Pagan and Christian Rome Part 2

that Pope Symmachus (498-514), while building the basilica of S.

Pancrazio, on the Via Aurelia, _fecit in eadem balneum_, "provided it with a bath." Another was erected by the same Pope near the apse of S. Paolo fuori le Mura, the supply of water of which was originally derived from a spring; later from wheels, or noriahs, established on the banks of the Tiber. Notices were written on the walls of these bathing apartments, warning laymen and priests to observe the strictest rules of modesty. One of these inscriptions, from the baths annexed to the churches of SS. Sylvester and Martin, is preserved in section II. of the Christian epigraphic museum of the Lateran. It ends with the distich:--

NON NOSTRIS NOCET OFFICIIS NEC CULPA LABACRI QUOD SIBIMET GENERAT LUBRICA VITA MALUM EST,--

"There is no harm in seeking strength and purity of body in baths; it is not water but our own bad actions that make us sin." These verses are not so good as their moral; but inscriptions like this prove that the abandonment of such useful inst.i.tutions must be attributed not to the undue severity of Christian morality, but to the ruin of the aqueducts by which fountains and baths were fed. However, even in the darkest period of the Middle Ages we find the traditional "kantharos,"

or basin, in the centre of the quadri-porticoes or courts by which the basilicas were entered. Such is the vase in the court of S. Caecilia, represented on the next page, and that in front of S. Cosimato in Trastevere; and such is the famous _calix marmoreus_, which formerly stood near the church of SS. Apostoli, mentioned in the Bull of John III. (A. D. 570), by which the boundary line of that parish was determined. This historical monument, a prominent landmark in the topography of mediaeval Rome, was removed to the Baths of Diocletian at the beginning of last year.

In many of our churches visitors may have noticed one or more round black stones, weighing from ten to a hundred pounds, which, according to tradition, were tied to the necks of martyrs when they were thrown into wells, lakes, or rivers. To the student these stones tell a different tale. They prove that the cla.s.sic inst.i.tution of the _ponderaria_ (sets of weights and measures) migrated from temples to churches, after the closing of the former, A. D. 393.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Kantharos in the Court of St. Caecilia.]

As the _amphora_ was the standard measure of capacity for wine, the _metreta_ for oil, the _modius_ for grain, so the _libra_ was the standard measure of weight.[26] To insure honesty in trade they were examined periodically by order of the aediles; those found _iniquae_ (short) were broken, and their owners sentenced to banishment in remote islands. In A. D. 167, Junius Rusticus, prefect of the city, ordered a general inspection to be made in Rome and in the provinces; weights and measures found to be legal were marked or stamped with the legend "[Verified] by the authority of Q. Junius Rusticus, prefect of the city." These weights of Rusticus are discovered in hundreds in Roman excavations.[27]

The original standards were kept in the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, and used only on extraordinary occasions. Official duplicates were deposited in other temples, like those of Castor and Pollux, Mars Ultor, Ops, and others, and kept at the disposal of the public, whence their name of _pondera publica_. Barracks and market-places were also furnished with them. The most important discovery connected with this branch of Roman administration was made at Tivoli in 1883, when three _mensae ponderariae_, almost perfect, were found in the portico or peribolos of the Temple of Hercules, adjoining the cathedral of S.

Lorenzo. This wing of the portico is divided into compartments by means of projecting pilasters, and each recess is occupied by a marble table resting on "trapezophoroi" richly ornamented with symbols of Hercules and Bacchus, like the club and the thyrsus. Along the edge of two of the tables runs the inscription, "Made at the expense of Marcus Varenus Diphilus, president of the college of Hercules," while the third was erected at the expense of his wife Varena. The tables are perforated by holes of conical shape, varying in diameter from 200 to 380 millimetres. Bra.s.s measures of capacity were fastened into each hole, for use by buyers and sellers. They were used in a very ingenious way, both as dry and liquid measures. The person who had bought, for instance, half a modius of beans, or twenty-four _s.e.xtarii_ of wine, and wanted to ascertain whether he had been cheated in his bargain, would fill the receptacle to the proper line, then open the valve or spicket below, and transfer the tested contents again to his sack or flask.

The inst.i.tution was accepted by the Church, and _ponderaria_ were set up in the princ.i.p.al basilicas. The best set which has come down to us is that of S. Maria in Trastevere, but there is hardly a church without a "stone" weighing from five or ten to a hundred pounds. The popular superst.i.tion by which these practical objects were transformed into relics of martyrdoms is very old. Topographers and pilgrims of the seventh century speak of a stone exhibited in the chapel of SS.

Abundius and Irenaeus, under the portico of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura, "which, in their ignorance, pilgrims touch and lift." They mention also another weight, exhibited in the church of S. Stephen, near S.

Paul's, which they believed to be one of the stones with which the martyr was killed.

In 1864 a _schola_ (a memorial and banqueting hall) was discovered in the burial grounds adjoining the praetorian camp, which had been used by members of a corporation called the _sodalium serrensium_, that is, of the citizens of Serrae, a city of Samothrake, I believe. Among the objects pertaining to the hall and its customers were two measures for wine, a _s.e.xtarium_, and a _hemina_, marked with the monogram of Christ and the name of the donor.[28] They are now exhibited in the _sala dei bronzi_ of the Capitoline museum.

The hall of the citizens of Serrae, discovered in 1864, belongs to a cla.s.s of monuments very common in the suburbs of Rome. They were called _cellae, memoriae, exedrae_, and _scholae_, and were used by relatives and friends of the persons buried under or near them, in the performance of expiatory ceremonies or for commemorative banquets, for which purpose all the necessaries, from the table-service to the festal garments, were kept on the spot, in cabinets entrusted to the care of a watchman. This practice--save the expiatory offerings--was adopted by the Christians. The _agapai_, or love-feasts, before degenerating into those excesses and superst.i.tions so strongly denounced by the Fathers of the Church, were celebrated over or near the tombs of martyrs and confessors, the treasury of the local congregation supplying food and drink, as well as the banqueting robes. In the inventory of the property confiscated during the persecution of Diocletian, in a house at Cirta (Constantine, Algeria), which was used by the faithful as a church, we find registered, chalices of gold and silver, lamps and candelabras, eighty-two female tunics, sixteen male tunics, thirteen pairs of men's boots, forty-seven pairs of women's shoes, and so on.[29] A remarkable discovery, ill.u.s.trating the subject, has been lately made in the Catacombs of Priscilla; that of a _graffito_ containing this sentence: "February 5, 375, we, Florentinus, Fortunatus, and Felix, came here AD CALICE[M] (for the cup)." To understand the meaning of this sentence, we must compare it with others engraved on pagan tombs. In one, No.

25,861 of the "Corpus," the deceased says to the pa.s.ser-by: "Come on, bring with you a flask of wine, a gla.s.s, and all that is needed for a libation!" In another, No. 19,007, the same invitation is worded: "Oh, friends (_convivae_), drink now to my memory, and wish that the earth may be light on me." We are told by S. Augustine[30] that when his mother, Monica, visited Milan in 384, the practice of eating and drinking in honor of the martyrs had been stopped by S. Ambrose, although it was still flourishing in other regions, where crowds of pilgrims were still going from tomb to tomb with baskets of provisions and flasks of wine, drinking heavily at each station. Paulinus of Nola and Augustine himself strongly stigmatized the abuse. The faithful were advised either to distribute their provisions to the poor, who crowded the entrances to the crypts, or to leave them on the tombs, that the local clergy might give them to the needy. There is no doubt that the record _ad calicem venimus_, scratched by Florentinus, Fortunatus, and Felix on the walls of the Cemetery of Priscilla, refers to these deplorable libations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sample of a Drinking-cup.]

Many drinking-cups used on these occasions have been found in Rome, in my time. They are generally works of the fourth century of our era, cut in gla.s.s by unskillful hands, and they show the portrait-heads of SS. Peter and Paul, in preference to other subjects of the kind. This fact is due not only to the special veneration which the Romans professed for the founders of their church, but also to the habit of celebrating their anniversary, June 29, with public or domestic _agapai_. S. Peter's day was to the Romans of the fourth century what Christmas is to us, as regards joviality and sumptuous banquets. On one of these occasions S. Jerome received from his friend Eustochio fruit and sweets in the shape of doves. In acknowledging the kind remembrance, S. Jerome recommends sobriety on that day more than on any other: "We must celebrate the birthday of Peter rather with exaltation of spirit, than with abundance of food. It is absurd to glorify with the satisfaction of our appet.i.tes the memory of men who pleased G.o.d by mortifying theirs." The poorer cla.s.ses of citizens were fed under the porticoes of the Vatican basilica. The gatherings degenerated into the display of such excesses of drunkenness that Augustine could not resist writing to the Romans: "First you persecuted the martyrs with stones and other instruments of torture and death; and now you persecute their memory with your intoxicating cups."

The inst.i.tution of public granaries (_horrea publica_) for the maintenance of the lower cla.s.ses was also accepted and favored by Christian Rome. On page 250 of my "Ancient Rome," I have spoken of the warehouses for the storage of wheat, built by Sulpicius Galba on the plains of Testaccio, near the Porta S. Paolo, named for him _horrea galbana_, even after their purchase by the state. These public granaries originated at the time of Caius Gracchus and his grain laws.

Their scheme was developed, in course of time, by Clodius, Pompey, Seia.n.u.s, and the emperors, to such an extent that, in 312 A. D., there were registered in Rome alone two hundred and ninety granaries. They may be divided into three cla.s.ses: In the first, and by far the most important, a plentiful supply of breadstuffs was kept at the expense of the state, to meet emergencies of scarcity or famine, and the wants of a population one third of which was fed gratuitously by the sovereign. The second was intended especially for the storage of paper (_horrea chartaria_), candles (_horrea candelaria_), spices (_horrea piperataria_), and other such commodities. The third cla.s.s consisted of buildings in which the citizens might deposit their goods, money, plate, securities, and other valuables for which they had no place of safety in their own houses. There were also private _horrea_, built on speculation, to be let as strong-rooms like our modern vaults, storage-warehouses, and "pantechnicons."

The building of the new quarter of the Testaccio, the region of _horrea_ par excellence, has given us the chance of studying the inst.i.tution in its minutest details. I shall mention only one discovery. We found, in 1885, the official advertis.e.m.e.nt for leasing a _horrea_, under the empire of Hadrian. It is thus worded:--

"To be let from to-day, and hereafter annually (beginning on December 13): These warehouses, belonging to the Emperor Hadrian, together with their granaries, wine-cellars, strong-boxes, and repositories.

"The care and protection of the official watchmen is included in the lease.

"Regulations: I. Any one who rents rooms, vaults, or strong-boxes in this establishment is expected to pay the rent and vacate the place before December 13.

"II. Whoever disobeys regulation No. I., and omits to arrange with the _horrearius_ (or keeper-in-chief) for the renewal of his lease, shall be considered as liable for another year, the rent to be determined by the average price paid by others for the same room, vault, or strong-box. This regulation to be enforced in case the _horrearius_ has not had an opportunity to rent the said room, vault, or strong-box to other people.

"III. Sub-letting is not allowed. The administration will withdraw the watch and the guarantee from rooms, vaults, or strong-boxes which have been sub-let in violation of the existing rules.

"IV. Merchandise or valuables stored in these warehouses are held by the administration as security for payment of rental.

"V. The tenant will not be reimbursed by the administration for improvements, additions, and other such work which he has undertaken on his own account.

"VI. The tenant must give an a.s.signment of his goods to the keeper-in-chief, who shall not be held responsible for the safe-keeping of merchandise or valuables which have not been duly declared. The tenant must claim a receipt for the said a.s.signment and for the payment of his rental."[31]

The granaries of the Church were intended only for the storage of corn. The landed estates which the Church owned in Africa and Sicily were administered by deputies, whose special duty it was to ship the produce of the harvest to Rome. During the first siege of Totila, in 546, Pope Vigilius, then on his way to Constantinople, despatched from the coast of Sicily a fleet of grain-laden vessels, under the care of Valentine, bishop of Silva Candida. The attempt to relieve the city of the famine proved useless, and the vessels were seized by the besiegers on their landing at Porto. In 589 an inundation of the Tiber, described by Gregoire de Tours, carried away several thousand bushels of grain, which had been stored in the _horrea ecclesiae_, and the granaries themselves were totally destroyed.

The "Liber Pontificalis," vol. i. p. 315, describes the calamities which befell the city of Rome in the year 605; King Agilulf trying to enter the city by violence; heavy frosts killing the vines; rats destroying the harvest, etc. However, as soon as the barbarians were induced to retire by an offer of twelve thousand _solidi_, Pope Sabinia.n.u.s, who was then the head of the Church, _iussit aperiri horrea ecclesiae_ (threw open the granaries), and offered their contents at auction, at a valuation of one _solidus_ for thirty _modii_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Granary of Ostia.]

The grain was not intended to be sold, but to be distributed among the needy; the act of Sabinia.n.u.s was, therefore, strongly censured, as being in strong contrast to the generosity of Gregory the Great. A legend on this subject is related by Paulus Diaconus in chapter xxix.

of the Life of Gregory. He says that Gregory appeared thrice to Sabinia.n.u.s, in a vision, entreating him to be more generous; and having failed to move him by friendly advice, he struck him dead. The price of one _solidus_ for thirty _modii_ is almost exorbitant; grain cost exactly one half this at the time of Theodoric.

The inst.i.tution has outlived all the vicissitudes of the Middle Ages.

Gregory XIII., in 1566, Paul V., in 1609, Clement XI., in 1705, re-opened the _horrea ecclesiae_ in the ruined halls of the Baths of Diocletian; and Clement XIII. added a wing to them, for the storage of oil. These buildings are still in existence around the Piazza di Termini, although devoted to other purposes.

It would be impossible to follow in all its manifestations the material and moral transformation of Rome from the third to the sixth centuries, without going beyond the limits of a single chapter.

The customs and practices of the cla.s.sical age were so deeply rooted among the citizens that even now, after a lapse of sixteen centuries, they are noticeable to a great extent. When we read, for instance, of Popes elected by the people a.s.sembled at the Rostra,[32] such as Stephen III., in 768, we must regard the circ.u.mstance as caused by a remembrance of past ages. Under the pontificate of Innocent II.

(1130), of Eugenius III. (1145-1150), and of Lucius III. (1181-1185) the senators, or munic.i.p.al magistrates, used to sit and administer justice in S. Martina and S. Adriano, that is, in the cla.s.sic Roman Curia. Many other details will be incidentally described in the following chapters. I close the present one by referring to a graceful custom, borrowed likewise from the cla.s.sic world,--the use of roses in church or funeral ceremonies and in social life.

The ancients celebrated, in the month of May, a feast called _rosaria_, in which sepulchres were profusely decorated with the favorite flower of the season. Roses were also used on occasions of public rejoicing. A Greek inscription, discovered by Frankel at Pergamon, mentions, among the honors shown to the emperor Hadrian, the _Rhodismos_, which is interpreted as a scattering of roses. Traces of the custom are found in more recent times. In the Illyrian peninsula, and on the banks of the Danube, the country people, still feeling the influence of Roman civilization, celebrated feasts of flowers in spring and summer, under the name of _rousalia_. In the sixth century, when the Slavs were vacillating between the influence of the past and the present, the celebration of the Pentecost was mixed up with that of the half-pagan, half-barbarous _rousalia_. Southern Russians believe in supernatural female beings, called _Rusalky_, who bring prosperity to the fields and forests, which they have inhabited as flowers.

The early Christians decorated the sepulchres of martyrs and confessors, on the anniversary of their interment, with roses, violets, amaranths, and evergreens; and they celebrated the _rosationes_ on the name-days of churches and sanctuaries. Wreaths and crowns of roses are often engraved on tombstones, hanging from the bills of mystic doves. The symbol refers more to the joys of the just in the future life than to the fleeting pleasures of the earth. The Acts of Perpetua relate a legend on this subject; that Saturus had a vision in the dungeon in which he was awaiting his martyrdom, in which he saw himself transported with Perpetua to a heavenly garden, fragrant with roses, and turning to his fair companion, he exclaimed: "Here we are in possession of that which our Lord promised!"

Roses and other flowers are painted on the walls of historical cubiculi. In a fresco of the crypts of Lucina, in the Catacombs of Callixtus, are painted birds, symbolizing souls who have been separated from their bodies, and are playing in fields of roses around the Tree of Life. As the word _Paradeisos_ signifies a garden, so its mystic representation always takes the form of a delightful field of flowers and fruit. Dante gives to the seat of the blessed the shape of a fair rose, inside of which a crowd of angels with golden wings descend and return to the Lord:--

"Nel gran fior discendeva, che s'adorna Di tante foglie: e quindi risaliva, La dove lo suo amor sempre soggiorna."[33]

_Paradiso_, x.x.xi. 10-12.

Possibly it is from this allegory of paradise that the rite of the "golden rose" which the Pope blesses on Quadragesima Sunday is derived. The ceremony is very ancient, although the first mention of it appears only in the life of Leo IX. (1049-1055); and I may mention, as a curious coincidence, that the kings and queens of Navarre, their sons, and the dukes and peers of the realm, were bound to offer roses to the Parliament at the return of spring.

Roses played such an important part in church ceremonies that we find a _fundus rosarius_ given as a present by Constantine to Pope Mark.

The _rosaria_ outlived the suppression of pagan superst.i.tions, and by and by a.s.sumed its Christian form in the feast of Pentecost, which falls in the month of May. In that day roses were thrown from the roofs of churches on the worshipers below. The Pentecost is still called by the Italians _Pasqua rosa_.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The relations between the Empire, the Christians, and the Jews have been discussed by really numberless writers, beginning with the Fathers of the Church. I have consulted, among the moderns: Mangold: _De ecclesia primaeva pro caesaribus et magistratibus romanis preces fundente._ Bonn, 1881.--Bittner: _De Graecorum et Romanorum deque Judaeorum et christianorum sacris jejuniis._ Posen, 1846.--Weiss: _Die romischen Kaiser in ihrem Verhaltnisse zu Juden und Christen._ Wien, 1882.--Mourant Brock: _Rome, Pagan and Papal._ London, Hodder & Co.

1883.--Backhouse and Taylor: _History of the primitive Church._ (Italian edition.) Rome, Loescher, 1890.--Greppo: _Trois memoires relatifs a l'histoire ecclesiastique._--Dollinger: _Christenthum und Kirche._--Champagny (Comte de): _Les Antonins_, vol. i.--Gaston Boissier: _La fin du paganisme_, etc., 2 vols. Paris, Hachette, 1891.--Giovanni Marangoni: _Delle cose gentilesche trasportate ad uso delle chiese._ Roma, Pagliarini, 1744.--Mosheim: _De rebus Christianis ante Constantinum._--Carlo Fea: _Dissertazione sulle rovine di Roma_, in Winckelmann's _Storia delle arti._ Roma, Pagliarini, 1783, vol.

iii.--Louis d.u.c.h.esne: _Le liber pontificalis._ Paris, Thorin, 1886-1892.--G. B. de Rossi: _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana._ Roma, Salviucci, 1863-1891.

[2] See de Rossi: _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, 1888-1889, p.

15; 1890, p. 97.--Edmond Le Blant: _Comptes rendus de l'Acad. des Inscript._, 1888, p. 113.--Arthur Frothingham: _American Journal of Archaeology_, June, 1888, p. 214.--R. Lanciani: _Gli horti Aciliorum sul Pincio_, in the _Bullettino della commissione archeologica_, 1891, p. 132; _Underground Christian Rome_, in the _Atlantic Monthly_, July, 1891.

[3] See Ersilia Lovatelli: _Il Monte Pincio_, in the _Miscellanea archeologica_, p. 211.--Rodolfo Lanciani: _Su gli orti degli Acili sul Pincio_, in the _Bullettino di corrispondenza archeologica_, 1868, p.

132.

[4] A description of the beautiful villa of Herodes, adjoining the Catacombs of Praetextatus, will be found in chapter vi. pp. 287 sqq.

[5] A _consul suffectus_ was one elected as a subst.i.tute in case of the death or retirement of one of the regular consuls.

[6] Lampridius, in _Sev. Alex._, c. 43.