Pagan and Christian Rome Part 20

[128] See:--Pietro Sante Bartoli: _Gli antichi sepolcri_. Roma: de Rossi, 1727.--_Corpus inscriptionum latinarum_, vol. vi., part ii., pp. 1073, 1076.--_Villa Pamphylia, ejusque palatium c.u.m suis prospectibus: statuae, fontes, vivaria_. Romae: fol. max.--Ign.a.z.io Ciampi: _Innocenzo X Pamfili e la sua corte_. Roma: Galeati, 1878.

[129] See:--Otto Jahn: _Die Wandgemalde des Columbariums in der Villa Pamfili_, in the _Abhandlungen der bayerischen Akademie_, 1857.--Eugen Petersen: _Sitzungsberichte des Archaologischen Inst.i.tuts_, Romische Abtheilung, March 18, 1892.

[130] A discovery of the same kind has come within my experience. In 1885, while excavating near the city walls, between the Porta S.

Lorenzo and the Porta Maggiore, we found an amphora of great size, containing the corpse of a little child embedded in lime. He had probably died of a contagious disease. The corpse had been reduced to a handful of tiny bones; and the impression of them was so spoiled by dampness and age that it was found impossible to cast the form of the infant.

[131] _Digest_, ix., 2, 5, -- 3.

[132] See:--_Notizie degli Scavi_, 1884, p. 393.--Henzen: _Bullettino dell' Inst.i.tuto_, 1885, p. 9.--Stevenson: _idem_, 1885, p.

22.--Geffroy: _Melanges de l'Ecole francaise de Rome_, 1885, p. 318, pl. vii-xiii.

[133] See C. Ludovico Visconti: _Il sepolcro del fanciullo Quinto Sulpicio Ma.s.simo._ Roma, 1871.--Wilhelm Henzen: _Sepolcri antichi rinvenuti alla porta salaria_, in the _Bullettino dell' Inst.i.tuto_, 1871, p. 98.--Luigi Ciofi: _Inscriptiones latinae et graecae, c.u.m carmine graeco extemporali Quinti Sulpicii Maximi_. Roma, 1871.--J. Henry Parker: _Tombs in and near Rome_. Oxford, 1877. (Plate X.)

[134] On the subject of this compet.i.tion see:--Suetonius: _Domitian_, 4.--Stefano Morcelli: _Sull' Agone Capitolino_. Dissertazione postuma.

Milano, 1816.--Joachim Marquardt: _Handbuch der romischen Alterthumer_, iv., 453.

[135] See Cesare Lucchesini: _Esame della questione se i latini avessero veri poeti improvvisatori_. Lucca, 1828.

[136] The bibliography on Herodes Atticus and his villa at the second milestone of the Appian Way is so rich that I can mention but a few of the leading works, besides Visconti's.--Claude Saumaise: _Memoires sur la vie d'Herodes Atticus_, in _Academie des inscriptions et belles lettres_, x.x.x. p. 25; _Corpus inscriptionum graecarum:_ vol. iii.

no. 6280, p. 924.--Wilhelm Dittenberger: _Die Familie des Herodes Atticus_.--Richard Burgess: _Description of the Circus on the Via Appia_. Italian translation, p. 89. Rome, 1829.--Ludovico Bianconi: _Descrizione dei circhi e particolarmente di quello di Caracalla_.

Roma, 1786.--Antonio Nibby: _Del circo volgarmente detto di Caracalla_. Roma, 1825.

[137] When Maxentius repaired the Appian Way in 309, one of these commemorative columns was converted into a milestone, the seventh from the Porta Capena. The column was removed in the Middle Ages to the Church of S. Eusebio on the Esquiline, where it was seen and purchased, at the beginning of the last century, by cardinal Alessandro Albani. It now belongs to the Capitoline Museum.

[138] _I comentari di Frontino intorno le acque e gli acquedotti_: Opera premiata dalla r. Accademia dei Lincei col premio reale di lire 10,000. Roma, Salviucci, 1880.

[139] Among the modern writers on the subject are:--Christian Hulsen: _Die Auffindung der romischen Leiche vom Jahre_ 1485, in the _Mittheilungen des Inst.i.tuts fur osterreichische Geschichtforschung_, Band iv., Heft 3.--J. Addington Symonds: _History of the Renaissance_, i. 23.--Giovanni Antonio Riccy: _Dell' antico pago Lemonio_. Roma, 1802 (p. 109).--Gregorovius: _Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter_, vii., 3, p. 571.--_Corpus inscriptionum latinarum_, vol.

vi., no. 20,634.

Contemporary doc.u.ments:--Stefano Infessura: _Diario_, edited by Tommasini. Rome, 1890.--Notarius a Nantiportu: in _Cod. Vatic._, 6,823, f. 250.--Raffaele Maffei da Volterra (Volterra.n.u.s, born 1451, died 1522): _Commentarii rerum Urbanarum_, column 954 of the Lyons edition, 1552.--Bartolomeo Fonte (Humanist, born 1445, died 1513): letter to Francesco Sa.s.setto, published by Janitschek: _Gesells. der Renaissance_, p. 120.--Letter from Laur Pehem, dated April 15, 1475, in the _Cod. Munich_, 716 (among the papers collected by Hartman Schedel).--Copy of a letter from messer Daniele da San Sebastiano to Giacomo di Maphei, citizen of Verona, in the _Cod. Marciano_ (Venice), xiv. 267.--Alexander ab Alexandro (born at Naples, 1461, died in Rome, 1523): _Genialium Dierum_, iii. 2.--Fragment of the diary of Antonio di Vaseli (1481-1486), in the _Archives of the Vatican_, Armar. XV.

fasc. 41.--Fragment of the diary of Corona (first entry Jan. 30, 1481; last July 25, 1492) in the possession of H. D. Grissel, Esq.--Anonym ap. Mountfaucon, _Diarium Italic.u.m_, xi. 157.

[140] Sponges are most frequently found in the _cistae_ at Palestrina, which were nothing else but toilet-boxes. I have had the opportunity of examining the contents of twelve of them, lately discovered. These include sponges, combs of various kinds and shapes, hairpins, wooden boxes with movable lids, still full of excellent powders, cosmetics, and ointments, and other articles of the _mundus muliebris_.

CHAPTER VII.

CHRISTIAN CEMETERIES.[141]

Sanct.i.ty of tombs guaranteed to all creeds alike.--The Christians' preference for underground cemeteries not due to fear at first.--Origin and cause of the first persecutions.--The att.i.tude of Trajan towards the Christians, and its results.--The persecution of Diocletian.--The history of the early Christians ill.u.s.trated by their graves.--The tombs of the first century.--The catacombs.--How they were named.--The security they offered against attack.--Their enormous extent.--Their gradual abandonment in the fourth century.--Open-air cemeteries developed in proportion.--The Goths in Rome.--Their pillage of the catacombs.--Thereafter burial within the city walls became common.--The translation of the bodies of martyrs.--Pilgrims and their itineraries.--The catacombs neglected from the ninth to the sixteenth century.--Their discovery in 1578.--Their wanton treatment by scholars of that time.--Artistic treasures found in them.--The catacombs of Generosa.--The story of Simplicius, Faustina and Viatrix.--The cemetery of Domitilla.--The Christian Flavii buried there.--The basilica of Nereus, Achilleus and Petronilla.--The tomb of Ampliatus.--Was this S. Paul's friend?--The cemetery 'ad catac.u.mbas."--The translation of the bodies of SS. Peter and Paul.--The types of the Saviour in early art.--The cemetery of Cyriaca.--Discoveries made there.--Inscriptions and works of art.--The cemetery "ad duas Lauros."--Frescoes in it.--The symbolic supper.--The discoveries of Monsignor Wilpert.--The Academy of Pomponio Leto.

The Roman law which established the inviolability of tombs did not make exceptions either of persons or creeds. Whether the deceased had been pious or impious, a worshipper of Roman or foreign G.o.ds, or a follower of Eastern or barbaric religions, his burial-place was considered by law a _locus religiosus_, as inviolable as a temple. In this respect there was no distinction between Christians, pagans, and Jews; all enjoyed the same privileges, and were subject to the same rules. It is not easy to decide whether this condition of things was an advantage to the faithful. It was certainly advantageous to the Church that her cemeteries should be considered sacred by the law, and that the State itself should enforce and guarantee the observance of the rules (_lex monumenti_) made by the deceased in connection with his interment, and tomb; but as the police of cemeteries, and the enforcement of the _leges monumentorum_, was intrusted to the college of high priests, who were stern champions of paganism, the church was liable to be embarra.s.sed in many ways. When, for instance, a body had to be transferred from its temporary repository to the tomb, it was necessary to obtain the consent of the _pontifices_; which was also required in case of subsequent removals, and even of simple repairs to the building. Roman epitaphs constantly refer to this authority of the pontiffs, and one of them, discovered by Ficoroni in July, 1730, near the Porta Metronia, contains the correspondence exchanged on the subject between the two parties. The pet.i.tioner, Arrius Alphius, a favorite freedman of the mother of Antoninus Pius, writes to the high priests: "Having lost at the same time wife and son, I buried them temporarily in a terra-cotta coffin. I have since purchased a burial lot on the left side of the Via Flaminia, between the second and the third milestones, and near the mausoleum of Silius Orcilus, and furnished it with marble sarcophagi. I beg permission of you, my Lords, to transfer the said bodies to the new family vault, so that when my hour shall come, I may be laid to rest beside the dear ones."

The answer was: "Granted (_fieri placet_). Signed by me, Juventius Celsus, vice-president [of the college of pontiffs], on the 3d day of November [A. D. 155]."

The greatest difficulty with which the Christians had to deal was the obligation to perform expiatory sacrifices in given circ.u.mstances; as, for instance, when a corpse was removed from one place to another, or when a coffin, damaged by any accidental cause, such as lightning, inundation, fire, earthquake, or violence, had to be opened and the bones exposed to view. But these were exceptional cases; and there is no doubt that the magistrates of Rome were naturally lenient and forbearing in religious matters, except in time of persecution. The partiality shown by early Christians for underground cemeteries is due to two causes: the influence which Eastern customs and the example of the burial of Christ must necessarily have exercised on them, and the security and freedom which they enjoyed in the darkness and solitude of their crypts. Catacombs, however, could not be excavated everywhere, the presence of veins or beds of soft volcanic stone being a condition _sine qua non_ of their existence. Cities and villages built on alluvial or marshy soil, or on hills of limestone and lava, were obliged to resort to open-air cemeteries. In Rome itself these were not uncommon. Certainly there was no reason why Christians should object to the authority of the pontiffs in hygienic and civic matters.

This authority was so deeply rooted and respected, that the emperor Constans (346-350), although a stanch Christian and anxious to abolish idolatry, left the pontiffs full jurisdiction over Christian and pagan cemeteries, by a const.i.tution issued in 349.[142]

From apostolic times to the persecution of Domitian, the faithful were buried, separately or collectively, in private tombs which did not have the character of a Church inst.i.tution. These early tombs, whether above or below ground, display a sense of perfect security, and an absence of all fear or solicitude. This feeling arose from two facts: the small extent of the cemeteries, which secured to them the rights of private property, and the protection and freedom which the Jewish colony in Rome enjoyed from time immemorial. The Romans of the first century, populace as well as government officials, made no distinction between the proselytes of the Old Testament and those of the New.

Julius Caesar and Augustus treated the Jews with kindness, and when S.

Paul arrived in Rome the colony was living in peace and prosperity, practising religion openly in its Transtiberine synagogues.[143] The same state of things prevailed throughout the peninsula. Thus the rabbi or archon of the synagogue at Pompeii called the _Synagoga Libertinorum_ (the existence of which was discovered in September, 1764), could take, in virtue of his office, an active part in city politics and petty munic.i.p.al quarrels, and in his official capacity could sign a doc.u.ment recommending the election of a candidate for political honors, as is shown by one of the Pompeian inscriptions:--

CUSPIUM PANSAM aeD[_ilem fieri rogat_] FABIUS EUPOR PRINCEPS LIBERTINORUM.[144]

The persecution which took place under Claudius was really the first connected with the preaching of the gospel. According to Suetonius (Claud. 25) the Jews themselves were the cause of it, having suddenly become uneasy, troublesome, and offensive, _impulsore Chresto_, that is to say, on account of Christ's doctrine, which was beginning to be preached in their synagogues. The expression used by Suetonius shows how very little was known at the time about the new religion. Although Christ's name was not unknown to him, he speaks of this outbreak under Claudius as having been stirred up personally by a certain Chrestus, as though he were a living member of the Jewish colony. At that early stage the converts to the gospel were identified by the Romans with the Jews, not by mistake or error of judgment, but because they were legally and actually Jews, or rather one Jewish sect which was carrying on a dogmatic war against the others, on a point which had no interest whatever in the eyes of the Romans,--that is, the advent of the Messiah. This statement is corroborated by many pa.s.sages in the Acts, such as xviii. 15; xxiii. 29; xxv. 9; xxvi. 28, 32; xxviii. 31.

Claudius Lysias writes to the governor of Judaea that Paul was accused by his fellow-citizens, not of crimes deserving punishment, but on some controversial point concerning their law. In Rome itself the apostle could preach the gospel with freedom, even when in custody, or under police supervision.[145] And as it was lawful for a Roman citizen to embrace the Jewish persuasion, and give up the religion of his fathers, he was equally free to embrace the Evangelic faith, which was considered by the pagans a Jewish sect, not a new belief.

The pagans despised them both, and mixed themselves up with their affairs only from a fiscal point of view, because the Jews were subject to a tax of two drachms per head, and the treasury officials were obliged to keep themselves acquainted with the statistics of the colony.

This state of things did not last very long, it being of vital importance for the Jews to separate their cause from that of the new-comers. The responsibility for the persecutions which took place in the first century must be attributed to them, not to the Romans, whose tolerance in religious matters had become almost a state rule.

The first attempt, made under Claudius, was not a success: it ended, in fact, with the banishment from the capital of every Jew, no matter whether he believed in the Old or the New Testament. _Judaeos, impulsore Chresto a.s.sidue tumultuantes, Claudius Romae expulit_ (Suetonius: Claud. 25). It was, however, a pa.s.sing cloud. As soon as they were allowed to come back to their Transtiberine haunts, the Jews set to work again, exciting the feelings of the populace, and denouncing the Christians as conspiring against the State and the G.o.ds, under the protection of the law which guaranteed to the Jews the free exercise of their religion. The populace, impressed by the conquests made by the gospel among all cla.s.ses of citizens, was only too ready to believe the calumny. The Church, repudiated by her mother the Synagogue, could no longer share the privileges of the Jewish community. As for the State, it became a necessity either to recognize Christianity as a new legal religion, or to proscribe and condemn it.

The great fire, which destroyed half of Rome under Nero, and which was purposely attributed to the Christians, brought the situation to a crisis. The first persecution began. Had the magistrate who conducted the inquiry been able to prove the indictment of arson, perhaps the storm would have been short, and confined to Rome; but as the Christians could easily exculpate themselves, the trial was changed from a criminal into a politico-religious one. The Christians were convicted not so much of arson (_non tam crimine incendii_) as of a hatred of mankind (_odio generis humani_); a formula which includes anarchism, atheism, and high treason. This monstrous accusation once admitted, the persecution could not be limited to Rome; it necessarily became general, and more violent in one place or another, according to the impulse of the magistrate who investigated this entirely unprecedented case.

Was the hope of a legal existence lost forever to the Church? After Nero's death, and the condemnation of his acts and memory, the Christians enjoyed thirty years of peace. Domitian broke it, first, by claiming with unprecedented severity the tribute from the Jews and those "living a Jewish life;"[146] secondly, by putting the "atheists," that is, the Christians, to the alternative of giving up their faith or their life. These measures were abolished shortly after by Nerva, who sanctioned the rule that in future no one should be brought to justice under the plea of impiety or Judaism. The answer given by Trajan to Pliny the younger, when governor of Bithynia, is famous in the annals of persecutions. To the inquiries made by the governor, as to the best way of dealing with those "adoring Christ for their G.o.d," Trajan replied, that the magistrate should not molest them at his own initiative; but if others should bring them to justice, and convict them of impiety and atheism, they deserved punishment.[147]

These words contain the solemn recognition of the illegality of Christian worship; they make persecution a rule of state. The faithful were doomed to have no respite for the next two centuries, except what they could obtain at intervals from the personal kindness and tolerance of emperors and magistrates. Those of the Jewish religion continued to enjoy protection and privileges, but Christianity was either persecuted or tolerated, as it happened; so that, even under emperors who abhorred severity and bloodshed, the faithful were at the mercy of the first vagrant who chanced to accuse them of impiety.

Strange to say, more clemency was shown towards them by emperors whom we are accustomed to call tyrants, than by those who are considered models of virtue. The author of the "Philosophumena" (book ix., ch.

11) says that Commodus granted to Pope Victor the liberation of the Christians who had been condemned to the mines of Sardinia by Marcus Aurelius. Thus that profligate emperor was really more merciful to the Church than the philosophic author of the "Meditations," who, in the year 174, had witnessed the miracle of the Thundering Legion. The reason is evident. The wise rulers foresaw the destructive effect of the new doctrines on pagan society, and indirectly on the empire itself; whereas those who were given over to dissipation were indifferent to the danger; "after them, the deluge!"

At the beginning of the third century, under the rule of Caracalla and Elagabalus, the Church enjoyed nearly thirty years of peace, interrupted only by the short persecution of Maximus, and by occasional outbreaks of popular hostility here and there.[148]

In 249 the "days of terror" returned, and continued fiercer than ever under the rules of Decius, Gallus, and Valeria.n.u.s. The last persecution, that of Diocletian and his colleagues, was the longest and most cruel of all. For the s.p.a.ce of ten years not a day of mercy shone over the _ecclesia fidelium_. The historian Eusebius, an eye-witness, says that when the persecutors became tired of bloodshed, they contrived a new form of cruelty. They put out the right eyes of the confessors, cut the tendon of their left legs, and then sent them to the mines, lame, half blind, half starved, and flogged nearly to death. In book VIII., chapter 12, the historian says that the number of sufferers was so great that no account could be kept of them in the archives of the Church. The memory of this decade of horrors has never died out in Rome. We have still a local tradition, not altogether unfounded, of ten thousand Christians who were condemned to quarry materials for Diocletian's Baths, and who were put to death after the dedication of the building.

Towards the end of 306, Maxentius stopped the persecution, but the true era of peace did not begin before 312, which is the date of Constantine's famous "edict of Milan," granting to the Church liberty and free possession of her places of worship and cemeteries forever.

The events of which I have given a summary sketch are beautifully ill.u.s.trated by the discoveries which have been made in early Christian cemeteries, from May 31, 1578, which is the date of the discovery of the first catacomb, to the present day.

From the time of the apostles to the first persecution of Domitian, Christian tombs, whether above or below ground, were built with perfect impunity and in defiance of public opinion. We have been accustomed to consider the catacombs of Rome as crypts plunged in total darkness, and penetrating the bowels of the earth at unfathomable depths. This is, in a certain measure, the case with those catacombs, or sections of catacombs, which were excavated in times of persecution; but not with those belonging to the first century. The cemetery of these members of Domitian's family who had embraced the gospel--such as Flavius Clemens, Flavia Domitilla, Plautilla, Petronilla, and others--reveals a bold example of publicity.

The entrance to the crypt, discovered in 1714 and again in 1865, near the farmhouse of Tor Marancia, at the first milestone of the Via Ardeatina, is hewn out of a perpendicular cliff, which is conspicuous from the high road (the modern Via delle Sette Chiese). The crypt is approached through a vestibule, which was richly decorated with terra-cotta carvings, and, on the frieze, a monumental inscription enclosed by an elaborate frame. No pagan mausolea of the Via Appia or the Via Latina show a greater sense of security or are placed more conspicuously than this early Christian tomb. The frescoes on the ceiling of the vestibule, representing biblical scenes, such as Daniel in the lions' den, the history of Jonah, etc., were exposed to daylight, and through the open door could be seen by the pa.s.ser. No precaution was taken to conceal these symbolic scenes from profane or hostile eyes. We regret the loss of the inscription above the entrance, which, besides the name of the owner of the crypt, probably contained the _lex monumenti_, and a formula specifying the religion of those buried within. In this very catacomb, a few steps from the vestibule, an inscription has been found, in which a Marcus Aurelius Rest.i.tutus declares that he has built a tomb for himself and his relatives (_sibi et suis_), provided they were believers in Christ (_fidentes in Domino_). Another tombstone, discovered in 1864, in the Villa Patrizi, near the catacombs of Nicomedes, states that none might be buried in the tomb to which it was attached except those who belonged to the creed (_pertinentes ad religionem_) of the founder.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Entrance to the Crypt of the Flavians.]

The time soon came when these frank avowals of Christianity were either impossible or extremely hazardous; and although legally a tomb continued to be a _locus religiosus_, no matter what the creed of the deceased had been, a vague sense of anxiety was felt by the Church, lest even these last refuges should be violated by the mob and its leaders. Hence the extraordinary development which underground cemeteries underwent towards the end of the first and the beginning of the second century. These catacombs were considered by the law to be the property of the citizen who owned the ground above, and who either excavated them at his own cost, or gave the privilege of doing so to the Church. This is the reason why the names of our oldest suburban cemeteries are derived, not from the ill.u.s.trious saints buried in them, but from the owner of the property under which the catacomb was first excavated. Balbina, Callixtus, Domitilla were never laid to rest in the catacombs which bear their names. Praetextatus, Ap.r.o.nia.n.u.s, the Jordans, Novella, Pontia.n.u.s, and Maximus, after whom other cemeteries were named, are all totally unknown persons. When these cemeteries became places of worship and pilgrimage, after the Peace of Constantine, the old names which had sheltered them from the violence of persecutors were abandoned, and replaced by those of local martyrs.

Thus the catacomb of Domitilla became that of Nereus and Achilleus; that of Balbina was named for S. Mark; that of Callixtus for SS.

Sixtus and Caecilia; and that of Maximus for S. Felicitas.

One characteristic of Christian epigraphy shows what a comparatively safe place the catacombs were. Inscriptions belonging to them never contain those requests to the pa.s.ser to respect the tomb, which are so frequent in sepulchral inscriptions from tombs above-ground, and which sometimes, on Christian as well as pagan graves, take the form of an imprecation. An epitaph discovered by Hamilton near Eumenia, Phrygia, contains this rather violent formula: "May the pa.s.ser who damages my tomb bury all his children at the same time." In another, found near the church of S. Valeria, in Milan, the imprecation runs: "May the wrath of G.o.d and of his Christ fall on the one who dares to disturb the peace of our sleep."

The safety of the catacombs was not due to the fact that their existence was known only to the proselytes of Christ. The magistrates possessed a thorough knowledge of their location, number, and extent; and we have evidence of raids and descents by the police on extraordinary occasions, as, for instance, during the persecutions of Valerian and Diocletian. The ordinary entrances to the catacombs, which were known to the police, were sometimes walled up or otherwise concealed, and new secret outlets opened through abandoned pozzolana quarries (_arenariae_). Some of these outlets have been discovered, or are to be seen, in the cemeteries of Agnes, Thrason, Callixtus, and Castulus. In May, 1867, while excavating on the southern boundary line of the Cemetery of Callixtus, de Rossi found himself suddenly confronted with sandpits, the galleries of which came in contact with those of the cemetery several times. The pa.s.sage from one to the other had been most ingeniously disguised by the _fossores_, as those who dug the catacombs were called.[149]

The defence of these cemeteries in troubled times must have caused great anxiety to the Church. Tertullian tells how the population of Carthage, excited against the Christians, sought to obtain from Hilaria.n.u.s, governor of Africa, the destruction of their graves. "Let them have no burial-ground!" (_areae eorum non sint_) was the rallying cry of the mob.

The catacombs are unfit for men to live in, or to stay in even for a few days. The tradition that Antonio Bosio spent seventy or eighty consecutive hours in their depths is unfounded. When we hear of Popes, priests, or their followers seeking refuge in catacombs, we must understand that they repaired to the buildings connected with them, such as the lodgings of the keepers, undertakers, and local clergymen.

Pope Boniface I., when molested by Symmachus and Eulalius, found shelter in the house connected with the Cemetery of Maximus on the Via Salaria. The crypts themselves were sought as a refuge only in case of extreme emergency. Thus Barbatia.n.u.s, a priest from Antiochia, concealed himself in the Catacombs of Callixtus to escape the wrath of Galla Placidia.