The number of _general_ cemeteries is not so large.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLAN OF CATACOMBS AT ROME. (_Estimated to be between 800 and 900 miles in length._)]

The original entrances to the catacombs were in many instances by subterranean roads or corridors, sometimes called streets. These corridors, which served as entrances to and pa.s.sages in the burial-places, were originally old sand-pit roads, from which the Pozzolana sand had been extracted; when this bed of sand is extracted, the entrance is usually closed. The soft bed of Pozzolana sand was, however, not generally used for interments, but the harder bed under it, called "tufa granulare." The different horizontal layers or beds of tufa vary very much in hardness and also in thickness.

Although these catacombs may not be the finest cemeteries, yet the use of these would be infinitely preferable to the recent Roman practice of throwing the bodies of all persons, whose families can not afford to buy a piece of land in perpetuity, into a pit, in the same manner as the ancient Romans did the bodies of their slaves.

There are three hundred and eighty pits provided in the burial ground of S. Lorenzo, one of which was opened every night. All the bodies brought for interment that day or night were thrown into it, after being first stripped to the skin by the officials; and then hot lime was thrown upon them, that they might be thoroughly decayed before the year came round. The mouth of the pit was closed with lime grouting, so that no effluvium could escape, and this covering was not broken until the pit was wanted to be used again.

These corridors or pa.s.sages of the sand-pits from which the Pozzolana sand had been excavated are large enough to admit a horse and cart; these were frequently the entrances to the catacombs, the corridors of which are usually by the side of or under those of the _arenariae_, or sand-pits, and are only just large enough for a man, or two men with a body, to pa.s.s along; the height varies from five to seven or eight feet, or more, according to the thickness of the bed of tufa. In the catacomb of S. Hermes, part of the wide sand-pit road has been reduced to one-third of its width, by building up brick walls on each side with _loculi_ in them.

There is in general, at present, no communication between one catacomb and another; each occupies a separate hill or rising ground in the Campagna, and is separated from the others by the intervening valleys.

When the first tier of tombs extended to the edges of the hill, a second was made under it, and then sometimes a third, or more. The manner in which the rock is excavated in a number of corridors twisting in all directions, in order to make room for the largest possible number of bodies, is thus accounted for. The plan of the catacomb of S. Priscilla is a good ill.u.s.tration of this. It would have been hardly safe to have excavated the rock to any greater extent. The lowest corridors are frequently below the level of the valleys, and there may have been originally pa.s.sages from one to the other, so that one entrance to S. Calixtus may have been through S. Sebastian's. The peculiarly dry and drying nature of the sandstone, or tufa rock, in which these tombs are excavated, made them admirably calculated for the purpose. These catacombs were the public cemeteries of Christian Rome for several centuries, and it would have been well for the health of the city if they could always have continued so. Unfortunately after the siege of Rome by the Goths, in the time of Justinian, when some of the catacombs were rifled of their contents, the use of these excellent burying places was discontinued.

That the _arenaria_ were considered as burying places in the time of Nero is evident from his exclamations of horror at the idea of being taken there alive for the purpose of concealment. The sand-pits are also mentioned by Cicero in his Oration for Cluentius, where he says that the young Asinius, a citizen of n.o.ble family, was inveigled into one of them and murdered.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STONE COFFIN.]

This shows they were in use before the Christian era, and there is every reason to believe that they have been in use ever since lime-mortar came into use, which is believed to have been many centuries before that period. The celebrated Pozzolana sand makes the best mortar in the world, from its gritty nature. This valuable sand is found to any extent nearly all over the Campagna of Rome, in horizontal beds or layers between the beds of tufa; some of the tufa itself, which is sandstone, may be sc.r.a.ped into this sand, but it is easier to take it as ready provided by nature. People once accustomed to the use of this sand can not do without it, and hundreds of carts filled with it may be seen daily traversing the Campagna, conveying it either to Rome, or to Ostia, or to Porto, for exportation. The horizontal layers or beds of this sand are not usually more than six feet thick, although they extend at a certain level over the whole surface of the country. It is therefore excavated in horizontal corridors, with various branches, extending for many miles, undermining the whole surface of the soil, but not in large or deep pits, so that the name of sand-pit is rather deceitful to American people, who commonly imagine it to be always a large and deep pit to which these roads lead only; this is not always the case, the roads themselves being excavated in the layer of sand, and frequently themselves the sand-pits. Sometimes there are different layers of sand at different levels, and in some cases there may be two sand-pit roads one over the other, with the bed of hard tufa between them.

We are told in the _Acta Sanctorum_ that one of the punishments inflicted on the Christians by the Emperor Maximinus in the sixth persecution, A.D. 35, was digging sand and stone. The martyrs, Ciriacus and Sisinnus are especially mentioned as ordered to be strictly guarded, and compelled to dig sand and to carry it on their own shoulders.

Some of the catacombs were evidently made under tombs by the side of the road, and in that of S. Calixtus there are remains of the tomb on the surface of the ground. The burial-chapels of the fourth century commonly found over a catacomb probably replace earlier tombs. The church of S. Urban is now considered to have been a family tomb of the first century, made into a church long afterwards.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STONE COFFIN WITH OPEN SIDE.]

Many inscriptions are preserved relating to the preservation of a tomb with the land belonging to it in perpetuity, and they frequently mention the number of feet along the road and in the field. Their size varies enormously. Horace mentions one that was 1,000 feet by 300 feet. The inscription of one dug up in the Via Labicana gives 1,800 feet by 500 feet; another was only twenty-four feet by fifteen feet, and another sixteen feet square. In the case of one of the larger tombs belonging to a family that became Christian, it was easy for them to make a catacomb under it and allow their fellow-Christians to be buried there, or to sell portions of the large s.p.a.ce for separate vaults. Many vaults of sixteen feet square might be made in the s.p.a.ce of 1,800 feet long by 500 feet wide, as the one on the Via Labicana.

If the adjoining field belonged to the same family, the catacomb might be extended as far as the family property itself extended. This is the most probable explanation of the _praedium_ of the Lady Lucina and other Christian martyrs. They were heiresses to whom such a tomb and meadow belonged. When the s.p.a.ce was limited, three or four stories were excavated in succession, one under the other, as we see in many instances.

The measurements of Michele de Rossi coincide with this in a remarkable manner. He finds the _area_ of each separate catacomb to be respectively 100, 125, 150, 180 and 250 feet. None of these s.p.a.ces are at all too large for the area commonly left round a tomb of importance, and the family property of this area would extend to any depth. Each cemetery was complete in itself, but sometimes connected with others by subterranean roads.

These tombs were protected by special laws, and the _area_ in which the tomb stood was included with it. The area was often of considerable extent, and was intended for the burial-place of succeeding generations of the family to whom it belonged. The tombs of the period of the early empire were by no means exclusively for the _columbaria_ for cinerary urns. The instances in which there are both places for bodies and urns are perhaps more numerous than those for urns only. The fine sarcophagi now found in museums, or applied to all sorts of uses, as water-troughs, vases for flowers, and various other purposes, were all originally in tombs, and generally in tombs in which there were also _columbaria_ for cinerary urns. Some Pagan tombs on the Via Latina have catacombs for the interment of bodies under them, and often bodies were put in them.

The custom of burning the bodies was never universal, and lasted only for a certain period; the custom of burying bodies came in again soon after the Christian era, and probably was influenced by the strong feeling which sprung up among the Christians on this subject. The sumptuous painted chambers in the upper part of the tombs of the first and second centuries on the Via Latina were evidently imitated by the poor in the catacombs in the fourth and fifth centuries and later; but there is no evidence of any Scriptural or religious subjects for paintings before the time of Constantine. The character of the paintings is almost universally later, and the few that are early are not Christian nor Scriptural.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INSIDE VIEW OF CATACOMBS.]

It might very well happen that some members of the family were Christians and others were not, and this would account for the mixture of Pagan tombs with Christian ones in the same catacombs. The subterranean sand-pit roads frequently run parallel to the high roads at a little distance from them, and such a road pa.s.sing at the back of the subterranean cemetery or catacomb would be very convenient to Christians in time of persecution. The part of these roads which came within the limits of the cemetery would naturally be used for burial places, also, as we see that they were distinctly in the case of S.

Hermes, and nearly with equal certainty in other cases. In ordinary times, there was no necessity for secrecy. The bodies of Christian martyrs were given up for the purpose of burial to those who applied for them.

The catacombs of SS. Saturnius and Thraso, the entrance to which is in the gardens of the Villa Gangalani, about a mile from Rome, on the Via Salaria, are stated to have formed part of the great catacomb of S.

Priscilla, the entrance to which is about a quarter of a mile farther from Rome, on the same road. On descending into that of S. Saturninus by a steep flight of steps of modern appearance, but perhaps restored only, we soon pa.s.s under the road and hear carriages pa.s.sing overhead; we then continue to descend to the depth of about fifty feet, divided into five corridors, only four of which can at present be seen; but we pa.s.s the entrance to the fifth on one of the stair-cases, and see the opening to it. The two lower corridors of this catacomb have tombs or _cubicula_ on the sides; a few of these are painted, and the vault of the corridor in front of them, also.

The sandstone in which this catacomb is made is more than usually hard, for which reason apparently there are only three of the side chapels for family burying places, and few of the arched tombs; most of the recesses for graves are merely parallelograms just large enough to contain the body, or two bodies side by side, one behind the other, the recess being excavated to a sufficient depth for that purpose, and some of these have the slabs covering the openings left in their places. The skeletons are allowed to remain in several of the tombs where the slab has been removed and left open. One of the chapels has remains of paintings of the fourth century in a very decayed state.

The other two chapels are connected by a short pa.s.sage; they have evidently been family burying places, a second added when the first was full. The pa.s.sage is made through the princ.i.p.al tomb of the first chapel, the body previously interred there was probably removed to the inner chapel when that was made. The painted chapel is in the upper corridor, the double one in the lowest.

In descending from the garden, the two upper corridors have tombs on the sides, and are regular catacombs; the third is an _arenarium_, or sand-pit, without tombs, and large enough for a horse and cart to pa.s.s along, as in the ordinary sand-pits. There must have been another entrance to this, and it is said to have been half a mile off, which is not improbable, judging by other sand-pits, both those now in use and others that are closed, some of which are known to be more than a mile long, and with the different branch galleries, the corridors altogether often extend several miles. These galleries are large and wide enough for a horse and cart, but not for two to pa.s.s, sidings being made at intervals for that purpose. The pa.s.sages in the catacombs vary much both in height and in width, but are seldom more than three feet wide. The chapels also vary in size, but none of them would hold more than fifty people; those in the present catacomb are small.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LAMPS FOUND IN THE CATACOMBS.]

That each of these chapels was the burial-place of a family, and was considered as private property, is evident from the remains of a door at the entrance of several of them, as in the catacomb of S.

Priscilla. In one of these, the stone corbel, with the hole for the pivot to work in, remains in its place; the lower stone, with the corresponding hole, has been moved, but is lying on the floor in an adjoining chapel. Another door has been made to slide up and down like a portcullis or a modern sash-window, as we see by the groove remaining on both sides. This is close to a _luminaria_, or well for admitting light and air, and it seems quite possible that it really was a window, or that the upper part was made to slide down to admit the light and air from the _luminaria_. If this was the burial-place of Priscilla, the paintings were probably renewed in the restoration by John I., A.D. 523. The lower part of the wall is faced with stucco paneled with oblong panels, colored in imitation of different kinds of marble; the stucco is about an inch thick, like slabs of marble, and the divisions between the panels are sunk to that depth, as if each panel had been painted before it was placed and fixed to the walls like marble slabs. There are some long narrow slips of white stucco lying about, which seem to have been fitted into the hollow grooves between the slabs. The vaults in this catacomb are in many parts supported by brick arches; in one place, at a crossing, are four small low brick arches, the character of which agrees with the period of the restoration in the sixth century; the mortar between the bricks or tiles is about the same thickness as the tiles themselves, which are rather more than an inch thick, so that there are five tiles to a foot, including the mortar between them. These brick arches are not subsequent repairs, but part of the original construction to carry the vault. The _arenarium_, or sand-pit gallery, through which the present entrance is made, has evidently been used as a subterranean road. A branch of an aqueduct running along the side of this is part of an extensive system of irrigation carried on throughout all this district, the water having been brought from the Aqua Virgo, which pa.s.sed in this direction. It was probably part of the original line of the Aqueduct, which has been altered in the portion near to Rome; this has not been traced out to any considerable extent, but Signor de Rossi has found many remains and indications of it. The sand-pit roads, or _arenaria_, ran for miles parallel to the high roads, and were probably used by the carters in preference to the open roads in hot weather, as they are always cool.

_Christian Inscriptions_ are all funereal, and are for the most part found in the catacombs, or subterranean cemeteries. The word cemetery is derived from a Greek word, meaning "a sleeping place," hence the frequent formulae in the Christian epitaphs, "dormit in pace," he sleeps in peace; "dormitio Elpidis," the sleeping place of Elpis; "cubiculum Aureliae," the sleeping chamber of Aurelia. The term catacomb was applied to these subterranean cemeteries at a much later period. The practice of subterranean burial among the early Christians was evidently derived from the Jewish custom of burying the dead in excavated sepulchres, and thus may have been adopted by the early Jewish converts. The Roman Jews had a very early catacomb of their own, in the Monte Verde, contiguous to their place of abode, in the Trasteverine quarter of Rome. This subterranean mode of sepulture is undoubtedly of Egyptian origin. It is generally supposed that the early Christians used for their burial places the excavations made by the Romans for procuring stone and cement for building purposes. This is an erroneous view. Recent geological observations on the soil of the Agro Romano have shown that the surface of the Campagna consists of volcanic rocks of different natures and ages. The earliest of the series, the tufa lithoide, was constantly employed from the earliest ages in the buildings of the city, as attested by the ma.s.sive blocks of the Cloaca Maxima, the tabularium of the Capitol, and the walls of Romulus; the second, or tufa granolare, which though it has just consistency enough to retain the form given to it by the excavator, can not be hewn or extracted in blocks; and the pozzolana, which has been extensively used in all ages for mortar or Roman cement. The tufa lithoide and the pozzolana were thus alone used for building purposes by the Romans, and the catacombs are never found excavated in these.

The catacombs were hewn only in the tufa granolare, and were consequently excavated expressly for burials by the early Christians.

The Christian architects carefully avoided the ma.s.sive strata of the tufa lithoide, and we believe it is ascertained that all the known catacombs are driven exclusively along the courses of the tufa granolare. With equal care these subterranean engineers avoided the layers of pozzolana, which would have rendered their work insecure, and in which no permanent rock tomb could have been constructed. Thus we arrive at the curious fact, that in making the catacombs the excavators carefully avoided the strata of hard stone and the strata of soft stone, used respectively for building and for mortar, and selected that course of medium hardness which was best adapted to their peculiar purpose. The early Christian tomb inscriptions are characterized by symbols and formulae peculiar to the Christian creed; the idea of another life, a life beyond the grave, usually prevails in them.

The symbols found in connection with the funereal inscriptions are of three kinds; the larger proportion of these refer to the profession of Christianity, its doctrines and its graces. A second cla.s.s, of a partly secular description, only indicate the trades of the deceased, and the remainder represent proper names: thus a lion must be read as a proper name, _Leo_; an a.s.s, _Onager_; a dragon, _Dracontius_. Of the first kind the most usually met with is the monogram of Christ. The other symbols generally in use are the ship, the emblem of the church; the fish, the emblem of Christ, the palm, the symbol of martyrdom. The anchor represented hope in immortality; the dove, peace; the stag reminded the faithful of the pious aspiration of the Psalmist; the horse was the emblem of strength in the faith; the hunted hare, of persecution; the peac.o.c.k and the phnix stood for signs of the resurrection. Christ, as the good pastor, was also introduced in the epitaph. Even personages of the Pagan mythology were introduced, which the Christians employed in a concealed sense, as Orpheus, enchanting the wild beasts with the music (see page 701) of his lyre, was the secret symbol of Christ as the civilizer of men leading all nations to the faith. Ulysses, fastened to the mast of his ship, was supposed to present some faint resemblance to the crucifixion.

In cla.s.sifying the Roman inscriptions, M. de Rossi has adopted the following divisions. The first comprises those inscriptions only which contain some express note of time, and are therefore susceptible of exact chronological arrangement. The second comprises the select inscriptions, viz.: first, sacred and historical ones, and next those which, either by testimony, by forms, or by symbols, ill.u.s.trate the doctrines, the worship, or the morals of the Christians. The third, the purely topographical, a.s.signs each inscription its proper place among the ancient localities of Rome. This comprises also inscriptions of unknown or uncertain locality, as well as inscriptions of spurious origin or doubtful authenticity.

In considering the chronological arrangements of Christian inscriptions, it is important to keep in view that in the earlier centuries the Christians kept note of time either by the years of the bishop, or by some of the civil forms which prevailed in the various countries in which they resided. In Rome the common date was that of the consular year. The common use of the Christian era as a note of time began, as is well known, later than the sixth century, at which M. de Rossi's series terminates. In M. de Rossi's collection one inscription bears date from the year A.D. 107, and another from 111.

Of the period from the year 204, in which the next inscription with a date occurs, till the peace of the church in 312, twenty-eight dated inscriptions have been found; after the peace of the church the number of dated inscriptions increases rapidly. Between the accession of Constantine and the close of the fourth century, his collection contains 450 dated inscriptions, and the fifth century presents about the same number; but in the sixth, the number again declines, that century producing little more than 200.

In those cases where no note of time is marked, M. de Rossi has availed himself of other chronological indications and tests, founded on the language, on the style, on the names, and on the material execution of the inscription, in determining the date. Out of the 11,000 extant Roman inscriptions anterior to the seventh century, M.

de Rossi finds chronological evidence of the date of no fewer than 1374.

There are also varieties in inflection, such as "spiritu sancta" for "spiritu sancto," "pauperorum," for "pauperum," "vocitus" for "vocatus," "requiescent" for "requiesc.u.n.t," etc.

There are also new or unusual terms, or new familiar words in new or unusual meanings, such as "pausavit, rested, bisomus, trisomus, quadrisomus," holding two, three, four bodies; compar and conpar (husband and wife); fecit for egit, _pa.s.sed_; "percepit," received, _scil._ baptism, as also "consecutus est," in the same sense, etc.

Sometimes Latin is written in Greek characters and sometimes Greek in Latin.

The age is expressed by "vixit," or "vixit in saeculo," "annos" (or "annis") "menses," "dies" (or "diebus") ----, with the number of hours sometimes stated. Sometimes "qui fuit" stands for "vixit;" sometimes neither is expressed, and we have the form in the genitive, "sal.

annorum," etc.

Frequently the time pa.s.sed in married life is mentioned, and we find such phrases as "vixit mec.u.m, duravit mec.u.m, vixit in conjugio, fecit mec.u.m, fecit in conjugio, fecit c.u.m compare," with a precise statement of the number of years, etc., and often with some expression marking the happiness of the couple's married life.

The epithets applied to the deceased indicate strong affection, and the eulogies are sometimes extravagant.

The occupation or position in life is stated, with the proper t.i.tles, in many dated Christian epitaphs. But they are all, it is supposed, later than the time of Constantine.

The same designations of the place of burial and of the tomb are found in both Christian and Pagan epitaphs.

Acclamations or expressions of good wishes or prayers to or for the deceased frequently occur in the inscriptions.

The letters also of these inscriptions are usually very irregular.

They are from half an inch to four inches in height, colored in the incision with a pigment resembling Venetian red. The sense, too, of the inscriptions is not always very obvious. An extreme simplicity of language and sentiment is the prevailing characteristic of the earlier inscriptions. But, on the other hand, exaggerated examples of the opposite style are occasionally met with.

Another peculiarity in these Christian inscriptions is the disuse of the three names usually a.s.sumed by the Romans. M. de Rossi has given twenty inscriptions with the names complete, prior to Constantine. Of these, no fewer than seventeen have praenomina, whereas after Constantine praenomina may be said entirely to disappear.

The year is usually indicated by the names of the consuls. The abbreviation COS for "consulibus" was in use up to the middle of the third century, when COSS, CONS, and CONSS began to be adopted; COS is very seldom found during the fourth century, and almost never in the fifth or sixth; COSS fell into disuse about the first quarter of the fifth century, and after that CONS was used; in the time of Diocletian with S for one consul and SS for two. At the same time CC. SS. CS were introduced, but they were very rarely used in the fifth, and there is scarcely an example of them in the sixth. From about the middle of the fourth century CONS began to be placed before instead of after the names, and this usage became the prevalent custom in the fifth and sixth.

At the date of the discovery of the Roman catacombs, the whole body of known Christian inscriptions collected from all parts of Italy fell far short of a thousand in number. Of these, too, not a single one was of subterranean origin, and not dated earlier than A.D. 553. At present the Christian inscriptions of Rome on catacombs alone, and anterior to the sixth century, considerably exceed 11,000. They have been carefully removed from the cemeteries, and are now systematically arranged by M. de Rossi, on the walls of the Christian museum, recently formed by order of Pius IX., in the Lateran Palace. A large number of these inscriptions are also inserted in the walls of the Galleria Lapidaria in the Vatican.

EARLY INSCRIPTIONS.