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διορθῶσαι or ϹΥΝΑΓΩΓ (Greek)
שָׁלוֹם (Hebrew)
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THE CATACOMBS OF ROME.
THE
CATACOMBS OF ROME,
AND
Their Testimony Relative to Primitive Christianity.
BY THE REV.
W. H. WITHROW, M.A.
_WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS._
London:
HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
27, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCLXXXVIII.
Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Ld. Printers, London and Aylesbury.
PREFACE. 5
The present work, it is hoped, will supply a want long felt in the
literature of the Catacombs. That literature, it is true, is very
voluminous; but it is for the most part locked up in rare and costly
folios in foreign languages, and inaccessible to the general reader.
Recent discoveries have refuted some of the theories and corrected
many of the statements of previous books in English on this subject;
and the present volume is the only one in which the latest results of
exploration are fully given, and interpreted from a Protestant point
of view.
The writer has endeavored to illustrate the subject by frequent pagan
sepulchral inscriptions, and by citations from the writings of the
Fathers, which often throw much light on the condition of early
Christian society. The value of the work is greatly enhanced, it is
thought, by the addition of many hundreds of early Christian
inscriptions carefully translated, a very large proportion of which
have never before appeared in English. Those only who have given some
attention to epigraphical studies can conceive the difficulty of this
part of the work. The defacements of time, and frequently the original
imperfection of the inscriptions and the ignorance of their writers,
demand the utmost carefulness to avoid errors of interpretation. The 6
writer has been fortunate in being assisted by the veteran scholarship
of the Rev. Dr. McCaul, well known in both Europe and America as one
of the highest living authorities in epigraphical science, under whose
critical revision most of the translations have passed. Through the
enterprise of the publishers this work is more copiously illustrated,
from original and other sources, than any other work on the subject in
the language; thus giving more correct and vivid impressions of the
unfamiliar scenes and objects delineated than is possible by any mere
verbal description. References are given, in the foot-notes, to the
principal authorities quoted, but specific acknowledgment should here
be made of the author’s indebtedness to the Cavaliere De Rossi’s
_Roma Sotterranea_ and _Inscriptiones Christianæ_, by far
the most important works on this fascinating but difficult subject.
Believing that the testimony of the Catacombs exhibits, more
strikingly than any other evidence, the immense contrast between
primitive Christianity and modern Romanism, the author thinks no
apology necessary for the somewhat polemical character of portions of
this book which illustrate that fact. He trusts that it will be found
a contribution of some value to the historical defense of the truth
against the corruptions and innovations of Popish error.
CONTENTS. 7
Book First.
THE STRUCTURE AND HISTORY OF THE CATACOMBS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE STRUCTURE OF THE CATACOMBS 11
II. THE ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE CATACOMBS 49
III. THE DISUSE AND ABANDONMENT OF THE CATACOMBS 120
IV. THE REDISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF THE CATACOMBS 150
V. THE PRINCIPAL CATACOMBS 164
Book Second.
THE ART AND SYMBOLISM OF THE CATACOMBS.
I. EARLY CHRISTIAN ART 203
II. THE SYMBOLISM OF THE CATACOMBS 225
III. THE BIBLICAL PAINTINGS OF THE CATACOMBS 282
IV. OBJECTS FOUND IN THE CATACOMBS 362
Book Third.
THE INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CATACOMBS.
I. GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE INSCRIPTIONS 395
II. THE DOCTRINAL TEACHINGS OF THE INSCRIPTIONS 415
III. EARLY CHRISTIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER AS READ IN
THE CATACOMBS 453
IV. MINISTRY, RITES, AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE PRIMITIVE
CHURCH AS INDICATED IN THE CATACOMBS 506
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 8
Fig. Page
1. Entrance to Catacomb of St. Priscilla 12
2. Entrance to Catacomb of St. Prætextatus 16
3. Part of Callixtan Catacomb 17
4. Gallery with Tombs 18
5. Interior of Corridor 20
6. Loculi--Open and Closed 23
7. Tomb of Valeria 24
8. Arcosolium with Perforated Slab 25
9. Plan of Double Chamber 26
10. Section of Gallery and Cubicula 27
11. Suite of Chambers 28
12. Vaulted Chamber with Columns 29
13. Cubiculum with Arcosolia 30
14. Section of Catacomb of Callixtus 32
15. Cubicula with Luminare 35
16. Gallery in St. Hermes 42
17. Part of Wall of Gallery in St. Hermes 42
18. Slab in Jewish Catacomb 51
19. Epitaph of Martyrus 66
20. Reputed Martyr Symbol 77
21. Epitaph of Lannus, a Martyr 98
22. Secret Stairway in Catacomb of Callixtus 101
23. Diogenes the Fossor 133
24. Fossor at Work 134
25. Tombs on Appian Way 165
26. Plan of Area in Callixtan Catacomb 171
27. Plan of Crypt of St. Peter and St. Paul 187
28. Crypt of St. Peter and St. Paul 188
29. Section of Catacomb of Helena 191
30. Entrance to Catacomb of St. Agnes 195
31. Mithraic Painting 216
32. Leaf Point 227
33. Phonetic Symbol--Leo 229
34. Phonetic Symbol--Porcella 230
35. Phonetic Symbol--Nabira 230
36. Wool-comber’s Implements 231
37. Carpenter’s Implements 231
38. Vine Dresser’s Tomb 232
39. Symbolical Anchor 234
40. Symbolical Ship 235
41. Symbolical Palm and Crown 236
42. Symbolical Doves 237
43. Symbolical Dove 238
44. Doves and Vase 238
45. Locus Primi 238
46. Symbolical Peacock 240
47. The Good Shepherd 245
48. Good Shepherd with Syrinx 246
49. Symbolical Lamb 249
50. Symbolical Fish 255 9
51. Symbolical Fish 256
52. Fish and Anchor 256
53. Fish and Dove 256
54. Eucharistic Symbol 256
55. Constantinian Monogram 265
56. Early Christian Seal 266
57. Various Forms of Monogram 267
58. Epitaph of Tasaris 267
59. Opisthographæ 268
60. Early Christian Seal 270
61. Monogram and Cross 270
62. The Temptation and Fall 284
63. Adam and Eve Receiving their Sentence 285
64. Noah in the Ark 286
65. Noah in the Ark 287
66. Noah in the Ark, from Sarcophagus 287
67. Apamean Medal 288
68. Sacrifice of Isaac 289
69. Sacrifice of Isaac 289
70. Moses on Horeb 290
71. Moses Receiving the Law 290
72. Moses and the Baskets of Manna 291
73. Moses Striking the Rock 291
74. Moses Striking the Rock 291
75. The Sufferings of Job 293
76. Ascension of Elijah 295
77. The Three Hebrew Children 296
78. The Three Hebrew Children 297
79. The Three Hebrew Children 298
80. Daniel in the Lions’ Den 299
81. The Story of Jonah 300
82. Jonah, Moses, and Oranti 301
83. Jonah and the Great Fish 302
84. Noah and Jonah 302
85. Jonah’s Gourd 304
86. Adoration of Magi 305
87. Adoration of Magi 306
88. Orante 309
89. Supposed Madonna 311
90. Earliest Madonna 312
91. Christ with the Doctors 324
92. Christ and the Woman of Samaria 325
93. Paralytic Carrying Bed 325
94. Woman with Issue of Blood 326
95. Miracle of Loaves and Fishes 327
96. Opening the Eyes of the Blind 327
97. Christ Blessing a Little Child 328
98. Lazarus (rude) 330
99. Lazarus (in fresco) 330
100. Lazarus (in relief) 331
101. Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem 331
102. Peter’s Denial of Christ 332
103. Pilate Washing his Hands 333
104. Sculptured Sarcophagus 334
105. Painted Chamber 339
106. Oldest Extant Head of Christ (mosaic) 347
107. God Symbolized by a Hand 356
108. God as Pope 359
109. Domestic Group in Gilt Glass 366
110. Reputed Martyr Relic 371
111. Reputed Martyr Symbol 371
112. Symbolical Lamp 377
113. Symbolical Lamp 378
114. Vases from the Catacombs 381
115. Amphora from the Catacombs 382 10
116. Earthen and Metal Vessels 383
117. Early Christian Ring 385
118. Early Christian Seal 385
119. Impressions of Seals 386
120. Children’s Toys 387
121. Statue of Good Shepherd 390
122. Epitaph of Gemella 401
123. Epitaph of Ligurius Successus 402
124. Epitaph of Domitius 402
125. Epitaph Inverted 404
126. Epitaph Reversed 404
127. Epitaph of Cassta 405
128. Triple Epitaph 405
129. Belicia 500
130. Chamber with Catechumens’ Seats 531
131. Baptismal Font 537
132. Baptism of Our Lord 538
133. Baptismal Scene 539
134. Fresco of Early Christian Agape 546
BOOK FIRST. 11
STRUCTURE AND HISTORY OF THE CATACOMBS.
CHAPTER I.
STRUCTURE OF THE CATACOMBS.
“Among the cultivated grounds not far from the city of Rome,” says the
Christian poet Prudentius, “lies a deep crypt, with dark recesses. A
descending path, with winding steps, leads through the dim turnings,
and the daylight, entering by the mouth of the cavern, somewhat
illumines the first part of the way. But the darkness grows deeper as
we advance, till we meet with openings, cut in the roof of the
passages, admitting light from above. On all sides spreads the
densely-woven labyrinth of paths, branching into caverned chapels and
sepulchral halls; and throughout the subterranean maze, through
frequent openings, penetrates the light.”[1]
[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Entrance to the Catacomb of St. Priscilla.] 12
This description of the Catacombs in the fourth century is equally
applicable to their general appearance in the nineteenth. Their main
features are unchanged, although time and decay have greatly impaired
their structure and defaced their beauty. These Christian cemeteries
are situated chiefly near the great roads leading from the city, and,
for the most part, within a circle of three miles from the walls. From
this circumstance they have been compared to the “encampment of a
Christian host besieging Pagan Rome, and driving inward its mines and
trenches with an assurance of final victory.” The openings of the 13
Catacombs are scattered over the Campagna, whose mournful desolation
surrounds the city; often among the mouldering mausolea that rise,
like stranded wrecks, above the rolling sea of verdure of the
tomb-abounding plain.[2] On every side are tombs--tombs above and
tombs below--the graves of contending races, the sepulchres of
vanished generations: “_Piena di sepoltura è la Campagna_.”[3]
How marvelous that beneath the remains of a proud pagan civilization
exist the early monuments of that power before which the myths of
paganism faded away as the spectres of darkness before the rising sun,
and by which the religion and institutions of Rome were entirely
changed.[4] Beneath the ruined palaces and temples, the crumbling
tombs and dismantled villas, of the august mistress of the world, we
find the most interesting relics of early Christianity on the face of
the earth. In traversing these tangled labyrinths we are brought face
to face with the primitive ages; we are present at the worship of the
infant Church; we observe its rites; we study its institutions; we
witness the deep emotions of the first believers as they commit their
dead, often their martyred dead, to their last long resting-place; we
decipher the touching record of their sorrow, of the holy hopes by 14
which they were sustained, of “their faith triumphant o’er their
fears,” and of their assurance of the resurrection of the dead and the
life everlasting. We read in the testimony of the Catacombs the
confession of faith of the early Christians, sometimes accompanied by
the records of their persecution, the symbols of their martyrdom, and
even the very instruments of their torture. For in these halls of
silence and gloom slumbers the dust of many of the martyrs and
confessors, who sealed their testimony with their blood during the
sanguinary ages of persecution; of many of the early bishops and
pastors of the Church, who shepherded the flock of Christ amid the
dangers of those troublous times; of many who heard the words of life
from teachers who lived in or near the apostolic age, perhaps from the
lips of the apostles themselves. Indeed, if we would accept ancient
tradition, we would even believe that the bodies of St. Peter and St.
Paul were laid to rest in those hallowed crypts--a true _terra
sancta_, inferior in sacred interest only to that rock-hewn sepulchre
consecrated evermore by the body of Our Lord. These reflections will
lend to the study of the Catacombs an interest of the highest and
intensest character.
It is impossible to discover with exactness the extent of this vast
necropolis on account of the number and intricacy of its tangled
passages. That extent has been greatly exaggerated, however, by the
monkish _ciceroni_, who guide visitors through these subterranean
labyrinths.[5] There are some forty-two of these cemeteries in all now
known, many of which are only partially accessible. Signor Michele De 15
Rossi, from an accurate survey of the Catacomb of Callixtus, computes
the entire length of all the passages to be eight hundred and
seventy-six thousand _mètres_, or five hundred and eighty-seven
geographical miles, equal to the entire length of Italy, from Ætna’s
fires to the Alpine snows.
The entrance to the abandoned Catacomb is sometimes a low-browed
aperture like a fox’s burrow, almost concealed by long and tangled
grass, and overshadowed by the melancholy cypress or gray-leaved ilex.
Sometimes an ancient arch can be discerned, as at the Catacomb of St.
Priscilla,[6] or the remains of the chamber for the celebration of the
festivals of the martyrs, as at the entrance of the Cemetery of St.
Domitilla. In a few instances it is through the crypts of an ancient
basilica, as at St. Sebastian, and sometimes a little shrine or
oratory covers the descent, as at St. Agnes,[7] St. Helena,[8] and St.
Cyriaca. In all cases there is a stairway, often long and steep,
crumbling with time and worn with the feet of pious generations. The
following illustration shows the entrance to the Catacomb of St.
Prætextatus on the Appian Way, trodden in the primitive ages by the
early martyrs and confessors, or perhaps by the armed soldiery of the
oppressors, hunting to earth the persecuted flock of Christ. Here,
too, in mediæval times, the martial clang of the armed knight may have
awaked unwonted echoes among the hollow arches, or the gliding 16
footstep of the sandaled monk scarce disturbed the silence as he
passed. In later times pilgrims from every land have visited, with
pious reverence or idle curiosity, this early shrine of the Christian
faith.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Entrance to St. Prætextatus.]
The Catacombs are excavated in the volcanic rock which abounds in the
neighborhood of Rome. It is a granulated, grayish _breccia_, or
_tufa_, as it is called, of a coarse, loose texture, easily cut
with a knife, and bearing still the marks of the mattocks with which
it was dug. In the firmer volcanic rock of Naples the excavations are
larger and loftier than those of Rome; but the latter, although they
have less of apparent majesty, have more of funereal mystery. The
Catacombs consist essentially of two parts--corridors and chambers, or
_cubicula_. The corridors are long, narrow and intricate passages,
forming a complete underground net-work. They are for the most part 17
straight, and intersect each other at approximate right angles. The
accompanying map of part of the Catacomb of Callixtus will indicate
the general plan of these subterranean galleries.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Part of Catacomb of Callixtus.]
[Illustration: Fig. 4.--Gallery with Tombs.]
The main corridors vary from three to five feet in width, but the
lateral passages are much narrower, often affording room for but
one person to pass. They will average about eight feet in height, 18
though in some places as low as five or six, and in others, under
peculiar circumstances, reaching to twelve or fifteen feet. The
ceiling is generally vaulted, though sometimes flat; and the floor,
though for the most part level, has occasionally a slight incline, or
even a few steps, caused by the junction of areas of different levels,
as hereafter explained. The walls are generally of the naked _tufa_,
though sometimes plastered; and where they have given way are
occasionally strengthened with masonry. At the corners of these
passages there are frequently niches, in which lamps were placed, 19
without which, indeed, the Catacombs must have been an impenetrable
labyrinth. Cardinal Wiseman recounts a touching legend of a young girl
who was employed as a guide to the places of worship in the Catacombs
because, on account of her blindness, their sombre avenues were as
familiar to her accustomed feet as the streets of Rome to others.
Both sides of the corridors are thickly lined with _loculi_ or graves,
which have somewhat the appearance of berths in a ship, or of the
shelves in a grocer’s shop; but the contents are the bones and ashes
of the dead, and for labels we have their epitaphs. Figure 4 will
illustrate the general character of these galleries and _loculi_.
The following engraving, after a sketch by Maitland, shows a gallery
wider and more rudely excavated. On the right hand is seen a passage
blocked up with stones, as was frequently done, to prevent accident.
The daylight is seen pouring in at the further end of the gallery, as
described by Prudentius,[9] and rendering visible the rifled graves.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Interior of Corridor.]
It is evident that the principle followed in the formation of these
galleries and _loculi_ was the securing of the greatest amount of
space for graves with the least excavation. Hence the passages are
made as narrow as possible. The graves are also as close together as
the friable nature of the _tufa_ will permit, and are made to suit the
shape of the body, narrow at the feet, broader at the shoulders, and
often with a semi-circular excavation for the head, so as to avoid any
superfluous removal of _tufa_. Sometimes the _loculi_ were made large
enough to hold two, three, or even four bodies, which were often
placed with the head of one toward the feet of the other, in order to 20
economize space. These were called _bisomi_, _trisomi_, and
_quadrisomi_, respectively. The graves were apparently made as
required, probably with the corpse lying beside them, as some
unexcavated spaces have been observed traced in outline with chalk or
paint upon the walls. Almost every inch of available space is
occupied, and sometimes, though rarely, graves are dug in the floor. 21
The _loculi_ are of all sizes, from that of the infant of an hour to
that of an adult man. But here, as in every place of burial, the vast
preponderance of children’s graves is striking. How many blighted buds
there are for every full-blown flower or ripened fruit!
Sometimes the _loculi_ were excavated with mathematical precision. An
example occurs in the Cemetery of St. Cyriaca, where at one end of a
gallery is a tier of eight small graves for infants, then eight,
somewhat larger, for children from about seven to twelve, then seven
more, apparently for adult females, and lastly, a tier of six for
full-grown men, occupying the entire height of the wall. Generally,
however, a less regular arrangement was observed, and the graves of
the young and old were intermixed, without any definite order.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to compute the number of graves in
these vast cemeteries. Some seventy thousand have been counted, but
they are a mere fraction of the whole, as only a small part of this
great necropolis has been explored. From lengthened observation Father
Marchi estimates the average number of graves to be ten, five on each
side, for every seven feet of gallery. Upon this basis he computed the
entire number in the Catacombs to be seven millions! The more accurate
estimate of their extent made by Sig. Michele De Rossi would allow
room for nearly four millions of graves, or, more exactly, about three
million eight hundred and thirty-one thousand.[10] This seems almost
incredible; but we know that for at least three hundred years, or for 22
ten generations, the entire Christian population of Rome was buried
here. And that population, as we shall see, was, even at an early
period, of considerable size. In the time of persecution, too, the
Christians were hurried to the tomb in crowds. In this silent city of
the dead we are surrounded by a “mighty cloud of witnesses,” “a
multitude which no man can number,” whose names, unrecorded on earth,
are written in the Book of Life. For every one who walks the streets
of Rome to-day are hundreds of its former inhabitants calmly sleeping
in this vast encampment of death around its walls--“each in his narrow
cell forever laid.”[11] Till the archangel awake them they slumber.
“It is scarcely known,” says Prudentius, “how full Rome is of buried
saints--how richly her soil abounds in holy sepulchres.”
These graves were once all hermetically sealed by slabs of marble, or
tiles of _terra cotta_. The former were generally of one piece,
which fitted into a groove or mortice cut in the rock at the grave’s
mouth, and were securely cemented to their places, as, indeed, was
absolutely necessary, from the open character of the galleries in
which the graves were placed. Sometimes fragments of heathen
tombstones or altars were used for this purpose. The tiles were
generally smaller, two or three being required for an adult grave.
They were arranged in panels, and were cemented with plaster, on which
a name or symbol was often rudely scratched with a trowel while soft,
as in the following illustration. Most of these slabs and tiles have 23
disappeared, and many of the graves have long been rifled of their
contents. In others may still be seen the mouldering skeleton of what
was once man in his strength, woman in her beauty, or a child in its
innocence and glee. The annexed engraving exhibits two graves, one of
which is partially open, exposing the skeleton which has reposed on
its rocky bed for probably over fifteen centuries.
[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Loculi--Open and Closed.]
If these bones be touched they will generally crumble into a white,
flaky powder. D’Agincourt copied a tomb (Fig. 7) in which this “dry
dust of death” still retained the outline of a human skeleton. Verily,
“_Pulvis et umbra sumus._” Sometimes, however, possibly from some
constitutional peculiarity, the bones remain quite firm notwithstanding
the lapse of so many centuries. De Rossi states that he has assisted 24
at the removal of a body from the Catacombs to a church two miles
distant without the displacement of a single bone.[12] The age of the
deceased and the nature of the ground also affect the condition in
which the remains are found. Of the bodies of children nothing but
dust remains. Where the _pozzolana_ is damp, the bones are often well
preserved; and where water has infiltrated, a partial petrifaction
sometimes occurs.[13] Campana describes the opening of a hermetically
sealed sarcophagus, which revealed the undisturbed body clad in
funeral robes, and wearing the ornaments of life; but while he gazed
it suddenly dissolved to dust before his eyes. Sometimes the
sarcophagus was placed behind a perforated slab of marble, as shown in
the following example, given by Maitland. The lower part of the slab
is broken.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.--Valeria Sleeps in Peace.]
[Illustration: Fig. 8.--Arcosolium with Perforated Slab.]
The other essential constituent of the Catacombs, besides the
galleries already described, consists of the _cubicula_.[14] These are
chambers excavated in the _tufa_ on either side of the galleries, with 25
which they communicate by doors, as seen in Fig. 4. These often bear
the character of family vaults, and are lined with graves, like the
corridors without. They are generally square or rectangular, but
sometimes octagonal or circular. They were probably used as mortuary
chapels, for the celebration of funeral service, and for the
administration of the eucharist near the tombs of the martyrs on the
anniversaries of their death. They were too small to be used for
regular worship, except perhaps in time of persecution. They are often
not more than eight or ten feet square. Even the so-called “Papal
Crypt,” a chamber of peculiar sanctity, is only eleven by fourteen
feet; and that of St. Cecilia adjoining it, one of a large size, is 26
less than twenty feet square. Even the largest would not accommodate
more than a few dozen persons. These chambers are generally facing one
another on opposite sides of a gallery, as in the annexed plan of two
_cubicula_ in the Catacomb of Callixtus.
[Illustration: Fig. 9.--Plan of Double Chamber.]
It is thought that in the celebration of worship one of these chambers
was designed for men and the other for women. Sometimes separate
passages to the chapels and distinct entrances to the Catacombs seem
intended to facilitate this separation of the sexes. Sometimes three,
or even as many as five, _cubicula_, as in one example in the
Catacomb of St. Agnes, were placed on the same axial line, and formed 27
one continuous _suite_ of chambers. The accompanying section of
what is known as “The Chapel of Two Halls,” in the Catacomb of St.
Prætextatus, illustrates this: A is the main gallery, D a large
_cubiculum_ known as “The Women’s Hall,” to the right, and to the left
B, a hexagonal vaulted room with a smaller chamber, C, opening from
it. The length of the entire range from G to F, according to the
accurate measurement of M. Perret, is twenty-three and a half
_mètres_, or nearly seventy-seven feet. The larger engraving (Fig. 11)
gives a perspective view looking toward the left of the hexagonal
chamber, (D. Fig. 10,) and the smaller one, C, opening from it. By
means of these connected chambers the Christians were enabled in times
of persecution to assemble for worship in these “dens and caves of the
earth,” surrounded by the slumbering bodies of the holy dead.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.--Section of Gallery and Cubicula.]
[Illustration: Fig. 11.--Perspective of Lower Chamber in Fig. 9.] 28
[Illustration: Fig. 12.--Vaulted Chamber with Columns.]
The _cubicula_ had vaulted roofs, and were sometimes plastered or
cased with marble and paved with tiles, or, though rarely, with
mosaic. These, however, were generally additions of later date than
the original construction, as were also the semi-detached columns in
the angles, with stucco capitals and bases, as indicated in Fig. 9,
and shown more clearly in the following engraving, which is a
perspective view of the lower chamber in Fig. 9. The walls and ceiling 29
were often covered with fresco paintings, frequently of elegant design,
to be hereafter described.[15] Sometimes, as in some examples in the
Catacomb of St. Agnes, _tufa_ or marble seats are ranged around the
chamber, and chairs are hewn out of the solid rock.[16] These chambers
were used probably for the instruction of catechumens. Occasionally
the _cubiculum_ terminates in a semicircular recess, as in the upper
chamber in Fig. 9. These probably gave rise to the _apse_ in early
Christian architecture, of which a good example is found in the Church
of St. Clement, one of the most ancient Christian edifices in Rome.
Niches and shelves for lamps, an absolute necessity in the perpetual
darkness that there reigns, frequently occur, such as may be seen in
Italian houses to-day. Without the least authority, some Roman
Catholic writers have described these as closets for priestly 30
vestments and shelves for pictures.
[Illustration: Fig. 13.--Cubiculum with Arcosolia.]
A peculiar form of grave common in these chambers, as well as in the
galleries, is that known as the _arcosolium_, or arched tomb. It
consists of a recess in the wall, having a grave, often double or
triple, excavated in the _tufa_, or built with masonry, like a solid
sarcophagus, and closed with a marble slab. These are seen in the
plan, Fig. 9, in the section, Fig. 10, at G and E in Fig. 15, and in
perspective in Figs. 11 and 12. Sometimes the recess is rectangular
instead of arched, and is then called by De Rossi _sepolcro a mensa_,
or table tomb. Sometimes the arch was segmental, especially when
constructed of masonry.[17] An example of both sorts is seen in the
accompanying engraving of a _cubiculum_ in the Catacomb of St.
Prætextatus. The narrow door into the corridor is also seen, and the
stucco capitals and bases of the columns. In course of time these
_arcosolia_ were used as altars for the celebration of the eucharist, 31
and eventually grave abuses arose from the superstitious veneration
paid to the relics of the martyr or confessor interred therein.
Frequently, also, the back of this arched recess was pierced with
graves of a later date, often directly through a painting,[18] in
order to obtain a resting place near the bodies of the saints.
[Illustration: Fig. 14.--Section of the Catacomb of Callixtus.]
Hitherto only one level of the Catacombs has been described, but
frequently “beneath this depth there is a lower deep,” or even three
or four tiers of galleries, excavated as the upper ones became filled
with graves. Thus there are sometimes as many as five stories, or
_piani_, as they are called, one beneath the other. These are
carefully maintained horizontal, to avoid breaking through the floor
of the one above or the roof of the one below, the danger of which
would be very great if the strict level were departed from. For the
same reason the different _piani_ were generally separated by a thick
stratum of solid _tufa_. The relative position of these levels is
shown by the following engraving, reduced from De Rossi. It represents
a section of the Crypt of St. Lucina, a part of the Cemetery of
Callixtus. The dark colored stratum, marked I in the margin, is
entirely made up of the _débris_ of ancient monuments, buildings, and
other materials accumulated in the course of ages in this place to the
depth of eight feet. It has completely buried the ancient roads,
except where excavated, as shown in the engraving. The next stratum,
II, is of solid grayish _tufa_. In this the first level or _piano_,
φ, is excavated. It is not more than twenty feet below the surface,
and in many places only half that depth. Consequently its area is
comparatively limited, because if extended it would have run out
into the open air, from the sloping of the ground in which it is 32
dug. The next stratum, III, is softer and more easily worked, and
therefore is that in which are found the most important and extensive
_piani_ of galleries. The cross sections P and X, and the longitudinal
section U, will show how the lower surface of the more solid stratum
above was made the ceiling of these galleries, in order to lessen the
danger of its falling. At B will be observed the employment of masonry
to strengthen the crumbling walls of the friable _tufa_. The descent 33
of a few steps, some of which have been worn away, will also be
noticed at U. At IV a more rocky stratum is found, called _tufa
lithoide_, below which the ancient fossors[19] had to go to find
suitable material for the excavation of the third _piano_. This was
found in stratum V, in which are two _piani_ at different levels. The
lower one is not vertically beneath that here represented above it,
but at some little distance. It is here shown, to exhibit at one view
a section of all the stories of this Catacomb. The upper _piano_, _g_,
consists of low and narrow galleries, but the lower one, marked Γ Γ Γ,
seventy-one feet beneath the surface of the ground, is of great
extent. Several of the _loculi_, it will be perceived, are built of
masonry, in consequence of the crumbling nature of the soil. The three
large _arcosolia_ will also be observed. The floor of this _piano_
rests on a somewhat firmer stratum, in which is still another level of
galleries, Ω Ω Ω, ten feet lower down. This lower level is generally
subject to inundation by water, in consequence of the periodical
rising of the adjacent Almone, the level of which is shown at a depth
of one hundred and four feet, and that of the Tiber at one hundred and
thirty-one feet, below the surface.
To secure immunity from dampness, which would accelerate decomposition
and corrupt the atmosphere, the Catacombs were generally excavated in
high ground in the undulating hills around the city, never crossing
the intervening depressions or valleys. There is, therefore, no
connection between the different cemeteries except where they happen
to be contiguous, nor, as has been asserted, with the churches of
Rome. Where a Catacomb has been excavated in low ground, as in the 34
exceptional case of that of Castulo on the Via Labicana, the water has
rendered it completely inaccessible.
Access to these different _piani_ is gained by stairways, which
are sometimes covered with tile or marble, or built with masonry, or
by shafts. The awful silence and almost palpable darkness of these
deepest dungeons is absolutely appalling. They are fitly described by
the epithet applied by Dante to the realms of eternal gloom: _loco
d’ogni luce muto_--a spot mute of all light. Here death reigns
supreme. Not even so much as a lizard or a bat has penetrated these
obscure recesses. Nought but skulls and skeletons, dust and ashes, are
on every side. The air is impure and deadly, and difficult to breathe.
“The cursed dew of the dungeon’s damp” distills from the walls, and a
sense of oppression, like the patriarch’s “horror of great darkness,”
broods over the scene.
[Illustration: Fig. 15.--Section of Cubicula with Luminare.]
The Catacombs were ventilated and partially lighted by numerous
openings variously called _spiragli_, or breathing-holes, and
_luminari_, or light-holes. They were also probably used for the
removal of the excavated material from those parts remote from the
entrance. They were even more necessary for the admission of air than
of light. Were it not for these the number of burning lamps, the
multitude of dead bodies, no matter how carefully the _loculi_ were
cemented, and the opening of _bisomi_, or double graves, for
interments, would create an insupportable atmosphere. They were
generally in the line of junction between two _cubicula_, a branch of
the _luminare_ entering each chamber, as shown in the accompanying
section of a portion of the Catacomb of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter.
Sometimes, indeed, four, or even more, _cubicula_ were ventilated and
partially lighted by the same shaft. De Rossi mentions one _luminare_
in the recently discovered Cemetery of St. Balbina, which is not 35
square but hexagonal, or nearly so, and which divides into eight
branches, illumining as many separate chambers or galleries. Sometimes
a funnel-shaped _luminare_ reaches to the lowest _piano_; but from the
faint rays that feebly struggle to those gloomy depths there comes “no
light, but rather darkness visible.” In the upper levels, however,
some _cubicula_ are well lighted by large openings. The brilliant
Italian sunshine to-day lights up the pictured figures on the wall as
it must have illumined with its strong Rembrandt light the fair brow
of the Christian maiden, the silvery hair of the venerable pastor, or
the calm face of the holy dead waiting for interment in those early
centuries so long ago. These _luminari_ are often two feet square at
the top, and wider as they descend; sometimes they are cylindrical in
shape, as in the Catacomb of St. Helena.[20] The external openings, 36
often concealed by grass and weeds, are very numerous throughout the
Campagna near the city, and are often dangerous to the unwary rider.
In almost every vineyard between the Pincian and Salarian roads they
may be found, and through them an entrance into the Catacombs may
frequently be effected. After the persecution had ceased, and there
was no longer need for concealment, their number was increased, and
they were made of a larger size, and frequently lined with masonry, or
plastered and frescoed. In the Catacombs of St. Agnes and of Callixtus
are several in a very good state of preservation.
We have already seen the contemporary account of the Catacombs by
Prudentius, in the fourth century. Jerome also describes their
appearance at the same period in words which are almost equally
applicable to-day. “When I was a boy, being educated at Rome,” he
says, “I used every Sunday, in company with others of my own age and
tastes, to visit the sepulchres of the apostles and martyrs, and to go
into the crypts dug in the heart of the earth. The walls on either
side are lined with bodies of the dead, and so intense is the darkness
as to seemingly fulfill the words of the prophet, ‘They go down alive
to Hades.’ Here and there is light let in to mitigate the gloom. As we
advance the words of the poet are brought to mind: ‘Horror on all
sides; the very silence fills the soul with dread.’”[21]
It must not be supposed that the features above described are always 37
perfectly exhibited. They are often obscured and obliterated by the
lapse of time, and by earthquakes, inundations, and other destructive
agencies of nature. The stairways are often broken and interrupted,
and the corridors blocked up by the falling in of the roof, where it
has been carried too near the surface, or by the crumbling of the
walls, and sometimes apparently by design during the age of
persecution. The rains of a thousand winters have washed tons of earth
down the _luminari_, destroyed the symmetry of the openings, and
completely filled the galleries with _débris_. The natural dampness of
the situation, and the smoke of the lamps of the early worshipers, or
the torches of more recent visitors, and sometimes incrustations of
nitre, have impaired or destroyed the beauty of many of the paintings.
The hand of the spoiler has in many cases completed the work of
devastation. The rifled graves and broken tablets show where piety or
superstition has removed the relics of the dead, or where idle
curiosity has wantonly mutilated their monuments.
The present extent of the Catacombs is the result, not of primary
intention, but of the contact of separate areas of comparatively
limited original size, and the inosculation, as it were, of their
distinct galleries. This is apparent from the fact that this contact
and junction sometimes take place between areas of different levels,
causing a break in their horizontal continuity, like the “faults” or
dislocations common in geological strata. Sometimes, too, this
junction between two adjacent areas takes place through a tier of
graves, and evidently formed no part of the original design. These
separate areas were originally, as we shall see in the following
chapter, private burial places in the vineyards of wealthy Christian
converts, and were early made available for the interment of the 38
poorer members of the infant Church. In accordance with a common Roman
usage the ground thus set apart for the purpose of sepulture was
placed under the protection of the law, and was accurately defined, to
secure it from trespass or violation. While the protection of the law
was enjoyed, the excavations were strictly confined within the limits
of these areas, and lower _piani_ were dug rather than transgress
the boundary. But when that protection was withdrawn the galleries
were horizontally extended, often for the purpose of facilitating
escape, and connections were made with adjacent areas, till the whole
became an intricate labyrinth of passages and chambers. These areas
are still further distinguished by certain peculiarities in the
inscriptions, _cubicula_, and paintings, and were greatly modified by
subsequent constructions.
It has till recently been thought that the Catacombs were originally
excavations made by the Romans for the extraction of sand and other
building material, and afterward adopted by the Christians as places
of refuge, and eventually of sepulture and worship. This opinion was
founded on a few misunderstood classical allusions and statements in
ancient ecclesiastial writers, and on a misinterpretation of certain
accidental features of the Catacombs themselves. It was held,
nevertheless, by such eminent authorities as Baronius, Severano,
Aringhi, Bottari, D’Agincourt, and Raoul-Rochette. Padre Marchi first
rejected this theory of construction, and the brothers De Rossi have
completely refuted it. An examination of the material in which these
sand pits and stone quarries and the Catacombs were respectively
excavated, as well as of their structural differences, will show their
entirely distinct character.
The surface of the Campagna, especially of that part occupied by the 39
Catacombs, is almost exclusively of volcanic origin. The most ancient
and lowest stratum of this igneous formation is a compact conglomerate
known as _tufa lithoide_. It was extensively quarried for building,
and the massive blocks of the Cloaca Maxima and the ancient wall of
Romulus attest the durability of its character. Upon this rest
stratified beds of volcanic ashes, pumice, and scoria, often
consolidated with water, but of a substance much less firm than that
of the _tufa lithoide_, and called _tufa granolare_. In insulated
beds, rarely of considerable extent, in this latter formation, occurs
another material, known as _pozzolana_. It consists of volcanic ashes
deposited on dry land, and still existing in an unconsolidated
condition. This is the material of the celebrated Roman cement, which
holds together to this day the massy structures of ancient Rome. It
was conveyed for building purposes as far as Constantinople, and the
pier on the Tiber from which it was shipped is still called the Porto
di Pozzolana. It is in these latter deposits exclusively that the
_arenaria_, or sand pits, are found. The _tufa granolare_ is too firm,
and contains too large a proportion of earth, to use as sand, and is
yet too friable for building purposes. Yet it is in this material,
entirely worthless for any economic use, that the Catacombs are almost
exclusively excavated; while the _tufa lithoide_ and the _pozzolana_
are both carefully avoided where possible, the one as too hard and the
other as too soft for purposes of Christian sepulture. Sometimes,
indeed, as at the cemeteries of St. Pontianus and St. Valentinus, for
special reasons, Catacombs were excavated in less suitable material;
but still the substance removed--a shelly marl--was economically
useless, and the galleries had to be supported by solid masonry. The
_tufa granolare_, on the contrary, was admirably adapted for the 40
construction of these subterranean cemeteries. It could be easily dug
with a mattock, yet was firm enough to be hollowed into _loculi_
and chambers; and its porous character made the chambers dry and
wholesome for purposes of assembly, which was of the utmost importance
in view of the vast number of bodies interred in these recesses.
The differences of structure between the quarries or _arenaria_
and the Catacombs are no less striking. To this day, the vast grottoes
from which the material for the building of the Coliseum was hewn,
most probably by the Jewish prisoners of Titus, may still be seen on
the Coelian hill. It is said that in those gloomy vaults were kept
the fierce Numidian lions and leopards whose conflicts with the
Christian martyrs furnished the savage pastime of the Roman
amphitheatre. But nothing can less resemble the narrow and winding
passages of the Catacombs than those tremendous caverns.
Nor is there any greater resemblance in the excavations of the
_arenaria_. These are large and lofty vaults, from sixteen to twenty
feet wide, the arch of which often springs directly from the floor, so
as to give the largest amount of sand with the least labour of
excavation. The object was to remove as much material as possible;
hence there was often only enough left to support the roof. The
spacious passages of the _arenaria_ run in curved lines, avoiding
sharp angles, so as to allow the free passage of the carts which
carried away the excavated sand. In the Catacombs, on the contrary, as
little material as possible was removed; hence the galleries are
generally not more than three, or sometimes only two, feet wide, and
run for the most part in straight lines, often crossing each other at
quite acute angles, so that only very narrow carts can be used in
cleaning out the accumulated _débris_ of centuries--a very tedious 41
process, which greatly increases the cost of exploration. The walls,
moreover, are always vertical, and the roof sometimes quite flat, or
only slightly arched. The wide difference in the principle of
construction is obvious. The great object in the Catacombs has been to
obtain the maximum of wall-surface, for the interment of the dead in
the _loculi_ with which the galleries are lined throughout, with the
minimum of excavation. The structural difference will at once be seen
by comparing the irregular windings of the small _arenarium_
represented in the upper part of Figs. 3 and 26 with the straight and
symmetrical galleries of the adjacent Catacomb. Connected with the
Catacomb of St. Agnes is an extensive _arenarium_, whose spacious,
grotto-like appearance is very different from that of the narrow
sepulchral galleries beneath. In the floor of this _arenarium_ is a
square shaft leading to the Catacomb, in which Dr. Northcote
conjectures there was formerly a windlass for removing the excavated
material. There are also footholes, for climbing the sides of the
shaft, cut in the solid _tufa_, perhaps as a means of escape in the
time of persecution. This _arenarium_, which was probably worked out
and abandoned long before its connection with the Catacomb, may have
been employed as a masked entrance to its crypts, when the more public
one could not be safely used. Its spacious vaults may also have been a
receptacle for the broken _tufa_ removed from the galleries beneath.
[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Gallery in St. Hermes.]
[Illustration: Fig. 17.--Part of Wall of Gallery in St. Hermes.]
Many of these _arenaria_ may be observed excavated in the
hill-sides near Rome; but except when incidentally forming part of a
Catacomb, they have never been found to contain a single grave.
Indeed, in consequence of the utter unfitness of the _pozzolana_
for the purposes of Christian sepulture, the intrusion of a deposit 42
of that material into the area of a Catacomb prevented the extension
or necessitated the diversion of its galleries. Moreover, where the
attempt has been made to convert an _arenarium_ into a Christian
cemetery, the changes which have been made show conclusively its
original unfitness for the latter purpose. The accompanying section of
a gallery in the Catacomb of St. Hermes will exhibit the structural
additions necessary to adopt an _arenarium_ for Christian sepulture.
The sides of the semi-eliptical vault had to be built up with
brick-work, leaving only a narrow passage in the middle. The _loculi_
were spaces left in the masonry, in which the mouldering skeletons may
still be seen. The openings were closed with slabs in the usual
manner, as shown in the elevation, (Fig. 17,) except at the top, where
they cover the grave obliquely, like the roof of a house. The vault is
often arched with brick-work, and at the intersection of the galleries 43
has sometimes to be supported by a solid pier of masonry. In part of
an ancient _arenarium_ converted into a cemetery in the Catacomb of
St. Priscilla similar constructions may be seen. The long walls and
numerous pillars of brick-work concealing and sustaining the _tufa_,
and the irregular windings of the passages, show at once the vast
difference between the _arenarium_ and the Catacomb, and the immense
labour and expense required to convert the former into the latter.
It has been urged in objection to this theory, that the difficulty of
secretly disposing of at least a hundred millions of cubic feet of
refuse material taken from the Catacombs must have been exceedingly
great, unless it could be removed under cover of employment for some
economic purpose. It will be shown, however, that secrecy was not
always necessary, as has been assumed, but that, on the contrary, the
Christian right of sepulture was for a long time legally recognized by
the Pagan Emperors; and that the Catacombs continued to be publicly
used for a considerable time after the establishment of Christianity
on the throne of the Cæsars. During the exacerbations of persecution
there is evidence that the excavated material was deposited in the
galeries already filled with graves, or, as we have seen, in the
spacious vaults of adjacent _arenaria_. If the Catacombs were merely
excavations for sand or stone, as has been asserted, we ought to find
many of their narrow galleries destitute of tombs, and many of the
_arenaria_ containing them; whereas every yard of the former is
occupied with graves, and not a single grave is found in the latter,
nor do they contain a single example of a mural painting or
inscription. The conclusion is irresistible that the Catacombs proper
were created exclusively for the purpose of Christian burial, and in 44
no case were of Pagan construction.
The erroneous theory here combated has arisen, as we have said,
chiefly from certain classical allusions to the _arenaria_, and from
passages in the ancient ecclesiastical records describing the burial
places of the martyrs, as _in cryptis arenariis_, _in arenario_, or
_ad arenas_. Some of these localities, however, have been identified
beyond question, and found to consist merely of a sandy kind of rock,
and not at all of the true _pozzolana_. In others a vein of
_pozzolana_ does actually occur in the Catacombs, or they are
connected with ancient _arenaria_, as at St. Agnes and at Calixtus. In
the other instances the localities are either yet unrecognized, or the
expression merely implies that the cemetery was _near_ the sand
pits--_juxta arenarium_, or _in loco qui dicitur ad Arenas_.
The mere technical description of the Catacombs, however, gives no
idea of the thrilling interest felt in traversing their long-drawn
corridors and vaulted halls. As the pilgrim to this shrine of the
primitive faith visits these chambers of silence and gloom,
accompanied by a serge-clad, sandaled monk,[22] he seems like the
Tuscan poet wandering through the realms of darkness with his shadowy
guide.
“Ora sen’ va per un segreto calle
Tra l’ muro della terra.”[23]
His footsteps echo strangely down the distant passages and hollow
vaults, dying gradually away in the solemn stillness of this valley of
the shadow of death. The graves yawn weirdly as he passes, torch in 45
hand. The flame struggles feebly with the thickening darkness, vaguely
revealing the unfleshed skeletons on either side, till its redness
fades to sickly white, like that _fioco lume_,[24] that pale light, by
which Dante saw the crowding ghosts upon the shores of Acheron. Deep
mysterious shadows crouch around, and the dim perspective, lined with
the sepuchral niches of the silent community of the dead, stretch on
in an apparently unending vista. The very air seems oppressive and
stifling, and laden with the dry dust of death. The vast extent and
population of this great necropolis overwhelm the imagination, and
bring to mind Petrarch’s melancholy line--
“Piena di morti tutta la campagna.”[25]
Almost appalling in its awe and solemnity is the sudden transition
from the busy city of the living to the silent city of the dead; from
the golden glory of the Italian sunlight to the funereal gloom of
these sombre vaults. The sacred influence of the place subdues the
soul to tender emotions. The fading pictures on the walls and the
pious epitaphs of the departed breathe on every side an atmosphere of
faith and hope, and awaken a sense of spiritual kinship that overleaps
the intervening centuries. We speak with bated breath and in whispered
tones, and thought is busy with the past. It is impossible not to feel
strangely moved while gazing on the crumbling relics of mortality
committed ages ago, with pious care and many tears, to their last,
long rest.
“It seems as if we had the sleepers known.”[26]
We see the mother, the while her heart is wrung with anguish, laying 46
on its stony bed--rude couch for such a tender thing--the little form
that she had cherished in her warm embrace. We behold the persecuted
flock following, it may be, the mangled remains of the faithful pastor
and valiant martyr for the truth, which at the risk of their lives
they have stealthily gathered at dead of night. With holy hymns,[27]
broken by their sobs, they commit his mutilated body to the grave,
where after life’s long toil he sleepeth well. We hear the Christian
chant, the funeral plaint, the pleading tones of prayer, and the words
of holy consolation and of lofty hope with which the dead in Christ
are laid to rest. A moment, and--the spell is broken, the past has
vanished, and stern reality becomes again a presence. Ruin and
desolation and decay are all around.
The exploration of these worse than Dædalian labyrinths is not
unattended with danger. That intrepid investigator, Bosio, was several
times well nigh lost in their mysterious depths. That disaster really
happened to M. Roberts, a young French artist, whose adventure has
been wrought into an exciting scene in Hans Andersen’s tale, “The
Improvisatore,” and forms an episode in the Abbé de Lille’s poem,
“_L’Imagination_.” Inspired by the enthusiasm of his profession, he
attempted to explore one of the Catacombs, with nothing but a torch
and a thread for a guide. As he wandered on through gallery and
chamber, he became so absorbed in his study that, unawares, the thread
slipped from his hand. On discovering his loss he tried, but in vain,
to recover the clew. Presently his torch went out, and he was left in
utter darkness, imprisoned in a living grave, surrounded by the relics
of mortality. The silence was oppressive. He shouted, but the hollow 47
echoes mocked his voice. Weary with fruitless efforts to escape his
dread imprisonment he threw himself in despair upon the earth, when,
lo, something familiar touched his hand. Could he believe it? it was
indeed the long lost clew by which alone he could obtain deliverance
from this awful labyrinth. Carefully following the precious thread he
reached at last the open air,
And never Tiber, rippling through the meads,
Made music half so sweet among its reeds;
And never had the earth such rich perfume,
As when from him it chased the odor of the tomb.[28]
Still more terrible in its wildness is an incident narrated by
MacFarlane.[29] In the year 1798, after the return to Rome of the
Republican army under Berthier, a party of French officers, atheistic
disciples of Voltaire and Rousseau, and hardened by the orgies of the
Revolution, visited the Catacombs. They caroused in the sepulchral
crypts, and sang their bacchanalian songs among the Christian dead.
They rifled the graves and committed sacrilege at the tombs of the
saints. One of the number, a reckless young cavalry officer, “who
feared not God nor devil, for he believed in neither,” resolved to
explore the remoter galleries. He was speedily lost, and was abandoned
by his companions. His excited imagination heightened the natural
horrors of the scene. The grim and ghastly skeletons seemed an army of
accusing spectres. Down the long corridors the wind mysteriously
whispered, rising in inarticulate moanings and woeful sighs, as of
souls in pain. The tones of the neighbouring convent bell, echoing
through the stony vaults, sounded loud and awful as the knell of 48
doom. Groping blindly in the dark, he touched nothing but rocky walls
or mouldering bones, that sent a thrill of horror through his frame.
Though but a thin roof separated him from the bright sunshine and free
air, he seemed condemned to living burial. His philosophical
skepticism failed him in this hour of peril. He could no longer scoff
at death as “_un sommeil éternel_.” The palimpsest of memory recalled
with intensest vividness the Christian teachings of his childhood. His
soul became filled and penetrated with a solemn awe. His physical
powers gave way beneath the intensity of his emotion. He was rescued
the next day, but was long ill. He rose from his bed an altered man.
His life was thenceforth serious and devout. When killed in battle in
Calabria seven years after, a copy of the Gospels was found next to
his heart.
Even as late as 1837 a party of students with their professor,
numbering in all some sixteen, or, as some say, nearly thirty, entered
the Catacombs on a holiday excursion, to investigate their
antiquities, but became entangled amid their intricacies. Diligent
search was made, but no trace of them was ever found. In some silent
crypt or darksome corridor they were slowly overtaken by the same
torturing fate as that of Ugolino and his sons in the Hunger Tower of
Pisa.[30] The passage by which they entered has been walled up, but
the mystery of their fate will never be dispelled till the secrets of
the grave shall be revealed.
[1] Haud procul extremo culta ad pomœria vallo,
Mersa latebrosis crypta patet foveis....
--_Peristephanon_, iv.
The origin of the word Catacombs is exceedingly obscure. Father
Marchi derives it from κατὰ, down, and τύμβος, a tomb; or from
κατὰ and κοιμάω, to sleep. Mommsen thinks it comes from κατὰ and
_cumbo_, part of _decumbo_, to lie down. According to Schneider
(_Lex. Græk._) it is derived from κατὰ and κύμβη, a boat or
canoe, from the resemblance of a sarcophagus to that object. The
more probable derivation seems to the present writer to be from
κατὰ and κύμβος, a hollow, as if descriptive of a subterranean
excavation. The name was first given in the sixth century to a
limited area beneath the Church of St. Sebastian: “_Locus qui
dicitur catacumbas._”--S. Greg., _Opp._, tom. ii, ep. 30. It was
afterward generically applied to all subterranean places of
sepulture. The earliest writers who mention those of Rome call
them _cryptæ_, or crypts, or _cæmeteria_--whence our word
cemetery, literally, sleeping places, from κοιμάω, to slumber.
Similar excavations have been found in Syria, Asia Minor, Cyprus,
Crete, the Ægean Isles, Greece, Sicily, Naples, Malta, and France.
[2] These great roads for miles are lined with the sepulchral
monuments of Rome’s mighty dead, majestic even in decay. But only
the wealthy could be entombed in those stately mausolea, or be
wrapped in those “marble cerements.” For the mass of the
population _columbaria_ were provided, in whose narrow
niches, like the compartments of a dove-cote--whence the
name--the _terra cotta_ urns containing their ashes were
placed, sometimes to the number of six thousand in a single
_columbarium_. They also contain sometimes the urns of the
great.
[3] Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_.
[4] Aringhi, in the elegant Latin ode prefixed to his great work,
exclaims, “_Sub Roma Romam quærito_”--Beneath Rome I seek
the true Rome.
[5] Even so accurate and philosophical a writer as the late
Professor Silliman reports on their authority that the Catacombs
extend twenty miles, to the port of Ostia, in one direction, and
to Albano, twelve miles, in another. _Visit to Europe_, vol.
i, p. 329. This is impossible, as will be shown, on account of
the undulation of the ground, and the limited area of the
volcanic _tufa_ in which alone they can be excavated. The
number of distinct Catacombs has also been magnified to sixty;
and Father Marchi estimated the aggregate length of passages to
be nine hundred miles.
[6] Fig. 1.
[7] Fig. 30.
[8] Fig. 29.
[9] Primas namque fores summo tenus intrat hiatu
Illustratque dies limina vestibuli.--_Peristephanon_, ii.
[10] In the single crypt of St. Lucina, one hundred feet by one
hundred and eighty, De Rossi counted over seven hundred
_loculi_, and estimated that nearly twice as many were
destroyed, giving a total of two thousand graves in this area.
The same space, with our mode of interment, would not accommodate
over half the number, even though placed as close together as
possible, without any room for passages.
[11] Compare Bryant’s _Thanatopsis_:
“All that tread
The globe are but a handful to the tribes
That slumber in its bosom.”
[12] _Rom. Sott._, ii, 127.
[13] D’Agincourt, _Histoire de l’art par les Monumens_, i, 20.
[14] Literally, little sleeping chambers, from _cubo_, I lie
down. The same name was also given to the cells for meditation
and prayer attached to the Church of Nola. Paulin., ep. 12, _ad
Sever._
[15] Book II.
[16] See Fig. 130 and context, where the entire subject is
discussed.
[17] See in the Cemetery of St. Helena, Fig. 29.
[18] As in Fig. 12, and more strikingly in Fig. 76.
[19] An organized body of diggers, by whom the Catacombs were
excavated. See Book III, chap. iv.
[20] See Fig. 29.
[21] “Dum essem Romæ puer, et liberalibus studiis erudirer,
solebam cum cæteris ejusdem ætatis et propositi, diebus Dominicis
sepulchra apostolorum et martyrum circuire, crebròque cryptas
ingredi, quæ in terrarum profunda defossæ, ex utraque parte
ingredientium per parietes corpora sepultorum, ... ‘Horror ubique
animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent.’”--Hieron. in _Ezech._,
Cap. xl.
[22] Unfortunately for Protestant visitors most of the Catacombs
are open for inspection only on Sunday, when the work of
exploration is suspended.
[23] “And now through narrow, gloomy paths we go,
’Tween walls of earth and tombs.”--_Inferno._
[24] “Com’io discerno per lo fioco lume.”--_Inferno._
[25] “Full of the dead this far extending field.”
[26] _Childe Harold_, iv, 104.
[27] Hymnos et psalmos decantans.--Hieron., _Vit. Pauli_.
[28] From “_L’Imagination_,” by Abbé de Lille, MacFarlane’s
translation.
[29] _Catacombs of Rome._ London, 1852. P. 94, _et
seq._
[30] _Inferno_, Canto xxxiii, vv. 21-75.