(1) Moses striking the rock.
(2) Noah and the dove.
(3) The three children in the furnace.
(4) Abraham's sacrifice.
(5) The miracle of the loaves.]
[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Plan of the Catacombs of St John, Syracuse.]
Syracuse.
At Syracuse also there are very extensive catacombs known as "the
Grottos of St John." They are also figured by Agincourt, and described
by Denon (_Voyage en Sicile et Malte_) and Fuhrer. There is an entire
underground city with several storeys of larger and smaller streets,
squares and cross ways, cut out of the rock; at the intersection of the
cross ways are immense circular halls of a bottle shape, like a
glass-house furnace, lighted by air shafts. The galleries are generally
very narrow, furnished on each side with arched tombs, and communicating
with family sepulchral-chambers closed originally by locked doors, the
marks of the hinges and staples being still visible. The walls are in
many places coated with stucco adorned with frescoes, including palms,
doves, labara and other Christian symbols. The ground-plans (figs. 19,
20), from Agincourt, of the catacomb and of one of the circular halls,
show how widely this cemetery differs in arrangement from the Roman
catacombs. The frequency of blind passages and of circular chambers will
be noticed, as well as the very large number of bodies in the cruciform
recesses, apparently amounting in one instance to nineteen. Agincourt
remarks that this cemetery "gives an idea of a work executed with design
and leisure, and with means very different from those at command in
producing the catacombs of Rome."
[Illustration: Fig. 20.--Plan of Circular Hall, Catacombs of St John,
Syracuse. (From Agincourt.)]
Malta.
Taormina.
Denon also describes catacombs at Malta near the ancient capital of the
island. The passages were all cut in a close-grained stone, and are very
narrow, with arched ceilings, running very irregularly, and ramifying in
all directions. The greater part of the tombs stand on either side of
the galleries in square recesses (like the table-tombs of the Roman
catacombs), and are rudely fashioned to imitate sarcophagi. The
interments are not nearly so numerous as in other catacombs, nor are
there any vestiges of painting, sculpture or inscriptions. At Taormina
in Sicily is a Saracenic catacomb, also figured by Agincourt. The main
corridor is 12 ft. wide, having three or more ranges of _loculi_ on
either side, running longitudinally into the rock, each originally
closed by a stone bearing an inscription.
Egypt.
Passing to Egypt, a small Christian catacomb at Alexandria is described
and figured by de Rossi.[7] The _loculi_ here also are set endways to
the passage. The walls are abundantly decorated with paintings, one of a
liturgical character. But the most extensive catacombs at Alexandria are
those of Egypto-Greek origin, from the largest of which, according to
Strabo (lib. xvii. p. 795), the quarter where it is placed had the name
of the Necropolis. The plan, it will be seen, is remarkable for its
regularity (figs. 21, 22). Here, too, the graves run endways into the
rock. Other catacombs in the vicinity of the same city are described by
Pocock and other travellers, and are figured by Agincourt.
[Illustration: Fig. 21--Plan of Catacomb at Alexandria. (From
Agincourt.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Section of a Gallery in Catacomb at Alexandria.
(From Agincourt.)]
Sidon.
Subterranean cemeteries of the general character of those described are
very frequent in all southern and eastern countries. A vast necropolis
in the environs of Saida, the ancient Sidon, is described in Renan's
_Mission en Phenicie_, and figured in Thobois's plates. It consists of a
series of apartments approached by staircases, the sides pierced with
sepulchral recesses running lengthwise into the rock.
[Illustration: Fig. 23.--Plan of a Tomb at Cervetri. (From Dennis.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Section of the Tomb of the Seats and Shields,
Cervetri. (From Dennis.)]
Rocktombs of Etruria.
The rock-hewn tombs of Etruria scarcely come under the category of
catacombs, in the usual sense, being rather independent family
burial-places, grouped together in a necropolis. They are, however, far
too remarkable to be altogether passed over. These sepulchres are
usually hollowed out of the face of low cliffs on the side of a hill.
They often rise tier above tier, and are sometimes all on the same level
"facing each other as in streets, and branching off laterally into
smaller lanes or alleys"; and occasionally forming "a spacious square or
piazza surrounded by tombs instead of houses" (Dennis, _Cities and
Cemeteries of Etruria_, ii. 31). The construction of the tombs commonly
keeps up the same analogy between the cities of the living and those of
the dead. Their plan is for the most part that of a house, with a door
of entrance and passage leading into a central chamber or _atrium_, with
others of smaller size opening from it, each having a stone-hewn bench
or _triclinium_ on three of its sides, on which the dead, frequently a
pair of corpses side by side, were laid as if at a banquet. These
benches are often hewn in the form of couches with pillows at one end,
and the legs carved in relief. The ceilings have the representation of
beams and rafters cut in the rock. In some instances arm-chairs, carved
out of the living rock, stand between the doors of the chambers, and the
walls above are decorated with the semblance of suspended shields. The
walls are often covered with paintings in a very simple archaic style,
in red and black. As a typical example of the Etruscan tombs we give the
plan and section (figs. 23, 24) of the _Grotta detta Sedia_ at Cervetri
from Dennis (pp. 32, 35). The tombs in some instances form subterranean
groups more analogous to the general idea of a catacomb. Of this nature
is the very remarkable cemetery at Poggio Gaiella, near Chiusi, the
ancient Clusium, of a portion of the principal storey of which the
woodcut (fig. 25) is a plan. The most remarkable of these sepulchral
chambers is a large circular hall about 25 ft. in diameter, supported by
a huge cylindrical pillar hewn from the rock. Opening out of this and
the other chambers, and connecting them together, are a series of low
winding passages or _cuniculi_, just large enough for a man to creep
through on all fours. No plausible suggestion has been offered as to the
purpose of these mysterious burrows, which cannot fail to remind us of
the labyrinth which, according to Varro's description as quoted by Pliny
(_Hist. Nat._ lib. xxxvi. c. 19, S 4), was the distinguishing mark of
Porsena's tomb, and which have led some adventurous archaeologists to
identify this sepulchre with that of the great king of Etruria (Dennis,
_u.s._, pp. 393 ff.). (E. V.; O. M. D.)
[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Plan of a portion of the principal storey in
the Poggio Gajella. (From Dennis.)]
_Modern Discoveries_.--In 1873 was discovered, near the cemetery of St
Domitilla, the semi-subterranean basilica of Santi Nereo ed Achilleo,
100 ft. by 60 ft. This is now covered with a roof, and the fallen
columns have been raised up. The lower part of a pillar, which once
supported a baldachino over the altar, still preserves the name
ACILLEUS, and beneath it a bas-relief of the martyr, with his hands
bound, receiving his death-blow from the executioner. The base of a
similar column has only feet in the same attitude, and probably bore the
name NEREUS. In a grave in the apse was found a large fragment of an
inscription, composed by Pope Damasus, but set up by his successor
Siricius, which, from the note-book of a Salzburg pilgrim of the 8th
century, can be completed thus:--
------
Militiae nomen dederant saevum / Q \ ue gerebant
Officium pariter spectantes juss | AIYR \ anni
Praeceptis pulsante metu servi | RE PAR \ ati
Mira fides rerum subito posue | RE FVRORE \ m
Conversi fugiunt ducis impia castr | A RELINQVVNI \
Projiciunt clypeos faleras tel | AQ. CRVENIA |
Confessi gaudent Christi portar | E IRIVMFOS |
Credite per Damasum possit quid | GLORIA CHRISTI |
------------------
Nereus (see Rom. xvi. 15) and Achilleus, said to have been baptized by
St Peter, refused to do the bidding of Domitian as praetorians, and
entering the service of Flavia Domitilla, suffered martyrdom with their
mistress Petronilla, of the Aurelian family closely connected with the
Flavii, and the spiritual daughter of St Peter, who was buried in a
sarcophagus with the inscription:--