CHAPTER IX.

THE VIA APPIA.

The Porta Capena--Baths of Caracalla--Vigna Guidi--SS. Nereo ed

Achilleo--SS. Sisto e Domenico--S. Cesareo (S. Giovanni in Oleo--S.

Giovanni in Porta Latina)--Columbarium of the Freedmen of

Octavia--Tomb of the Scipios--Columbarium of the Vigna Codini--Arch

of Drusus--Porta S. Sebastiano--Tombs of Geta and Priscilla--Church

of Domine Quo Vadis (Vigna Marancia)--Catacombs of S. Calixtus, of

S. Pretextatus, of the Jews, and SS. Nereo ed Achilleo--(Temple of

Bacchus, _i.e._ S. Urbano--Grotto of Egeria--Temple of Divus

Rediculus)--Basilica and Catacombs of S. Sebastiano--Circus of

Maxentius--Temple of Romulus, son of Maxentius--Tomb of Cecilia

Metella--Castle of the Caetani--Tombs of the Via Appia--Sta. Maria

Nuova--Roma Vecchia--Casale Rotondo--Tor di Selce, &c.

The _Via Appia_, called Regina Viarum by Statius, was begun B.C. 312, by

the Censor Appius Claudius the Blind, "the most illustrious of the great

Sabine and Patrician race, of whom he was the most remarkable

representative." It was paved throughout, and during the first part of

its course served as a kind of patrician cemetery, being bordered by a

magnificent avenue of family tombs. It began at the Porta Capena, itself

crossed by the Claudian aqueduct, which was due to the same great

benefactor,--

"Substitit ad veteres arcus madidamque Capenam,"

and was carried by Claudius across the Pontine Marshes as far as Capua,

but afterwards extended to Brundusium.

The site of the Porta Capena, so important as marking the commencement

of the Appian Way, was long a disputed subject. The Roman antiquaries

maintained that it was outside the present Walls, basing their opinion

on the statement of St. Gregory, that the river Almo was in that Regio,

and considering the Almo identical with a small stream which is crossed

in the hollow about half a mile beyond the Porta S. Sebastiano, and

which passes through the Valle Caffarelle, and falls into the Tiber near

S. Paolo. This stream, however, which rises at the foot of the Alban

Hills below the lake, divides into two parts about six miles from Rome,

and its smaller division, after flowing close to the Porta San Giovanni,

recedes again into the country, enters Rome near the Porta Metronia, a

little behind the Church of S. Sisto, and passing through the Circus

Maximus, falls into the Tiber at the Pulchrum Littus, below the temple

of Vesta. Close to the point where this, the smaller branch of the Almo,

crosses the Via San Sebastiano, Mr. J. H. Parker, in 1868--69,

discovered some remains, on the original line of walls, which he has

identified, beyond doubt, as those of the _Porta Capena_, whose position

had been already proved by Ampère and other authorities.

Close to the Porta Capena stood a large group of historical buildings,

of which no trace remains. On the right of the gate was the temple of

Mars:

"Lux eadem Marti festa est; quem prospicit extra

Appositum Tectæ Porta Capena viæ."

_Ovid, Fast._ vi. 191.

It is probably in allusion to this temple that Propertius says:

"Armaque quum tulero portæ votiva Capenæ,

Subscribam, salvo grata puella viro."

_Prop._ iv. _Eleg._ 3.

Martial alludes to a little temple of Hercules near this:

"Capena grandi porta qua pluit gutta,

Phrygiæque Matris Almo qua lavat ferrum,

Horatiorum qua viret sacer campus,

Et qua pusilli fervet Herculis fanum."

_Mart._ iii. _Ep._ 47.

Near the gate also stood the tomb of the murdered sister of the

Horatii,[192] with the temples of Honour and Virtue, vowed by Marcellus

and dedicated by his son,[193] and a fountain, dedicated to Mercury:

"Est aqua Mercurii portæ vicina Capenæ;

Si juvat expertis credere, numen habet.

Huc venit incinctus tunicas mercator, et urna

Purus suffita, quam ferat, haurit aquam.

Uda fit hinc laurus: lauro sparguntur ab uda

Omnia, quæ dominos sunt habitura novos."

_Ovid, Fast._ v. 673.

It was at the Porta Capena that the survivor of the Horatii met his

sister.

"Horatius went home at the head of the army, bearing his triple

spoils. But as they were drawing near to the Capenian gate, his

sister came out to meet him. Now she had been betrothed in marriage

to one of the Curiatii, and his cloak, which she had wrought with

her own hands, was borne on the shoulders of her brother; and she

knew it, and cried aloud, and wept for him she had loved. At the

sight of her tears Horatius was so wrath that he drew his sword,

and stabbed his sister to the heart; and he said, 'So perish the

Roman maiden who shall weep for her country's enemy!'"--_Arnold's

Hist. of Rome_, i. 16.

Among the many other historical scenes with which the Porta Capena is

connected, we may remember that it was here that Cicero was received in

triumph by the senate and people of Rome, upon his return from

banishment B.C. 57.

* * * * *

Two roads lead to the Via S. Sebastiano, one the Via S. Gregorio, which

comes from the Coliseum beneath the arch of Constantine; the other, the

street which comes from the Ghetto, through the Circus Maximus, between

the Palatine and Aventine.

The first gate on the left, after the junction of these roads, is that

of the vineyard of the monks of S. Gregorio, in which the site of the

Porta Capena was found. The remains discovered have been reburied, owing

to the indifference or jealousy of the government; but the vineyard is

worth entering on account of the picturesque view it possesses of the

Palace of the Cæsars.

On the right, a lane leads up the Pseudo-Aventine to the Church of Sta.

Balbina, described Chap. VIII.

On the left, where the Via Appia crosses the brook of the Almo, now

called Maranna, the Via di San Sisto Vecchio leads to the back of the

Cœlian behind S. Stefano Rotondo. Here, in the hollow, in the grounds

of the Villa Mattei, under some picturesque farm-buildings, is a spring

which modern archæology has determined to be the true _Fountain of

Egeria_, where Numa Pompilius is described as having his mysterious

meetings with the nymph Egeria. The locality of this fountain was

verified when that of the Porta Capena was ascertained, as it was

certain that it was in the immediate neighbourhood of that gate, from a

passage in the 3d Satire of Juvenal, which describes, that when he was

waiting at the Porta Capena with Umbritius while the waggon was loading

for his departure to Cumæ, they rambled into the valley of Egeria, and

Umbritius said, after speaking of his motives for leaving Rome, "I could

add other reasons to these, but my beasts summon me to move on, and the

sun is setting. I must be going, for the muleteer has long been

summoning me by the cracking of his whip."

To this valley the oppressed race of the Jews was confined by Domitian,

their furniture consisting of a basket and a wisp of hay:

"Nunc sacri fontis nemus et delubra locantur

Judæis, quorum cophinus fœnumque supellex."

_Juvenal, Sat._ iii. 13.

On the right, are the _Baths of Caracalla_, the largest mass of ruins in

Rome, except the Coliseum; consisting for the most part of huge

shapeless walls of red and orange-coloured brickwork, framing vast

strips of blue sky, and tufted with shrubs and flowers. These baths,

which could accommodate 1600 bathers at once, were begun in A.D. 212, by

Caracalla, continued by Heliogabalus, and finished under Alexander

Severus. They covered a space of 2,625,000 square yards--a size which

made Ammianus Marcellinus say that the Roman baths were like

provinces--and they were supplied with water by the Antonine Aqueduct,

which was brought hither for that especial purpose from the Claudian,

over the Arch of Drusus.

Antiquaries have amused themselves by identifying different chambers, to

which, with considerable uncertainty, the names of Calidarium,

Laconicum, Tepidarium, Frigidarium, &c., have been affixed.

The habits of luxury and inertion which were introduced with the

magnificent baths of the emperors were among the principal causes of the

decline and fall of Rome. Thousands of the Roman youth frittered away

their hours in these magnificent halls, which were provided with

everything which could gratify the senses. Poets were wont to recite

their verses to those who were reclining in the baths.

----"In medio qui

Scripta foro recitent, sunt multi,--quique lavantes:

Suave locus voci resonat conclusus."

_Horace, Sat._ i. 4.

"These _Thermæ_ of Caracalla, which were one mile in circumference,

and open at stated hours for the indiscriminate service of the

senators and the people, contained above sixteen hundred seats of

marble. The walls of the lofty apartments were covered with curious

mosaics that imitated the art of the pencil in elegance of design

and in the variety of their colours. The Egyptian granite was

beautifully encrusted with the precious green marble of Numidia.

The perpetual stream of hot water was poured into the capacious

basons through so many wide mouths of bright and massy silver; and

the meanest Roman could purchase, with a small copper coin, the

daily enjoyment of a scene of pomp and luxury which might excite

the envy of the kings of Asia. From these stately palaces issued

forth a swarm of dirty and ragged plebeians, without shoes and

without mantle; who loitered away whole days in the street or

Forum, to hear news and to hold disputes; who dissipated, in

extravagant gaming, the miserable pittance of their wives and

children; and spent the hours of the night in the indulgence of

gross and vulgar sensuality."--_Gibbon._

In the first great hall was found, in 1824, the immense mosaic pavement

of the pugilists, now in the Lateran museum. Endless works of art have

been discovered here from time to time, among them the best of the

Farnese collection of statues,--the Bull, the Hercules, and the

Flora,--which were dug up in 1534, when Paul III. carried off all the

still remaining marble decorations of the baths to use for the Farnese

Palace. The last of the pillars to be removed from hence is that which

supports the statue of Justice in the Piazza Sta. Trinità at Florence.

A winding stair leads to the top of the walls, which are worth

ascending, as well for the idea which you there receive of the vast size

of the ruins, as for the lovely views of the Campagna, which are

obtained between the bushes of lentiscus and phillyrea with which they

are fringed. It was seated on these walls that Shelley wrote his

"Prometheus Unbound."

"This poem was chiefly written upon the mountainous ruins of the

baths of Caracalla, among the flowery glades and thickets of

odoriferous blossoming trees which are extended in ever-winding

labyrinths upon its immense platforms and dizzy arches suspended in

the air. The bright blue sky of Rome, and the effect of the

vigorous awakening spring in that divinest climate, and the new

life with which it drenches the spirits even to intoxication, were

the inspiration of the drama."--_Preface to the Prometheus._

"Maintenant les murailles sont nues, sauf quelques fragments de

chapiteaux oubliés par la destruction; mais elles conservent ce que

seules des mains de géant pourraient leur ôter, leur masse

écrasante, la grandeur de leurs aspects, la sublimité de leurs

ruines. On ne regrette rien quand on contemple ces énormes et

pittoresque débris, baignés à midi par une ardente lumière ou se

remplissant d'ombres à la tombée de la nuit, s'élançant, à une

immense hauteur vers un ciel éblouissant, ou se dressant, mornes et

mélancoliques, sous un ciel grisâtre,--ou bien, lorsque, montant

sur la plate-forme inégale, crevassée, couverte d'arbustes et

tapissée de gazon, on voit, comme du haut d'une colline, d'un côté

se dérouler la campagne romaine et le merveilleux horizon de

montagnes qui la termine, de l'autre apparaître, ainsi qu'une

montagne de plus, le dôme de Saint-Pierre, la seule des œuvres

d'homme qui ait quelque chose de la grandeur des œuvres de

Dieu."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 286.

The name of the lane which leads to the baths (_Via all' Antoniana_)

recalls the fact that, "with a vanity which seems like mockery,

Caracalla dared to bear the name of Antoninus," which was always dear

to the Roman people.

Passing under the wall of the government-garden for raising shrubs for

the public walks, a door on the left of the Via Appia, with a sculptured

marble frieze above it, is that of Guidi, the antiquity vendor, who has

a small museum here of splendid fragments of marble and alabaster for

sale. Opposite is the Vigna of Signor Guidi, who has unearthed a

splendid mosaic pavement of Tritons riding on dolphins, and who has here

also a collection of antique fragments to be disposed of.

On the right, is _SS. Nereo ed Achilleo_, a most interesting little

church. The tradition runs that St. Peter, going to execution, let drop

here one of the bandages of his wounds, and that the spot was marked by

the early Christians with an oratory, which bore the name of Fasciola.

Nereus and Achilles, eunuchs in the service of Clemens Flavius and

Flavia Domitilla (members of the imperial family exiled to Pontia under

Diocletian), having suffered martyrdom at Terracina, their bodies were

transported here in 524 by John I., when the oratory was enlarged into a

church, which was restored under Leo III., in 795. The church was

rebuilt in the sixteenth century, by Cardinal Baronius, who took his

title from hence. In his work he desired that the ancient basilica

character should be carefully carried out, and all the ancient ornaments

of the church were preserved and re-erected. His anxiety that his

successors should not meddle with or injure these objects of antiquity

is shown by, the inscription on a marble slab in the tribune:

"Presbyter, Card. Successor quisquis fueris, rogo te, per gloriam

Dei, et per merita horum martyrum, nihil demito, nihil minuito, nec

mutato; restitutam antiquitatem pie servato; sic Deus martyrum

suorum precibus semper adjuvet!"

The chancel is raised and surrounded by an inlaid marble screen. Instead

of ambones there are two plain marble reading-desks for the epistle and

gospel. The altar is inlaid, and has "transennæ," or a marble grating,

through which the tomb of the saints Nereus and Achilles may be seen,

and through which the faithful might pass their handkerchiefs to touch

it. Behind, in the semicircular choir, is an ancient episcopal throne,

supported by lions, and ending in a gothic gable. Upon it part of the

twenty-eighth homily of St. Gregory was engraved by Baronius, under the

impression that it was delivered thence,--though it was really first

read in the catacomb, whence the bodies of the saints were not yet

removed. All these decorations are of the restoration under Leo III., in

the eighth century. Of the same period are the mosaics on the arch of

the tribune (partly painted over in later times), representing, in the

centre, the Transfiguration (the earliest instance of the subject being

treated in art), with the Annunciation on one side, and the Madonna and

Child attended by angels on the other.

It is worth while remarking that when the relics of Flavia Domitilla

(who was niece of Vespasian) and of Nereus and Achilles were brought

hither from the catacomb on the Via Ardeatina, which bears the name of

the latter, they were first escorted in triumph to the Capitol, and made

to pass under the imperial arches which bore as inscriptions: "The

senate and the Roman people to Sta. Flavia Domitilla, for having brought

more honour to Rome by her death than her illustrious relations by

their works." ... "To Sta. Flavia Domitilla, and to the Saints Nereus

and Achilles, the excellent citizens who gained peace for the Christian

republic at the price of their blood."

Opposite, on the left, is a courtyard leading to the _Church of S.

Sisto_, with its celebrated convent, long deserted on account of

malaria.

It was here that St. Dominic first resided in Rome, and collected one

hundred monks under his rule, before he was removed to Sta. Sabina by

Honorius III. After he went to the Aventine, it was decided to utilize

this convent by collecting here the various Dominican nuns, who had been

living hitherto under very lax discipline, and allowed to leave their

convents, and reside in their own families. The nuns of Sta. Maria in

Trastevere resisted the order, and only consented to remove on condition

of bringing with them a Madonna picture attributed to St. Luke, hoping

that the Trasteverini would refuse to part with their most cherished

treasure. St. Dominic obviated the difficulty by going to fetch the

picture himself at night, attended by two cardinals, and a bare-footed,

torch-bearing multitude.

"On Ash-Wednesday, 1218, the abbess and some of her nuns went to

take possession of their new monastery, and being in the

chapter-house with St. Dominic and Cardinal Stefano di Fossa Nuova,

suddenly there came in one tearing his hair, and making great

outcries, for the young Lord Napoleon Orsini, nephew of the

cardinal, had been thrown from his horse, and killed on the spot.

The cardinal fell speechless into the arms of Dominic, and the

women and others who were present were filled with grief and

horror. They brought the body of the youth into the chapter-house,

and laid it before the altar; and Dominic, having prayed, turned to

it, saying, 'O adolescens Napoleo, in nomine Domini nostri Jesu

Christi tibi dico surge,' and thereupon he arose sound and whole,

to the unspeakable wonder of all present."--_Jameson's Monastic

Orders._

After being convinced by this miracle of the divine mission of St.

Dominic, forty nuns settled at S. Sisto, promising never more to cross

its threshold.[194]

There is very little remaining of the ancient S. Sisto, except the

campanile, which is of 1500. But the vaulted _Chapter-House_, now

dedicated to St. Dominic, is well worth visiting. It has recently been

covered with frescoes by the Padre Besson,--himself a Dominican

monk,--who received his commission from Father Mullooly, Prior of S.

Clemente, the Irish Dominican convent, to which S. Sisto is now annexed.

The three principal frescoes represent three miracles of St. Dominic--in

each case of raising from the dead. One represents the resuscitation of

a mason of the new monastery, who had fallen from a scaffold; another,

that of a child in a wild and beautiful Italian landscape; the third,

the restoration of Napoleone Orsini on this spot,--the mesmeric

upspringing of the lifeless youth being most powerfully represented. The

whole chapel is highly picturesque, and effective in colour. Of two

inscriptions, one commemorates the raising of Orsini; the other, a

prophecy of St. Dominic, as to the evil end of two monks who deserted

their convent.

Just beyond S. Sisto, where the Via della Ferratella branches off on the

left to the Lateran, stands a small ædiculum, or _Shrine of the Lares_,

with brick niches for statues.

Further, on the right, standing back from a kind of piazza, adorned with

an ancient granite column, is the _Church of S. Cesareo_, which already

existed in the time of St. Gregory the Great, but was modernized under

Clement VII. (1523--34). Its interior retains many of its ancient

features. The pulpit is one of the most exquisite specimens of church

decoration in Rome, and is covered with the most delicate sculpture,

interspersed with mosaic; the emblems of the Evangelists are introduced

in the carving of the panels. The high altar is richly encrusted with

mosaics, probably by the Cosmati family; tiny owls form part of the

decorations of the capitals of its pillars. Beneath is a "confession,"

where two angels are drawing curtains over the tomb of the saint. The

chancel has an inlaid marble screen. In the tribune is an ancient

episcopal throne, once richly ornamented with mosaics.

In this church St. Sergius was elected to the papal throne, in 687; and

here, also, an Abbot of SS. Vincenzo ed Anastasio was elected in 1145,

as Eugenius III., and was immediately afterwards forced by the opposing

senate to fly to Montecelli, and then to the Abbey of Farfa, where his

consecration took place.

Part of the palace of the titular cardinal of S. Cesareo remains in the

adjoining garden, with an interesting loggia of _c._ 1200.

In this neighbourhood was the _Piscina Publica_, which gave a name to

the twelfth Region of the city. It was used for learning to swim, but

all trace of it had disappeared before the time of Festus, whose date is

uncertain, but who lived before the end of the fourth century--

"In thermas fugio: sonas ad aurem,

Piscinam peto: non licet natare."

_Martial_, iii. _Ep._ 44.

* * * * *

Here a lane turns on the left, towards the ancient _Porta Latina_

(through which the Via Latina led to Capua), now closed.

In front of the gate is a little chapel, of the sixteenth century,

called _S. Giovanni in Oleo_, decorated with indifferent frescoes, on

the spot where St. John is said to have been thrown into a cauldron of

boiling oil (under Domitian), from which "he came forth as from a

refreshing bath." It is the suffering in the burning oil which gave St.

John the palm of a martyr, with which he is often represented in art.

The festival of "St. John ante Port. Lat." (May 6) is preserved in the

English Church Calendar.

On the left, is the _Church of S. Giovanni a Porta Latina_, built in

1190 by Celestine III.

In spite of many modernizations, the last by Cardinal Rasponi in 1685,

this building retains externally more of its ancient character than most

Roman churches, in its fine campanile and the old brick walls of the

nave and apse, decorated with terra-cotta friezes. The portico is

entered by a narrow arch resting on two granite columns. The

entrance-door and the altar have the peculiar mosaic ribbon decoration

of the Cosmati, of 1190. The frescoes are all modern; in the tribune,

are the deluge and the baptism of Christ,--the type and antitype. Of the

ten columns, eight are simple and of granite, two are fluted and of

porta-santa, showing that they were not made for the church, but removed

from some pagan building--probably from the temple of Ceres and

Proserpine. Near the entrance is a very picturesque marble _Well_, like

those so common at Venice and Padua, decorated with an intricate pattern

of rich carving.

In the opposite vineyard, behind the chapel of the Oleo, very

picturesquely situated under the Aurelian Wall, is the _Columbarium of

the Freedmen of Octavia_. A columbarium was a tomb containing a number

of cinerary urns in niches like pigeon-holes, whence the name. Many

columbaria were held in common by a great number of persons, and the

niches could be obtained by purchase or inheritance; in other cases, the

heads of the great houses possessed whole columbaria for their families

and their slaves. In the present instance the columbarium is more than

usually decorated, and, though much smaller, it is far more worth seeing

than the columbaria which it is the custom to visit immediately upon the

Appian Way. One of the cippi, above the staircase, is beautifully

decorated with shells and mosaic. Below, is a chamber, whose vault is

delicately painted with vines and little Bacchi gathering in the

vintage. Round the walls are arranged the urns, some of them in the form

of temples, and very beautifully designed, others merely pots sunk into

the wall, with conical lids, like pipkins let into a kitchen-range. A

beautiful vase of lapis-lazuli found here has been transferred to the

Vatican.

* * * * *

Proceeding along the Via Appia, on the left by a tall cypress (No. 13)

is the entrance to _the Tomb of the Scipios_, a small catacomb in the

tufa rock, discovered in 1780, from which the famous sarcophagus of L.

Scipio Barbatus, and a bust of the poet Ennius,[195] were removed to the

Vatican by Pius VII.

"The Scipios' tomb contains no ashes now;

The very sepulchres lie tenantless

Of their heroic dwellers."

_Childe Harold._

The contadino at the neighbouring farmhouse provides lights, with which

one can visit a labyrinth of steep narrow passages, some of which still

retain inscribed sepulchral slabs. Among the Scipios whose tombs have

been discovered here were Lucius Scipio Barbatus and his son, the

conqueror of Corsica; Aula Cornelia wife of Cneius Scipio Hispanis; a

son of Scipio Africanus; Lucius Cornelius son of Scipio Asiaticus;

Cornelius Scipio Hispanis and his son Lucius Cornelius. At the further

end of these passages, and now, like them, subterranean, may be seen the

pediment and arched entrance of the tomb towards the Via Latina. "It is

uncertain whether Scipio Africanus was buried at Liternum or in the

family tomb. In the time of Livy monuments to him were extant in both

places."[196]

There is a beautiful view towards Rome from the vineyard above the tomb.

A little further on, left (No. 14), is the entrance of the _Vigna

Codini_ (a private garden with an extortionate custode), containing

three interesting _Columbaria_. Two of these are large square vaults,

supported by a central pillar, which, as well as the walls, is

perforated by niches for urns. The third has three vaulted passages.

We now reach the _Arch of Drusus_. On its summit are the remains of the

aqueduct by which Caracalla carried water to his baths. The arch once

supported an equestrian statue of Drusus, two trophies, and a seated

female figure representing Germany.

The Arch of Drusus was decreed by the senate in honour of the second son

of the empress Livia, by her first husband, Tiberius Nero. He was father

of Germanicus and the emperor Claudius, and brother of Tiberius. He died

during a campaign on the Rhine, B.C. 9, and was brought back to be

buried by his step-father Augustus in his own mausoleum. His virtues are

attested in a poem ascribed to Pedo Albinovanus.

"This arch, 'Marmoreum arcum cum tropæo Appia Via' (Suet. I), is,

with the exception of the Pantheon, the most perfect existing

monument of Augustan architecture. It is heavy, plain, and narrow,

with all the dignified but stern simplicity which belongs to the

character of its age."--_Merivale._

"It is hard for one who loves the very stones of Rome, to pass over

all the thoughts which arise in his mind, as he thinks of the great

Apostle treading the rude and massive pavement of the Appian Way,

and passing under that Arch of Drusus at the Porta S. Sebastiano,

toiling up the Capitoline Hill past the Tabularium of the Capitol,

dwelling in his hired house in the Via Lata or elsewhere,

imprisoned in those painted caves in the Prætorian Camp, and at

last pouring out his blood for Christ at the Tre Fontane, on the

road to Ostia."--_Dean Alford's Study of the New Testament_, p.

335.

_The Porta San Sebastiano_ has two fine semicircular towers of the

Aurelian wall, resting on a basement of marble blocks, probably

plundered from the tombs on the Via Appia. Under the arch is a gothic

inscription relating to the repulse of some unknown invaders.

It was here that the senate and people of Rome received in state the

last triumphant procession which has entered the city by the Via Appia,

that of Marc-Antonio Colonna, after the victory of Lepanto in 1571. As

in the processions of the old Roman generals, the children of the

conquered prince were forced to adorn the triumph of the victor, who

rode into Rome attended by all the Roman nobles, "in abito di grande

formalità,"[197] preceded by the standard of the fleet.

From the gate, the _Clivus Martis_ (crossed by the railway to Civita

Vecchia) descends into the valley of the Almo, where antiquaries

formerly placed the Porta Capena. On the hillside stood a Temple of

Mars, vowed in the Gallic war, and dedicated by T. Quinctius the

"duumvir sacris faciundis," in B.C. 387. No remains exist of this

temple. It was "approached from the Via Capena by a portico, which must

have rivalled in length the celebrated portico at Bologna extending to

the church of the Madonna di S. Luca."[198] Near this, a temple was

erected to Tempestas in B.C. 260, by L. Cornelius Scipio, to commemorate

the narrow escape of his fleet from shipwreck off the coast of

Sardinia.[199] Near this, also, the poet Terence owned a small estate of

twenty acres, presented to him by his friend Scipio Emilianus.[200]

After crossing the brook, we pass between two conspicuous tombs. That on

the left is the _Tomb of Geta_, son of Septimius Severus, the murdered

brother of Caracalla; that on the right is the _Tomb of Priscilla_, wife

of Abascantius, a favourite freedman of Domitian.

"Est locus, ante urbem, qua primum nascitur ingens

Appia, quaque Italo gemitus Almone Cybele

Ponit, et Idæos jam non reminiscitur amnes.

Hic te Sidonio velatam molliter ostro

Eximius conjux (nec enim fumantia busta

Clamoremque rogi potuit perferre), beato

Composuit, Priscilla, toro."

_Statius_, lib. v. _Sylv._ i. 222.

Just beyond this, the _Via Ardeatina_ branches off on the right,

passing, after about two miles, the picturesque _Vigna Marancia_, a

pleasant spot, with fine old pines and cypresses.

Where the roads divide, is the _Church of Domine Quo Vadis_, containing

a copy of the celebrated footprint said to have been left here by Our

Saviour: the original being removed to S. Sebastiano.

"After the burning of Rome, Nero threw upon the Christians the

accusation of having fired the city. This was the origin of the

first persecution, in which many perished by terrible and hitherto

unheard-of deaths. The Christian converts besought Peter not to

expose his life. As he fled along the Appian Way, about two miles

from the gates, he was met by a vision of our Saviour travelling

towards the city. Struck with amazement, he exclaimed, 'Lord,

whither goest thou?' to which the Saviour, looking upon him with a

mild sadness, replied, 'I go to Rome to be crucified a second

time,' and vanished. Peter, taking this as a sign that he was to

submit himself to the sufferings prepared for him, immediately

turned back to the city.[201] Michael Angelo's famous statue, now

in the Church of Sta. Maria sopra Minerva, is supposed to represent

Christ as he appeared to St. Peter on this occasion. A cast or copy

of it is in the little church of 'Domine, quo vadis?'

"It is surprising that this most beautiful, picturesque, and, to my

fancy, sublime legend, has been so seldom treated; and never, as it

seems to me, in a manner worthy of its capabilities and high

significance. It is seldom that a story can be told by two figures,

and these two figures placed in such grand and dramatic

contrast;--Christ in His serene majesty, and radiant with all the

joy of beatitude, yet with an expression of gentle reproach; the

Apostle at his feet arrested in his flight, amazed, and yet filled

with a trembling joy; and for the background the wide Campagna, or

towering walls of imperial Rome."--_Mrs. Jameson._[202]

Beyond the church is a second "Bivium," or cross-ways, where a lane on

the left leads up the Valle Caffarelle. Here, feeling an uncertainty

_which_ was the crossing where Our Saviour appeared to St. Peter, the

English Cardinal Pole erected a second tiny chapel of "Domine Quo

Vadis," which remains to this day.

On the left, is the _Columbarium of the Freedmen of Augustus and Livia_,

divided into three chambers, but despoiled of its adornments. Other

Columbaria near this are assigned to the Volusii, and the Cæcilii.

Over the wall on the left of the Via Appia now hangs in profusion the

rare yellow-berried ivy. Many curious plants are to be found on these

old Roman walls. Their commonest parasite, the Pellitory--"_herba

parietina_," calls to mind the nickname given to the Emperor Trajan in

derision of his passion for inscribing his name upon the walls of Roman

buildings which he had merely restored, as if he were their

founder;[203] a passion in which the popes have since largely

participated.

We now reach (on the right) the entrance of the _Catacombs of St.

Calixtus_.

(The Catacombs (except those at S. Sebastiano) can only be visited

in company of a guide. For most of the Catacombs it is necessary to

obtain a _permesso_ at the office of the Cardinal-Vicar, 70 Via

della Scrofa, before 12 A.M.; upon which a day (generally Sunday)

is fixed, which must be adhered to. The Catacombs of St. Calixtus

are sometimes superficially shown without a special _permesso_. It

may be well for the visitor to provide himself with

tapers--_cerini._)

All descriptions of dangers attending a visit to the Catacombs, if

accompanied by a guide, and provided with "cerini," are quite imaginary.

Neither does the visitor ever suffer from cold; the temperature of the

Catacombs is mild and warm; the vaults are almost always dry, and the

air pure.

"The Roman Catacombs--a name consecrated by long usage, but having

no etymological meaning, and not a very determinate geographical

one--are a vast labyrinth of galleries excavated in the bowels of

the earth in the hills around the Eternal City; not in the hills on

which the city itself was built, but in those beyond the walls.

Their extent is enormous; not as to the amount of superficial soil

which they underlie, for they rarely, if ever, pass beyond the

third mile-stone from the city, but in the actual length of their

galleries; for these are often excavated on various levels, or

_piani_, three, four, or even five--one above the other; and they

cross and recross one another, sometimes at short intervals, on

each of these levels; so that, on the whole, there are certainly

not less than 350 miles of them; that is to say, if stretched out

in one continuous line, they would extend the whole length of Italy

itself. The galleries are from two to four feet in width, and vary

in height according to the nature of the rock in which they are

dug. The walls on both sides are pierced with horizontal niches,

like shelves in a bookcase or berths in a steamer, and every niche

once contained one or more dead bodies. At various intervals this

succession of shelves is interrupted for a moment, that room may be

made for a doorway opening into a small chamber; and the walls of

these chambers are generally pierced with graves in the same way as

the galleries.

"These vast excavations once formed the ancient Christian

cemeteries of Rome; they were begun in apostolic times, and

continued to be used as burial-places of the faithful till the

capture of the city by Alaric in the year 410. In the third

century, the Roman Church numbered twenty-five or twenty-six of

them, corresponding to the number of her titles, or parishes,

within the city; and besides these, there are about twenty others,

of smaller dimensions, isolated monuments of special martyrs, or

belonging to this or that private family. Originally they all

belonged to private families or individuals, the villas or gardens

in which they were dug being the property of wealthy citizens who

had embraced the faith of Christ, and devoted of their substance to

His service. Hence their most ancient titles were taken merely from

the names of their lawful owners, many of which still survive.

Lucina, for example, who lived in the days of the Apostles, and

others of the same family, or at least of the same name, who lived

at various periods in the next two centuries; Priscilla, also a

contemporary of the Apostles; Flavia Domitilla, niece of Vespasian;

Commodilla, whose property lay on the Via Ostiensis; Cyriaca, on

the Via Tiburtina; Pretextatus, on the Via Appia; Pontiano, on the

Via Portuensis; and the Jordani, Maximus and Thraso, all on the Via

Salaria Nova. These names are still attached to the various

catacombs, because they were originally begun upon the land of

those who bore them. Other catacombs are known by the names of

those who presided over their formation, as that of St. Calixtus,

on the Via Appia; or St. Mark, on the Via Ardeatina; or of the

principal martyrs who were buried in them, as SS. Hermes, Basilla,

Protus, and Hyacinthus, on the Via Salaria Vetus; or, lastly, by

some peculiarity of their position, as _ad Catacumbas_ on the Via

Appia, and _ad duas Lauros_ on the Via Labicana.

"It has always been agreed among men of learning who have had an

opportunity of examining these excavations, that they were used

exclusively by the Christians as places of burial and of holding

religious assemblies. Modern research has now placed it beyond a

doubt, that they were also originally designed for this purpose and

for no other: that they were not deserted sand-pits (_arenariæ_) or

quarries, adapted to Christian uses, but a development, with

important modifications, of a form of sepulchre not altogether

unknown even among the heathen families of Rome, and in common use

among the Jews both in Rome and elsewhere.

"At first, the work of making the Catacombs was done openly,

without let or hindrance, by the Christians; the entrances to them

were public on the high-road or on the hill-side, and the galleries

and chambers were freely decorated with paintings of a sacred

character. But early in the third century, it became necessary to

withdraw them as much as possible from the public eye; new and

often difficult entrances were now effected in the recesses of

deserted _arenariæ_, and even the liberty of Christian art was

cramped and fettered, lest what was holy should fall under the

profane gaze of the unbaptized.

"Each of these burial-places was called in ancient times either

_hypogæum_, i. e. generically, a subterranean place, or

_cœmeterium_, a sleeping-place, a new name of Christian origin

which the pagans could only repeat, probably without understanding;

sometimes also _martyrium_, or _confessio_ (its Latin equivalent),

to signify that it was the burial-place of martyrs or confessors of

the faith. An ordinary grave was called _locus_ or _loculus_, if it

contained a single body; or _bisomum_, _trisomum_, or

_quadrisomum_, if it contained two, three, or four. The graves were

dug by _fossores_, and burial in them was called _depositio_. The

galleries do not seem to have had any specific name; but the

chambers were called _cubicula_. In most of these chambers, and

sometimes also in the galleries themselves, one or more tombs are

to be seen of a more elaborate kind; a long oblong _chasse_, like a

sarcophagus, either hollowed out in the rock or built up of

masonry, and closed by a heavy slab of marble lying horizontally on

the top. The niche over tombs of this kind was of the same length

as the grave, and generally vaulted in a semicircular form, whence

they were called _arcosolia_. Sometimes, however, the niche

retained the rectangular form, in which case there was no special

name for it, but for distinction's sake we may be allowed to call

it a table-tomb. Those of the _arcosolia_, which were also the tomb

of martyrs, were used on the anniversaries of their deaths

(_Natalitia_, or birthdays) as altars whereon the holy mysteries

were celebrated; hence, whilst some of the _cubicula_ were only

family-vaults, others were chapels, or places of public assembly.

It is probable that the holy mysteries were celebrated also in the

private vaults, on the anniversaries of the deaths of their

occupants; and each one was sufficiently large in itself for use on

these private occasions; but in order that as many as possible

might assist at the public celebrations, two, three, or even four

of the _cubicula_ were often made close together, all receiving

light and air through one shaft or air-hole (_luminare_), pierced

through the superincumbent soil up to the open air. In this way as

many as a hundred persons might be collected in some parts of the

catacombs to assist at the same act of public worship; whilst a

still larger number might have been dispersed in the _cubicula_ of

neighbouring galleries, and received there the bread of life

brought to them by the assistant priests and deacons. Indications

of this arrangement are not only to be found in ancient

ecclesiastical writings; they may still be seen in the very walls

of the catacombs themselves, episcopal chairs, chairs for the

presiding deacon or deaconess, and benches for the faithful, having

formed part of the original design when the chambers were hewn out

of the living rock, and still remaining where they were first

made."--_Roma Sotterranea, Northcote and Brownlow._

"To our classic associations, Rome was still, under Trajan and the

Antonines, the city of the Cæsars, the metropolis of pagan

idolatry--in the pages of her poets and historians we still linger

among the triumphs of the Capitol, the shows of the Coliseum; or if

we read of a Christian being dragged before the tribunal, or

exposed to the beasts, we think of him as one of a scattered

community, few in number, spiritless in action, and politically

insignificant. But all this while there was living beneath the

visible an invisible Rome--a population unheeded,

unreckoned--thought of vaguely, vaguely spoken of, and with the

familiarity and indifference that men feel who live on a

volcano--yet a population strong-hearted, of quick impulses, nerved

alike to suffer or to die, and in number, resolution, and physical

force sufficient to have hurled their oppressors from the throne of

the world, had they not deemed it their duty to kiss the rod, to

love their enemies, to bless those that cursed them, and to submit,

for their Redeemer's sake, to the 'powers that be.' Here, in these

'dens and caves of the earth,' they lived; here they died--a

'spectacle' in their lifetime 'to men and angels,' and in their

death a 'triumph' to mankind--a triumph of which the echoes still

float around the walls of Rome, and over the desolate Campagna,

while those that once thrilled the Capitol are silenced, and the

walls that returned them have long since crumbled into

dust."--_Lord Lindsay' s Christian Art_, i. 4.

The name Catacombs is modern, having originally been only applied to S.

Sebastiano "ad catacumbas." The early Christians called their

burial-places by the Greek name _Cœmeteria_, sleeping-places. Almost

all the catacombs are between the first and third mile-stones from the

Aurelian wall, to which point the city extended before the wall itself

was built. This was in obedience to the Roman law which forbade burial

within the precincts of the city.

The fact that the Christians were always anxious not to burn their dead,

but to bury them, in these rock-hewn sepulchres, was probably owing to

the remembrance that our Lord was himself laid "in a new tomb hewn out

of the rock," and perhaps also for this reason the bodies were wrapt in

fine linen cloths, and buried with precious spices, of which remains

have been found in the tombs.

The Catacomb which is known as St. Calixtus, is composed of a number of

catacombs, once distinct, but now joined together. Such were those of

Sta. Lucina; of Anatolia, daughter of the consul Æmilianus; and of Sta.

Soteris, "a virgin of the family to which St. Ambrose belonged in a

later generation," and who was buried "in cœmeterio suo," A.D. 304.

The passages of these catacombs were gradually united with those which

originally belonged to the cemetery of Calixtus.

The high mass of ruin which meets our eyes on first entering the

vineyard of St. Calixtus, is a remnant of the tomb of the Cæcilii, of

which family a number of epitaphs have been found. Beyond this is

another ruin, supposed by Marangoni to have been the basilica which St.

Damasus provided for his own burial and that of his mother and sister;

which Padre Marchi believed to be the church of St. Mark and St.

Marcellinus;--but which De Rossi identifies with the _cella memoriæ_,

sometimes called of St. Sistus, sometimes of St. Cecilia (because built

immediately over the graves of those martyrs), by St. Fabian in the

third century.[204]

Descending into the Catacomb by an ancient staircase restored, we reach

(passing a sepulchral cubiculum on the right) the _Chapel of the Popes_,

a place of burial and of worship of the third or fourth century, (as it

was restored after its discovery in 1854) but still retaining remains

of the marble slabs with which it was faced by Sixtus III. in the fifth

century, and of marble columns, &c. with which it was adorned by St. Leo

III. (795--816). The walls are lined with graves of the earliest popes,

many of them martyrs--viz. St. Zephyrinus, (202--211); St Pontianus, who

died in banishment in Sardinia, (231--236); St. Anteros, martyred under

Maximian in the second month of his pontificate, (236); St. Fabian,

martyred under Decius, (236--250); St. Lucius, martyred under Valerian,

(253--255); St. Stephen I., martyred in his episcopal chair under

Valerian, (255--257); St. Sixtus II., martyred in the catacombs of St.

Pretextatus, (257--260); St. Dionysius, (260--271); St. Eutychianus,

martyr, (275--283); and St. Caius, (284--296). Of these, the gravestones

of Anteros, Fabian, Lucius, and Eutychianus, have been discovered, with

inscriptions in Greek, which is acknowledged to have been the earliest

language of the Church,--in which St. Paul and St. James wrote, and in

which the proceedings of the first twelve Councils were carried on.[205]

Though no inscriptions have been found relating to the other popes

mentioned, they are known to have been buried here from the earliest

authorities.

Over the site of the altar is one of the beautifully-cut inscriptions of

Pope St. Damasus (366--384), "whose labour of love it was to rediscover

the tombs which had been blocked up for concealment under Diocletian, to

remove the earth, widen the passages, adorn the sepulchral chambers with

marble, and support the friable tufa walls with arches of brick and

stone."[206]

"Hic congesta jacet quæris si turba Piorum

Corpora Sanctorum retinent veneranda sepulchra,

Sublimes animas rapuit sibi Regia Cœli:

Hic comites Xysti portant qui ex hoste tropæa;

Hic numerus procerum servat qui altaria Christi;

Hic positus longâ vixit qui in pace Sacerdos;

Hic Confessores sancti quos Græcia misit;

Hic juvenes, puerique, senes, castique nepotes,

Quis mage virgineum placuit retinere pudorem.

Hic fateor Damasus volui mea condere membra,

Sed cineres timui sanctos vexare Piorum.

"Here, if you would know, lie heaped together a number of the holy,

These honoured sepulchres inclose the bodies of the saints,

Their lofty souls the palace of heaven has received.

Here lie the companions of Xystus, who bear away the trophies

from the enemy;

Here a tribe of the elders which guards the altars of Christ;

Here is buried the priest who lived long in peace;[207]

Here the holy confessors who came from Greece;[208]

Here lie youths and boys, old men and their chaste descendants,

Who kept their virginity undefiled.

Here I Damasus wished to have laid my limbs,

But feared to disturb the holy ashes of the saints."[209]

From this chapel we enter the _Cubiculum of Sta. Cecilia_, where the

body of the saint was buried by her friend Urban after her martyrdom in

her own house in the Trastevere (see Chap. XVII.) A.D. 224, and where it

was discovered in 820 by Pope Paschal I. (to whom its resting-place had

been revealed in a dream), "fresh and perfect as when it was first laid

in the tomb, and clad in rich garments mixed with gold, with linen

cloths stained with blood rolled up at her feet, lying in a cypress

coffin."[210]

Close to the entrance of the cubiculum, upon the wall, is a painting of

Cecilia, "a woman richly attired, and adorned with bracelets and

necklaces." Near it is a niche for the lamp which burnt before the

shrine, at the back of which is a large head of Our Saviour, "of the

Byzantine type, and with rays of glory behind it in the form of a Greek

cross. Side by side with this, but on the flat surface of the wall, is a

figure of St. Urban (the friend of Cecilia, who laid her body here) in

full pontifical robes, with his name inscribed." Higher on the wall are

figures of three saints, "executed apparently in the fourth, or perhaps

even the fifth century"--Polycamus, an unknown martyr, with a palm

branch; Sebastianus; and Curinus, a bishop (Quirinus bishop of

Siscia--buried at St. Sebastian). In the pavement is a gravestone of

Septimus Pretextatus Cæcilianus, "a servant of God, who lived worthy for

three-and-thirty years;"--considered important as suggesting a

connection between the family of Cecilia and that of St. Prætextatus, in

whose catacomb on the other side of the Appian Way her husband and

brother-in-law were buried, and where her friend St. Urban was

concealed.

These two chapels are the only ones which it is necessary to dwell upon

here in detail. The rest of the catacomb is shown in varying order, and

explained in different ways. Three points are of historic interest. 1.

The roof-shaped tomb of Pope St. Melchiades, who lived long in peace and

died A.D. 313. 2. The Cubiculum of Pope St. Eusebius, in the middle of

which is placed an inscription, pagan on one side, on the other a

restoration of the fifth century of one of the beautiful inscriptions

of Pope Damasus, which is thus translated:--

"Heraclius forbade the lapsed to grieve for their sins. Eusebius

taught those unhappy ones to weep for their crimes. The people were

rent into parties, and with increasing fury began sedition,

slaughter, fighting, discord, and strife. Straightway both (the

pope and the heretic) were banished by the cruelty of the tyrant,

although the pope was preserving the bonds of peace inviolate. He

bore his exile with joy, looking to the Lord as his judge, and on

the shore of Sicily gave up the world and his life."

At the top and bottom of the tablet is the following title:--

"Damasus Episcopus fecit Eusebio episcopo et martyri,"

and on either side a single file of letters which hands down to us the

name of the sculptor who executed the Damasine inscriptions.

"Furius Dionysius Filocalus scripsit Damasis pappæ cultor atque amatot."

3. Near the exit, properly in the catacomb of Sta. Lucina, connected

with that of Calixtus by a labyrinth of galleries, is the tomb of Pope

St. Cornelius (251, 252) the only Roman bishop down to the time of St.

Sylvester (314) who bore the name of any noble Roman family, and whose

epitaph, (perhaps in consequence) is in Latin, while those of the other

popes are in Greek. The tomb has no chapel of its own, but is a mere

grave in a gallery, with a rectangular instead of a circular space

above, as in the cubicula. Near the tomb are fragments of one of the

commemorative inscriptions of St. Damasus, which has been ingeniously

restored by De Rossi thus:--

"Aspice, descensu extructo tenebrisque fugatis

Corneli monumenta vides tumulumque sacratum

Hoc opus ægroti Damasi præstantia fecit,

Esset ut accessus melior, populisque paratum

Auxilium sancti, et valeas si fundere puro

Corde preces, Damasus melior consurgere posset,

Quem non lucis amor, tenuit mage cura laboris."

"Behold! a way down has been constructed, and the darkness

dispelled; you see the monuments of Cornelius, and his sacred tomb.

This work the zeal of Damasus has accomplished, sick as he is, in

order that the approach might be better, and the aid of the saint

might be made convenient for the people; and that, if you will pour

forth your prayers from a pure heart, Damasus may rise up better in

health, though it has not been love of life, but care for work,

that has kept him (here below)."[211]

St. Cornelius was banished under Gallus to Centumcellæ--now Civita

Vecchia, and was brought back thence to Rome for martyrdom Sept. 14,

A.D. 252. On the same day of the month, in 258, died his friend and

correspondent St. Cyprian, archbishop of Carthage,[212] who is

consequently commemorated by the Church on the same day with St.

Cornelius. Therefore also, on the right of the grave, are two figures of

bishops with inscriptions declaring them to be St. Cornelius and St.

Cyprian. Each holds the book of the Gospels in his hands and is clothed

in pontifical robes, "including the pallium, which had not yet been

confined as a mark of distinction to metropolitans."[213] Beneath the

picture stands a pillar which held one of the vases of oil which were

always kept burning before the shrines of the martyr. Beyond the tomb,

at the end of the gallery, is another painting of two bishops, St.

Sistus II., martyred in the catacomb of Pretextatus, and St. Optatus

who was buried near him.

In going round this catacomb, and in most of the others, the visitor

will be shown a number of rude paintings, which will be explained to him

in various ways, according to the tendencies of his guide. The paintings

may be considered to consist of three classes, symbolical; allegorical

and biblical; and liturgical. There is little variety of subject,--the

same are introduced over and over again.

The symbols most frequently introduced on and over the graves are:--

_The Anchor_, expressive of hope. Heb. vi. 19.

_The Dove_, symbolical of the Christian soul released from its

earthly tabernacle. Ps. lv. 6.

_The Sheep_, symbolical of the soul still wandering amid the

pastures and deserts of earthly life. Ps. cxix. 176. Isaiah liii.

6. John x. 14; xxi. 15, 16, 17.

_The Phœnix_, "the palm bird," emblematical of eternity and the

resurrection.

_The Fish_--typical of Our Saviour--from the word ιχθυς, formed

by the initial letters of the titles of Our Lord--Ιησοὑς Χριστὁς

θεοὑ Υἱὁς Σωτἡρ--"Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour."

_The Ship_--representing the Church militant, sometimes seen

carried on the back of the fish.

_Bread_, represented with fish, sometimes carried in a basket on

its back, sometimes with it on a table--in allusion to the

multiplication of the loaves and fishes.

_A Female Figure Praying_, an "Orante"--in allusion to the Church.

_A Vine_--also in allusion to the Church. Ps. lxxx. 8. Isaiah v. 1.

_An Olive branch_, as a sign of peace.

_A Palm branch_, as a sign of victory and martyrdom. Rev. vii. 9.

_Allegorical and Biblical Representations._

Of these _The Good Shepherd_ requires an especial notice from the

importance which is given to it and its frequent introduction in

catacomb art, both in sculpture and painting.

"By far the most interesting of the early Christian paintings is

that of Our Saviour as the Good Shepherd, which is almost

invariably painted on the central space of the dome or cupola,

subjects of minor interest being disposed around it in

compartments, precisely in the style, as regards both the

arrangement and execution, of the heathen catacombs.

"He is represented as a youth in a shepherd's frock and sandals,

carrying the 'lost sheep' on his shoulders, or leaning on his staff

(the symbol, according to St. Augustine, of the Christian

hierarchy), while the sheep feed around, or look up at him.

Sometimes he is represented seated in the midst of the flock,

playing on a shepherd's pipe,--in a few instances, in the oldest

catacombs, he is introduced in the character of Orpheus, surrounded

by wild beasts enrapt by the melody of his lyre,--Orpheus being

then supposed to have been a prophet or precursor of the Messiah.

The background usually exhibits a landscape or meadow, sometimes

planted with olive-trees, doves resting on their branches,

symbolical of the peace of the faithful; in others, as in a fresco

preserved in the Museum Christianum, the palm of victory is

introduced, --but such combinations are endless. In one or two

instances the surrounding compartments are filled with

personifications of the Seasons, apt emblems of human life, whether

natural or spiritual.

"The subject of the Good Shepherd, I am sorry to add, is not of

Roman but Greek origin, and was adapted from a statue of Mercury

carrying a goat, at Tanagra, mentioned by Pausanias. The Christian

composition approximates to its original more nearly in the few

instances where Our Saviour is represented carrying a goat,

emblematical of the scapegoat of the wilderness. Singularly enough,

though of Greek parentage, and recommended to the Byzantines by

Constantine, who erected a statue of the Good Shepherd in the forum

of Constantinople, the subject did not become popular among them;

they seem, at least, to have tacitly abandoned it to Rome."--_Lord

Lindsay's Christian Art._

"The Good Shepherd seems to have been quite the favourite subject.

We cannot go through any part of the Catacombs, or turn over any

collection of ancient Christian monuments, without coming across it

again and again. We know from Tertullian that it was often designed

upon chalices. We find it ourselves painted in fresco upon the

roofs and walls of the sepulchral chambers; rudely scratched upon

gravestones, or more carefully sculptured on sarcophagi; traced in

gold upon glass, moulded on lamps, engraved on rings; and, in a

word, represented on every species of Christian monument that has

come down to us. Of course, amid such a multitude of examples,

there is considerable variety of treatment. We cannot, however,

appreciate the suggestion of Kügler, that this frequent repetition

of the subject is probably to be attributed to the capabilities

which it possessed in an artistic point of view. Rather, it was

selected because it expressed the whole sum and substance of the

Christian dispensation. In the language even of the Old Testament,

the action of Divine Providence upon the world is frequently

expressed by images and allegories borrowed from pastoral life; God

is the Shepherd, and men are His sheep. But in a still more special

way our Divine Redeemer offers Himself to our regards as the Good

Shepherd. He came down from His eternal throne into this wilderness

of the world to seek the lost sheep of the whole human race, and

having brought them together into one fold on earth, thence to

transport them into the ever-verdant pastures of Paradise."--_Roma

Sotterranea._

Other biblical subjects are:--from the _Old Testament_ (those of Noah,

Moses, Daniel, and Jonah being the only ones at all common)--

1. The Fall. Adam and Eve on either side of the Tree of Knowledge,

round which the serpent is coiled. Sometimes, instead of this, "Our

Saviour (as the representative of the Deity) stands between them,

condemning them, and offering a lamb to Eve and a sheaf of corn to

Adam, to signify the doom of themselves and their posterity to

delve and to spin through all future ages."

2. The Offering of Cain and Abel. They present a lamb and sheaf of

corn to a seated figure of the Almighty.

3. Noah in the Ark, represented as a box--a dove, bearing an

olive-branch, flies towards him. Interpreted to express the

doctrine that "the faithful having obtained remission of their sins

through baptism, have received from the Holy Spirit the gift of

divine peace, and are saved in the mystical ark of the church from

the destruction which awaits the world."[214] (Acts ii. 47.)

4. Sacrifice of Isaac.

5. Passage of the Red Sea.

6. Moses receiving the Law.

7. Moses striking water from the rock--(very common).

8. Moses pointing to the pots of manna.

9. Elijah going up to heaven in the chariot of fire.

10. The Three Children in the fiery furnace;--very common as

symbolical of martyrdom.

11. Daniel in the lions' den;--generally a naked figure with hands

extended, and a lion on either side; most common--as an

encouragement to Christian sufferers.

12. Jonah swallowed up by the whale, represented as a strange kind

of sea-horse.

13. Jonah disgorged by the whale.

14. Jonah under the gourd; or, according to the Vulgate, under the

ivy.

15. Jonah lamenting for the death of the gourd.

These four subjects from the story of Jonah are constantly

repeated, perhaps as encouragement to the Christians suffering from

the wickedness of Rome--the modern Nineveh, which they were to warn

and pray for.

Subjects from the _New Testament_ are:

1. The Nativity--the ox and the ass kneeling.

2. The Adoration of the Magi--repeatedly placed in juxtaposition

with the story of the Three Children.

3. Our Saviour turning water into wine.

4. Our Saviour conversing with the woman of Samaria.

5. Our Saviour healing the paralytic man--who takes up his bed.

This is very common.

6. Our Saviour healing the woman with the issue of blood.

7. Our Saviour multiplying the loaves and fishes.

8. Our Saviour healing the daughter of the woman of Canaan.

9. Our Saviour healing the blind man.

10. The raising of Lazarus, who appears at a door in his

grave-clothes, while Christ with a wand stands before it. This is

the New Testament subject oftenest introduced. It is constantly

placed in juxtaposition with a picture of Moses striking the rock.

"These two subjects may be intended to represent the beginning and

end of the Christian course, 'the fountain of water springing up to

life everlasting.' God's grace and the gift of faith being typified

by the water flowing from the rock, 'which was Christ,' and life

everlasting by the victory over death and the second life

vouchsafed to Lazarus."[215]

11. Our Saviour's triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

12. Our Saviour giving the keys to Peter--very rare.

13. Our Saviour predicting the denial of Peter.

14. The denial of Peter.

15. Our Saviour before Pilate.

16. St.Peter taken to prison.

These last six subjects are only represented on tombs.[216]

The class of paintings shown as _Liturgical_ are less definite than

these. In the Catacombs of Calixtus several obscure paintings are shown

(in cubicula anterior to the middle of the third century), which are

said to have reference to the sacrament of baptism. Pictures of the

paralytic carrying his bed are identified by some Roman Catholic

authorities with the sacrament of penance. (!) Bosio believed that in

the Catacomb of Sta. Priscilla he had found paintings which illustrated

the sacrament of ordination. Representations undoubtedly exist which

illustrate the _agape_ or love-feast of the primitive Church.

On the opposite side of the Via Appia from St. Calixtus (generally

entered from the road leading to S. Urbano) is the _Catacomb of St.

Pretextatus_, interesting as being the known burial-place of several

martyrs. A large crypt was discovered here in 1857, built with solid

masonry and lined with Greek marble.

"The workmanship points to early date, and specimens of pagan

architecture in the same neighbourhood enable us to fix the middle

of the latter half of the second century (A.D. 175) as a very

probable date for its erection. The Acts of the Saints explain to

us why it was built with bricks, and not hewn out of the rock--viz.

because the Christian who made it (Sta. Marmenia) had caused it to

be excavated immediately below her own house; and now that we see

it, we understand the precise meaning of the words used by the

itineraries describing it--viz. 'a large cavern, most firmly

built.' The vault of the chapel is most elaborately painted, in a

style by no means inferior to the best classical productions of the

age. It is divided into four bands of wreaths, one of roses,

another of corn-sheaves, a third of vine-leaves and grapes (and in

all these, birds are introduced visiting their young in nests), and

the last or highest, of leaves of laurel or the bay-tree. Of course

these severally represent the seasons of spring, summer, autumn,

and winter. The last is a well-known figure or symbol of death; and

probably the laurel, as the token of victory, was intended to

represent the new and Christian idea of the everlasting reward of a

blessed immortality. Below these bands is another border, more

indistinct, in which reapers are gathering in the corn; and at the

back of the arch is a rural scene, of which the central figure is

the Good Shepherd carrying a sheep upon his shoulders. This,

however, has been destroyed by graves pierced through the wall and

the rock behind it, from the eager desire to bury the dead of a

later generation as near as possible to the tombs of the martyrs.

As De Rossi proceeded to examine these graves in detail, he could

hardly believe his eyes when he read around the edge of one of them

these words and fragments of words:--_Mi Refrigeri Januarius

Agatopos Felicissim Martyres_--'Januarius, Agapetus, Felicissimus,

martyrs, refresh the soul of....' The words had been scratched upon

the mortar while it was yet fresh, fifteen centuries ago, as the

prayer of some bereaved relative for the soul of him whom they were

burying here, and now they revealed to the antiquarian of the

nineteenth century the secret he was in quest of--viz. the place of

burial of the saints whose aid is here invoked; for the numerous

examples to be seen in other cemeteries warrant us in concluding

that the bodies of the saints, to whose intercession the soul of

the deceased is here recommended, were at the time of his burial

lying at no great distance."--_Roma Sotterranea._

The St. Januarius buried here was the eldest of the seven sons of St.

Felicitas, martyred July 10, A.D. 162. St. Agapitus and St. Felicissimus

were deacons of Pope Sixtus II., who were martyred together with him and

St. Pretextatus[217] in this very catacomb, because Sixtus II. "had set

at nought the commands of the Emperor Valerian."[218]

A mutilated inscription of St. Damasus, in the Catacomb of Calixtus,

near the tomb of Cornelius, thus records the death of this pope:

"Tempore quo gladius secuit pia visura Matris

Hic positus rector cælestia jussa docebam;

Adveniunt subito, rapiunt qui forte sedentem;

Militibus missis, populi tunc colla dedere.

Mox sibi cognovit senior quis tollere vellet

Palmam seque suumque caput prior obtulit ipse,

Impatiens feritas posset ne lædere quemquam.

Ostendit Christus reddit qui præmia vitæ

Pastoris meritum, numerum gregis ipse tuetur."

"At the time when the sword pierced the heart of our Mother

(Church), I, its ruler, buried here, was teaching the things of

heaven. Suddenly they came, they seized me seated as I was;--the

soldiers being sent in, the people gave their necks (to the

slaughter). Soon the old man saw who was willing to bear away the

palm from himself, and was the first to offer himself and his own

head, fearing lest the blow should fall on any one else. Christ who

awards the rewards of life recognises the merit of the pastor, he

himself is preserving the number of his flock."

An adjoining crypt, considered to date from A.D. 130, is believed to be

the burial-place of St. Quirinus.

Above this catacomb are ruins of two basilicas, erected in honour of St.

Zeno; and of Tiburtius, Valerian, and Maximus, companions of Sta.

Cecilia in martyrdom.

In the road leading to S. Urbano is the entrance to the _Jewish

Catacomb_. It is entered by a chamber open to the sky, floored with

black and white mosaic, which is supposed to have formed part of a pagan

dwelling. The following chamber has remains of a well. Hence a low door

forms the entrance of a gallery out of which open six cubicula, one of

them containing a fine while marble sarcophagus, and decorated with a

painting of the seven-branched candlestick. A side passage leads to

other cubicula, and to an open space which seems to have been an actual

arenarium. A winding passage at the end of the larger gallery leads to

the graves in the floor divided into different cells for corpses, and

called _Cocim_ by Rabbinical writers. A cubiculum at the end of the

catacomb has paintings of figures--Plenty, with a cornucopia; Victory,

with a palm leaf, &c. The inscriptions found show that this cemetery was

exclusively Jewish. They refer to officers of the synagogue, rulers

(αρχοντες), and scribes (γραμματεις), &c. The inscriptions are in great

part in Greek letters, expressing Latin words.

Another small Jewish catacomb has been discovered behind the basilica of

St. Sebastian. Behind the Catacomb of St. Calixtus, on the right of the

Via Ardeatina, is the _Catacomb of SS. Nereo ed Achilleo_. Close to its

entrance is the farm of _Tor Marancia_, where are some ruins, believed

to be remains of the villa of Flavia Domitilla. This celebrated member

of the early Christian Church was daughter of the Flavia Domitilla who

was sister of the Emperor Domitian,--and wife of Titus Flavius Clemens,

son of the Titus Flavius Sabinus who was brother of the Emperor

Vespasian. Her two sons were, Vespasian Junior and Domitian Junior, who

were intended to succeed to the throne, and to whom Quinctilian was

appointed as tutor by the emperor. Dion Cassius narrates that "Domitian

put to death several persons, and amongst them Flavius Clemens the

consul, although he was his nephew, and although he had Flavia Domitilla

for his wife, who was also related to the emperor. They were both

accused of atheism, on which charge many others also had been

condemned, going after the manners and customs of the Jew; and some of

them were put to death, and others had their goods confiscated; but

Domitilla was only banished to Pandataria."[219] This Flavia Domitilla

is frequently confused with her niece of the same name,[220] whose

banishment is mentioned by Eusebius, when he says:--"The teaching of our

faith had by this time shone so far and wide, that even pagan historians

did not refuse to insert in their narratives some account of the

persecution and the martyrdoms that were suffered in it. Some, too, have

marked the time accurately, mentioning, amongst many others, in the

fifteenth year of Domitian (A.D. 97), Flavia Domitilla, the daughter of

a sister of Flavius Clemens, one of the Roman consuls of those days,

who, for her testimony for Christ, was punished by exile to the island

of Pontia." It was this younger Domitilla who was accompanied in her

exile by her two Christian servants, Nereus and Achilles; whose

banishment is spoken of by St. Jerome as "a life-long martyrdom,"--whose

cell was afterwards visited by Sta. Paula,[221] and who, according to

the Acts of SS. Nereus and Achilles, was brought back to the mainland to

be burnt alive at Terracina, because she refused to sacrifice to idols.

The relics of Domitilla, with those of her servants, were preserved in

the catacomb under the villa which had belonged to her Christian aunt.

Receiving as evidence the story of Sta. Domitilla, this catacomb must be

looked upon as the oldest Christian cemetery in existence. Its galleries

were widened and strengthened by John I. (523--526). A chamber near the

entrance is pointed out as the burial-place of Sta. Petronilla.

"The sepulchre of SS. Nereus and Achilles was in all probability in

that chapel to which we descend by so magnificent a staircase, and

which is illuminated by so fine a _luminare_; for that this is the

central point of attraction in the cemetery is clear, both from the

staircase and the luminare just mentioned, as also from the greater

width of the adjacent galleries and other similar tokens." Here

then St. Gregory the Great delivered his twenty-eighth homily

(which Baronius erroneously supposes to have been delivered in the

Church of SS. Nereo ed Achilleo, to which the bodies of the saints

were not yet removed), in which he says--"These saints, before

whose tomb we are assembled, despised the world and trampled it

under their feet, when peace, plenty, riches, and health gave it

charms."

" ... There is a higher and more ancient _piano_, in which coins

and medals of the first two centuries, and inscriptions of great

value, have been recently discovered. Some of these inscriptions

may still be seen in one of the chambers near the bottom of the

staircase; they are both Latin and Greek; sometimes both languages

are mixed; and in one or two instances Latin words are written in

Greek characters. Many of these monuments are of the deepest

importance both in an antiquarian and religious point of view; in

archaeology, as showing the practice of private Christians in the

first ages to make the subterranean chambers at their own expense

and for their own use, _e. g._--'M. Aurelius Restutus made this

subterranean for himself, and those of his family who believed in

the Lord,'--where, both the triple names and the limitation

introduced at the end (which shows that many of his family were

still pagan), are unquestionably proofs of very high

antiquity."--_Northcote's Roman Catacombs_, p. 103, &c.

Among the most remarkable paintings in this catacomb are, Orpheus with

his lyre, surrounded by birds and beasts who are charmed with his music;

Elijah ascending to heaven in a chariot drawn by four horses; and the

portrait of Our Lord.

"The head and bust of our Lord form a medallion, occupying the

centre of the roof in the same _cubiculum_ where Orpheus is

represented. This painting, in consequence of the description

given of it by Kügler (who misnamed the catacomb St. Calixtus), is

often eagerly sought after by strangers visiting the catacombs. It

is only just, however, to add, that they are generally

disappointed. Kügler supposed it to be the oldest portrait of Our

Blessed Saviour in existence, but we doubt if there is sufficient

authority for such a statement. He describes it in these

words:--'The face is oval, with a straight nose, arched eyebrows, a

smooth and rather high forehead, the expression serious and mild;

the hair, parted on the forehead, flows in long curls down the

shoulders; the beard is not thick, but short and divided; the age

between thirty and forty.' But this description is too minute and

precise, too artistic, for the original, as it is now to be seen. A

lively imagination may, perhaps, supply the details described by

our author, but the eye certainly fails to distinguish

them."--_Roma Sotterranea_, p. 253.

Approached by a separate entrance on the slope of the hill-side is a

sepulchral chamber, which De Rossi considers to have been the

_Burial-place of Sta. Domitilla_.

"It is certainly one of the most ancient and remarkable Christian

monuments yet discovered. Its position, close to the highway; its

front of fine brickwork, with a cornice of terra-cotta, with the

usual space for an inscription (which has now, alas, perished); the

spaciousness of its gallery, with its four or five separate niches

prepared for as many sarcophagi; the fine stucco on the wall; the

eminently classical character of its decorations; all these things

make it perfectly clear that it was the monument of a Christian

family of distinction, excavated at great cost, and without the

slightest attempt at concealment. In passing from the vestibule

into the catacomb, we recognise the transition from the use of the

sarcophagus to that of the common _loculus_; for the first two or

three graves on either side, though really mere shelves in the

wall, are so disguised by painting on the outside as to present to

passers-by the complete outward appearance of a sarcophagus. Some

few of these graves are marked with the names of the dead, written

in black on the largest tiles, and the inscriptions on the other

graves are all of the simplest and oldest form. Lastly, the whole

of the vaulted roof is covered with the most exquisitely graceful

designs, of branches of the vine (with birds and winged genii among

them) trailing with all the freedom of nature over the whole walls,

not fearing any interruption by graves, nor confined by any of

those lines of geometrical symmetry which characterise similar

productions in the next century. Traces also of landscapes may be

seen here and there, which are of rare occurrence in the catacombs,

though they may be seen in the chambers assigned by De Rossi to SS.

Nereus and Achilles. The Good Shepherd, an _agape_, or the heavenly

feast, a man fishing, and Daniel in the lions' den, are the chief

historical or allegorical representations of Christian mysteries

which are painted here. Unfortunately they have been almost

destroyed by persons attempting to detach them from the

wall."--_Roma Sotterranea_, p. 70.

* * * * *

A road to the left now leads to the Via Appia Nuova, passing about a

quarter of a mile hence, a turn on the left to the ruin generally known

as the _Temple of Bacchus_, from an altar dedicated to Bacchus which was

found there, but considered by modern antiquaries as a temple of Ceres

and Proserpine. This building has been comparatively saved from the

destruction which has befallen its neighbours by having been consecrated

as a church in A.D. 820 by Pope Pascal I., in honour of his sainted

predecessor Urban I., A.D. 226--whose pontificate was chiefly passed in

refuge in the neighbouring Catacomb of St. Calixtus--because of a belief

that he was wont to resort hither.

A chapel at a great depth below the church, is shown as that in which

St. Urban baptized and celebrated mass. A curious fresco here represents

the Virgin between St. Urban and St. John.

Around the upper part of the interior are a much injured series of

frescoes, comprising--the life of Christ from the Annunciation to the

descent into Hades,--and the life of St. Cecilia and her husband

Valerian, ending in the burial of Cecilia by Pope Urban in the Catacombs

of Calixtus, and the story of the martyred Urban I. In the picture of

the Crucifixion, the thieves have their names, "Calpurnius and

Longinus." The frescoes were altered in the seventeenth century to suit

the views of the Roman Church, keys being placed in the hand of Peter,

&c. Sets of drawings taken _before_ and _after_ the alterations, are

preserved in the Barberini Library, and curiously show the difference.

A winding path leads from S. Urbano into the valley. Here, beside the

Almo rivulet, is a ruined Nymphæum containing a mutilated statue of a

river-god, which was called "the Grotto of Egeria," till a few years

ago, when the discovery of the true site of the Porta Capena fixed that

of the grotto within the walls. The fine grove of old ilex-trees on the

hillside, was at the same time pointed out as the sacred grove of

Egeria.

"Egeria! sweet creation of some heart

Which found no mortal resting-place so fair

As thine ideal breast; whate'er thou art

Or wert,--a young Aurora of the air,

The nympholepsy of some fond despair;

Or, it might be, a beauty of the earth,

Who found a more than common votary there

Too much adoring; whatsoe'er thy birth,

Thou wert a beautiful thought, and softly bodied forth.

"The mosses of thy fountain still are sprinkled

With thine Elysian water-drops; the face

Of thy cave-guarded spring, with years unwrinkled,

Reflects the meek-eyed genius of the place,

Whose green, wild margin now no more erase

Art's works; nor must the delicate waters sleep,

Prisoned in marble, bubbling from the base

Of the cleft statue, with a gentle leap

The rill runs o'er, and round, fern, flowers, and ivy, creep,

"Fantastically tangled; the green hills

Are clothed with early blossoms, through the grass

The quick-eyed lizard rustles, and the bills

Of summer-birds sing welcome as ye pass;

Flowers fresh in hue, and many in their class,

Implore the pausing step, and with their dyes

Dance in the soft breeze in a fairy mass;

The sweetness of the violet's deep blue eyes,

Kiss'd by the breath of heaven, seems coloured by its skies."

_Byron, Childe Harold._

It is now known that this nymphæum and the valley in which it stands

belonged to the suburban villa called Triopio, of Herodes Atticus, whose

romantic story is handed down to us through two Greek inscriptions in

the possession of the Borghese family, and is further illustrated by the

writings of Filostratus and Pausanias.

A wealthy Greek named Ipparchus offended his government and lost

all his wealth by confiscation, but the family fortunes were

redeemed, through the discovery by his son Atticus of a vast

treasure, concealed in a small piece of ground which remained to

them, close to the rock of the Acropolis. Dreading the avarice of

his fellow-citizens, Atticus sent at once to Nerva, the then

emperor, telling him of the discovery, and requesting his orders as

to what he was to do with the treasure. Nerva replied, that he was

welcome to keep it, and use it as he pleased. Not yet satisfied or

feeling sufficiently sure of the protection of the emperor, Atticus

again applied to him, saying that the treasure was far too vast for

the use of a person in a private station of life, and asking how he

was to use it. The emperor again replied that the treasure was his

own and due to his own good fortune, and that "what he could not

use he might abuse." Atticus then entered securely into possession

of his wealth, which he bequeathed to his son Herodes, who used his

fortune magnificently in his bountiful charities, in the

encouragement of literature and art throughout both Greece and

Italy, and (best appreciated of all by the Greeks) in the splendour

of the public games which he gave.

Early in the reign of Antoninus Pius, Herodes Atticus removed to

Rome, where he was appointed professor of rhetoric to Marcus

Aurelius and Lucius Verus, the two adopted sons of the emperor, and

where he attained the consulship in A.D. 143. Soon after his

arrival he fell in love with Annia Regilla, a beautiful and wealthy

heiress, and in spite of the violent opposition of her brother,

Annius Attilius Braduas, who, belonging to the Julian family, and

claiming an imaginary descent from Venus and Anchises, looked upon

the marriage as a mesalliance, he succeeded in obtaining her hand.

Part of the wealth which Annia Regilla brought to her husband was

the Valle Caffarelli and its nymphæum.

For some years Herodes Atticus and Annia Regilla enjoyed the

perfection of married happiness in this beautiful valley; but

shortly before the expected birth of her fifth child, she died very

suddenly, leaving her husband almost frantic with grief and

refusing every consolation. He was roused, however, from his first

anguish by his brother-in-law Annius Braduas, who had never laid

aside his resentment at the marriage, and who now accused him of

having poisoned his wife. Herodes demanded a public trial, and was

acquitted. Filostratus records that the intense grief he showed and

the depth of the mourning he wore, were taken as signs of his

innocence. Further to clear himself from imputation, Herodes

offered all the jewels of Annia Regilla upon the altar of the

Eleusinian deities, Ceres and Proserpine, at the same time calling

down the vengeance of the outraged gods if he were guilty of

sacrilege.

The beloved Regilla was buried in a tomb surrounded by "a

sepulchral field" within the precincts of the villa, dedicated to

Minerva and Nemesis, and (as recorded in one of the Greek

inscriptions) it was made an act of the highest sacrilege, for any

but her own descendants to be laid within those sacred limits. A

statue was also erected to Regilla in the Triopian temple of Ceres

and Proserpine, which is now supposed to be the same with that

usually called the temple of Bacchus. Not only did Herodes hang his

house with black in his affliction, but all gaily coloured marbles

were stripped from the walls, and replaced with the dark grey

marble known as "bardiglio,"--and his depth of woe made him so

conspicuous, that a satirical person seeing his cook prepare white

beans for dinner, wondered that he could dare to do so in a house

so entirely black.

The inscriptions in which this story is related (one of them containing

thirty-nine Greek verses) are engraved on slabs of Pentelic marble--and

Philostratus and Pausanias narrate that the quarries of this marble were

the property of Herodes, and that in his magnificent buildings he almost

exhausted them.[222]

The field path from hence leads back to the Church of Domine Quo Vadis,

passing on the right a beautifully-finished tomb (of the time of

Septimius Severus) known as the _Temple of Divus Rediculus_, and

formerly described as having been built to commemorate the retreat of

Hannibal, who came thus far in his intended attack upon Rome. The temple

erected in memory of this event was really on the right of the Via

Appia. It was dedicated to Rediculus, the god of Return. The folly of

ciceroni often cites this name as "Ridiculous."

The neighbourhood of the Divus Rediculus (which he however places

on the _right_ of the Via Appia) is described by Pliny in

connection with a curious story of imperial times. There was a

cobbler who had his stall in the Roman Forum, and who possessed a

tame raven, which was a great favourite with the young Romans, to

whom he would bid good day as he sate perched upon the rostra. At

length he became quite a public character, and the indignation was

so great when his master killed him with his hammer in a fit of

rage at his spoiling some new leather, that they slew the cobbler

and decreed a public funeral to the bird; who was carried to the

grave on a bier adorned with honorary crowns, preceded by a piper,

and supported by two negroes in honour of his colour,--and

buried--"ad rogum usque, qui constructus dextrâ Viæ Appiæ ad

secundum lapidem in campo Rediculo appellate fuit."--_Pliny, Nat.

Hist._ lib. x. c. 60.

* * * * *

Returning to the Via Appia, we reach, on the right, the _Basilica of S.

Sebastiano_, rebuilt in 1611 by Flaminio Ponzio for Cardinal Scipio

Borghese on the site of a church which had been founded by Constantine,

where once existed the house and garden of the matron Lucina, in which

she had buried the body of Sebastian, after his (second) martyrdom under

Diocletian. The basilica contains nothing ancient, but the six granite

columns in the portico. The altar covers the relics of the saint (a

Gaul, a native of Narbonne, a Christian soldier under Diocletian) and

the chapel of St. Sebastian has a statue of him in his youth, designed

by Bernini and executed by Antonio Giorgetti.

"The almost colossal form lies dead, the head resting on his helmet

and armour. It is evidently modelled from nature, and is perhaps

the finest thing ever designed by Bernini.... It is probably from

the association of arrows with his form and story that St.

Sebastian has been regarded from the first ages of Christianity as

the protecting saint against plague and pestilence; Apollo was the

deity who inflicted plague, and therefore was invoked with prayer

and sacrifice against it; and to the honour of Apollo, in this

particular character, St. Sebastian has succeeded."--_Jameson's

Sacred Art_, p. 414.

The original of the footprint in the Domine Quo Vadis is said to be

preserved here.

On the left of the entrance is the descent into the catacombs, with the

inscription:

"In hoc sacrosancto loco qui dicitur ad Catacumbas, ubi sepulta

fuerunt sanctorum martyrum corpora 174,000 ac 46 summorum

pontificium pariterque martyrum. In altare in quo corpus divi

Sebastiani Christi athletæ jacet celebrans summus Pontifex S.

Gregorius Magnus vidit angelum Dei candidiorem nive, sibi in

tremendo sacrificio ministrantem ac dicentem, 'Hic est locus

sacratissimus in quo est divina promissio et omnium peccatorum

remissio, splendor et lux perpetua, sine fine lætitia, quam Christi

martyr Sebastianus habere promeruit.' Prout Severanus Tom. Pº.

pagina 450, ac etiam antiquissimæ lapideæ testantur tabulæ.

"Ideo in hoc insigne privilegiato altari, tam missæ cantatæ quam

privatæ, dum celebrante, animæ quæ sunt in purgatorio pro quibus

sacrificium offertur plenariam indulgentiam, et omnium suorum

peccatorum remissionem consequuntur prout ab angelo dictum fuit et

summi pontifices confirmarunt."

These are the catacombs which are most frequently visited by strangers,

because they can always be seen on application to the monks attached to

the church,--though they are of greatly inferior interest to those of St

Calixtus.

"Though future excavations may bring to light much that is

interesting in this cemetery, the small portion now accessible is,

as a specimen of the Catacombs, utterly without value. Its only

interest consists in its religious associations: here St. Bridget

was wont to kneel, rapt in contemplation; here St. Charles Borromeo

spent whole nights in prayer; and here the heart of St. Philip Neri

was so inflamed with divine love as to cause his very bodily frame

to be changed."--_Northcote's Roman Catacombs._

"Philip, on thee the glowing ray

Of heaven came down upon thy prayer,

To melt thy heart, and burn away

All that of earthly dross was there.

"And so, on Philip when we gaze,

We see the image of his Lord;

The saint dissolves amid the blaze

Which circles round the Living Word.

"The meek, the wise, none else is here,

Dispensing light to men below;

His awful accents fill the ear,

Now keen as fire, now soft as snow."

_J. H. Newman_, 1850.

Owing to the desire in the early Christian Church of saving the graves

of their first confessors and martyrs from desecration, almost all the

catacombs were gradually blocked up, and by lapse of time their very

entrances were forgotten. In the fourteenth century very few were still

open. In the fifteenth century none remained except this of St.

Sebastian, which continued to be frequented by pilgrims, and was called

in all ancient documents "cœmeterium ad catacumbas."

At the back of the high-altar is an interesting half-subterranean

building, attributed to Pope Liberius (352--355), and afterwards adorned

by Pope Damasus, who briefly tells its history in one of his

inscriptions, which may still be seen here:

"Hinc habitasse prius sanctos cognoscere debes,

Nomina quisque Petri pariter Paulique requiris.

Discipulos Oriens misit, quod sponte fatemur,

Sanguinis ob meritum Christumque per astra sequuti,

Aetherios petiere sinus et regna piorum.

Roma suos potius meruit defendere cives.

Hæc Damasus vestras referat sidera laudes."

"Here you should know that saints dwelt. Their names, if you ask

them, were Peter and Paul. The East sent disciples, which we freely

acknowledge. For the merit of their blood they followed Christ to

the stars, and sought the heavenly home and the kingdom of the

blest. Rome however deserved to defend her own citizens. May

Damasus record these things for your praise, O new stars."

"The two Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, were originally buried,

the one at the Vatican, the other on the Ostian Way, at the spot

where their respective basilicas now stand; but, as soon as the

Oriental Christians had heard of their death, they sent some of

their brethren to remove their bodies, and bring them back to the

East, where they considered that they had a right to claim them as

their fellow-citizens and countrymen. These so far prospered in

their mission as to gain a momentary possession of the sacred

relics, which they carried off, along the Appian Way, as far as the

spot where the church of St. Sebastian was afterwards built. Here

they rested for a while, to make all things ready for their

journey, or, according to another account, were detained by a

thunderstorm of extraordinary violence, which delay, however

occasioned, was sufficient to enable the Christians of Rome to

overtake them and recover their lost treasure. These Roman

Christians then buried the bodies, with the utmost secrecy, in a

deep pit, which they dug on the very spot where they were. Soon,

indeed, they were restored to their original places of sepulture,

as we know from contemporary authorities, and there seems reason to

believe the old ecclesiastical tradition to be correct, which

states them to have only remained in this temporary abode for a

year and seven months. The body of St. Peter, however, was destined

to revisit it a second time, and for a longer period; for when, at

the beginning of the third century, Heliogabalus made his circus at

the Vatican, Calixtus, who was then pope, removed the relics of the

Apostle to their former temporary resting-place, the pit on the

Appian Way. But in A.D. 257, St. Stephen, the pope, having been

discovered in this very cemetery and having suffered martyrdom

there, the body of St. Peter was once more removed, and restored to

its original tomb in the Vatican."--_Northcote's Roman Catacombs._

In the passages of this catacomb are misguiding inscriptions placed here

in 1409 by William, Archbishop of Bourges, calling upon the faithful to

venerate _here_ the tombs of Sta. Cecilia and of many of the martyred

popes, who are buried elsewhere. The martyr St. Cyrinus is known to have

been buried here from very early itineraries, but his grave has not been

discovered.

"When I was a boy, being educated at Rome, I used every Sunday, in

company with other boys of my own age and tastes, to visit the

tombs of the apostles and martyrs, and to go into the crypts

excavated there in the bowels of the earth. The walls on either

side as you enter are full of the bodies of the dead, and the whole

place is so dark, that one seems almost to see the fulfilment of

those words of the prophet, 'Let them go down alive into Hades.'

Here and there a little light, admitted from above, suffices to

give a momentary relief to the horror of the darkness; but as you

go forwards, and find yourself again immersed in the utter

blackness of night, the words of the poet come spontaneously to

your mind: 'The very silence fills the soul with dread.'"--_St.

Jerome_ (A.D. 354), _In Ezek._ ch. lx.

"A gaunt Franciscan friar, with a wild bright eye, was our only

guide down into this profound and dreadful place. The narrow ways

and openings hither and thither, coupled with the dead and heavy

air, soon blotted out, in all of us, any recollection of the track

by which we had come; and I could not help thinking, 'Good Heaven,

if in a sudden fit of madness he should dash the torches out, or if

he should be seized with a fit, what would become of us!' On we

wandered, among martyrs' graves: passing great subterranean vaulted

roads, diverging in all directions, and choked up with heaps of

stones, that thieves and murderers may not take refuge there, and

form a population under Rome, even worse than that which lives

between it and the sun. Graves, graves, graves; graves of men, of

women, of little children, who ran crying to the persecutors, 'We

are Christians! we are Christians!' that they might be murdered

with their parents; graves with the palm of martyrdom roughly cut

into their stone boundaries, and little niches, made to hold a

vessel of the martyr's blood; graves of some who lived down here,

for years together, ministering to the rest, and preaching truth,

and hope, and comfort, from the rude altars, that bear witness to

their fortitude at this hour; more roomy graves, but far more

terrible, where hundreds, being surprised, were hemmed in and

walled up; buried before death, and killed by slow starvation.

"'The triumphs of the Faith are not above-ground in our splendid

churches,' said the friar, looking round upon us, as we stopped to

rest in one of the low passages, with bones and dust surrounding us

on every side. 'They are here! among the martyrs' graves!' He was a

gentle, earnest man, and said it from his heart; but when I thought

how Christian men have dealt with one another; how, perverting our

most merciful religion, they have hunted down and tortured, burnt

and beheaded, strangled, slaughtered, and oppressed each other; I

pictured to myself an agony surpassing any that this Dust had

suffered with the breath of life yet lingering in it, and how these

great and constant hearts would have been shaken--how they would

have quailed and drooped--if a foreknowledge of the deeds that

professing Christians would commit in the great name for which they

died, could have rent them with its own unutterable anguish, on the

cruel wheel, and bitter cross, and in the fearful

fire."--_Dickens._

"Countless martyrs, they say, rest in these ancient sepulchres. In

these dark depths the ancient Church took refuge from persecution;

there she laid her martyrs, and there, over their tombs, she

chaunted hymns of triumph, and held communion with Him for whom

they died. In that church I spend hours. I have no wish to descend

into those sacred sepulchres, and pry among the graves the

resurrection trump will open soon enough. I like to think of the

holy dead, lying undisturbed and quiet there; of their spirits in

Paradise; of their faith triumphant in the city that massacred

them.

"No doubt they also had their perplexities, and wondered why the

wicked triumph, and sighed to God, 'How long, O Lord, how

long?'"--_Schonberg Cotta Family._

"And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the

souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the

testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice,

saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and

avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes

were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that

they should rest yet for a little season, until their

fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as

they were, should be fulfilled."--_Rev._ vi. 9--11.

In the valley beneath S. Sebastiano are the ruins of the _Circus of

Maxentius_, near those of a villa of that emperor. The circus was 1482

feet long, 244 feet broad, and was capable of containing 15,000

spectators, yet it is a miniature compared with the Circus Maximus,

though very interesting as retaining in tolerable preservation all the

different parts which composed a circus. The circular ruin near it was a

_Temple_ dedicated by Maxentius to his son Romulus.

"Le jeune Romulus, étant mort, fut placé au rang des dieux, dans

cet olympe qui s'écroulait. Son père lui éleva un temple dont la

partie inférieure se voit encore, et le cirque lui-même fut

peut-être une dépendance de ce temple funèbre, car les courses de

chars étaient un des honneurs que l'antiquité rendait aux morts, et

sont souvent pour cela représentées sur les tombeaux."--_Ampère,

Emp._ ii. 360.

These ruins are very picturesque, backed by the peaks of the Sabine

range, which in winter are generally covered with snow.

The opposite hill is crowned by the _Tomb of Cecilia Metella_, daughter

of Quintus Metellus Creticus, and wife of Crassus. It is a round tower,

seventy feet in diameter. The bulls' heads on the frieze gave it the

popular name of Capo di Bove. The marble coating of the basement was

carried off by Urban VIII. to make the fountain of Trevi. The

battlements were added when the tomb was turned into a fortress by the

Caëtani in the thirteenth century.

"About two miles, or more, from the city gates, and right upon the

roadside, is an immense round pile, sepulchral in its original

purpose, like those already mentioned. It is built of great blocks

of hewn stone, on a vast, square foundation of rough, agglomerated

material, such as composes the mass of all the other ruinous tombs.

But, whatever might be the cause, it is in a far better state of

preservation than they. On its broad summit rise the battlements of

a mediæval fortress, out of the midst of which (so long since had

time begun to crumble the supplemental structure, and cover it with

soil, by means of wayside dust) grow trees, bushes, and thick

festoons of ivy. This tomb of a woman has become the dungeon-keep

of a castle; and all the care that Cecilia Metella's husband could

bestow, to secure endless peace for her beloved relics, only

sufficed to make that handful of precious ashes the nucleus of

battles, long ages after her death."--_Hawthorne, Transformation._

"There is a stern round tower of other days,

Firm as a fortress, with its fence of stone,

Such as an army's baffled strength delays,

Standing with half its battlements alone,

And with two thousand years of ivy grown,

The garland of eternity, where wave

The green leaves over all by time o'erthrown;--

What was this tower of strength? within its cave

What treasure lay so lock'd, so hid?--a woman's grave.

"But who was she, the lady of the dead,

Tomb'd in a palace? Was she chaste and fair?

Worthy a king's--or more--a Roman's bed?

What race of chiefs and heroes did she bear?

What daughter of her beauties was the heir?

How lived--how loved--how died she? Was she not

So honoured--and conspicuously there,

Where meaner relics must not dare to rot,

Placed to commemorate a more than mortal lot?

"Perchance she died in youth: it may be, bow'd

With woes far heavier than the ponderous tomb

That weigh'd upon her gentle dust, a cloud

Might gather o'er her beauty, and a gloom

In her dark eye, prophetic of the doom

Heaven gives its favourites--early death; yet shed

A sunset charm around her, and illume

With hectic light, the Hesperus of the dead,

Of her consuming cheek the autumnal leaf-like red.

"Perchance she died in age--surviving all,

Charms, kindred, children--with the silver grey

On her long tresses, which might yet recall,

It may be, still a something of the day

When they were braided, and her proud array

And lovely form were envied, praised, and eyed

By Rome--but whither would Conjecture stray?

Thus much alone we know--Metella died,

The wealthiest Roman's wife: Behold his love or pride!"

_Childe Harold._

Close to the tomb are the ruins of a Gothic church of the Caëtani.

"Le tombeau de Cecilia-Metella était devenu un château fort alors

aux mains des Caëtani, et autour du château s'était formé un

village avec son église, dont on a récemment retrouvé les

restes."--_Ampère, Voyage Dantesque._

It is at Cecilia Metella's tomb that the beauties of the Via Appia

really begin. A very short distance further, we emerge from the walls

which have hitherto shut in the road on either side, and enjoy

uninterrupted views over the Latin plain, strewn with its ruined castles

and villages--and the long lines of aqueducts, to the Sabine and Alban

mountains.

"The Via Appia is a magnificent promenade, amongst ruinous tombs,

the massive remains of which extend for many miles over the Roman

Campagna. The powerful families of ancient Rome loved to build

monuments to their dead by the side of the public road, probably to

exhibit at once their affection for their relations and their own

power and affluence. Most of these monuments are now nothing but

heaps of ruins, upon which are placed the statues and sculptures

which have been found in the earth or amongst the rubbish. Those

inscriptions which have been found on the Via Appia bear witness to

the grief of the living for the dead, but never to the hope of

reunion. On a great number of sarcophagi or the friezes of tombs

may be seen the dead sitting or lying as if they were alive, some

seem to be praying. Many heads have great individuality of

character. Sometimes a white marble figure, beautifully draped,

projects from these heaps of ruins, but without head or hands;

sometimes a hand is stretched out, or a portion of a figure rises

from the tomb. It is a street through monuments of the dead, across

an immense churchyard; for the desolate Roman Campagna may be

regarded as such. To the left it is scattered with the ruins of

colossal aqueducts, which, during the time of the emperors,

conveyed lakes and rivers to Rome, and which still, ruinous and

destroyed, delight the eye by the beautiful proportions of their

arcades. To the right is an immense prairie, without any other

limit than that of the ocean, which, however, is not seen from it.

The country is desolate, and only here and there are there any huts

or trees to be seen."--_Frederika Bremer._

"For the space of a mile or two beyond the gate of S. Sebastiano,

this ancient and famous road is as desolate and disagreeable as

most of the other Roman avenues. It extends over small,

uncomfortable paving-stones, between brick and plastered walls,

which are very solidly constructed, and so high as almost to

exclude a view of the surrounding country. The houses are of the

most uninviting aspect, neither picturesque, nor homelike and

social; they have seldom or never a door opening on the wayside,

but are accessible only from the rear, and frown inhospitably upon

the traveller through iron-grated windows. Here and there appears a

dreary inn, or a wine-shop, designated by the withered bush beside

the entrance, within which you discover a stone-built and

sepulchral interior, where guests refresh themselves with sour

bread and goat's-milk cheese, washed down with wine of dolorous

acerbity.

"At frequent intervals along the roadside, up rises the ruin of an

ancient tomb. As they stand now, these structures are immensely

high, and broken mounds of conglomerated brick, stone, pebbles, and

earth, all molten by time into a mass as solid and indestructible

as if each tomb were composed of a single boulder of granite. When

first erected, they were cased externally, no doubt, with slabs of

polished marble, artfully wrought, bas-reliefs, and all such

suitable adornments, and were rendered majestically beautiful by

grand architectural designs. This antique splendour has long since

been stolen from the dead, to decorate the palaces and churches of

the living. Nothing remains to the dishonoured sepulchres, except

their massiveness.

"Even the pyramids form hardly a stranger spectacle, or a more

alien from human sympathies, than the tombs of the Appian Way, with

their gigantic height, breadth, and solidity, defying time and the

elements, and far too mighty to be demolished by an ordinary

earthquake. Here you may see a modern dwelling, and a garden with

its vines and olive-trees, perched on the lofty dilapidation of a

tomb, which forms a precipice of fifty feet in depth on each of the

four sides. There is a house on that funeral mound, where

generations of children have been born, and successive lives have

been spent, undisturbed by the ghost of the stern Roman whose ashes

were so preposterously burdened. Other sepulchres wear a crown of

grass, shrubbery, and forest-trees, which throw out a broad sweep

of branches, having had time, twice over, to be a thousand years

of age. On one of them stands a tower, which, though immemorially

more modern than the tomb, was itself built by immemorial hands,

and is now rifted quite from top to bottom by a vast fissure of

decay; the tomb-hillock, its foundation, being still as firm as

ever, and likely to endure until the last trump shall rend it wide

asunder, and summon forth its unknown dead.

"Yes, its unknown dead! For, except in one or two doubtful

instances, these mountainous sepulchral edifices have not availed

to keep so much as the bare name of an individual or a family from

oblivion. Ambitious of everlasting remembrance as they were, the

slumberers might just as well have gone quietly to rest, each in

his pigeon-hole of a columbarium, or under his little green

hillock, in a grave-yard, without a headstone to mark the spot. It

is rather satisfactory than otherwise, to think that all these idle

pains have turned out so utterly abortive."--_Hawthorne._

Near the fourth milestone, is the tomb of Marcus Servilius Quartus (with

an inscription), restored by Canova in 1808. A bas-relief of the death

of Atys, killed by Adrastus, a short distance beyond this, has been

suggested as part of the tomb of Seneca, who was put to death "near the

fourth milestone" by order of Nero. An inscribed tomb beyond this is

that of Sextus Pompeius Justus.

Near this, in the Campagna on the left, are some small remains, supposed

to be those of a Temple of Juno.

Beyond this a number of tombs can be identified, but none of any

importance. Such are the tombs of Plinius Eutychius, erected by Plinius

Zosimus, a freedman of Pliny the younger; of Caius Licinius; the Doric

tomb of the tax-gatherer Claudius Philippanus, inscribed "Tito. Claudio.

Secundo. Philippiano. Coactori. Flavia. Irene. Vxori Indulgentissimo;"

of Rabinius, with three busts in relief; of Hermodorus; of Elsia Prima,

priestess of Isis; of Marcus C. Cerdonus, with the bas-relief of an

elephant bearing a burning altar.

Beyond the fifth milestone, two circular mounds with basements of

peperino, were considered by Canina to be the tombs of the Horatii and

Curiatii.

On the opposite side of the road is the exceedingly picturesque mediæval

fortress, known as _Torre Mezza Strada_, into which are incorporated the

remains of the Church of Sta. Maria Nuova, or della Gloria. Behind this

extend a vast assemblage of ruins, which form a splendid foreground to

the distant mountain view, and whose size has led to their receiving the

popular epithet of _Roma Vecchia_. Here was the favourite villa of the

Emperor Commodus, where he was residing, when the people, excited by a

sudden impulse during the games of the Circus, rose and poured out of

Rome against him--as the inhabitants of Paris to Versailles--and refused

to depart, till, terrified into action by the entreaties of his

concubine Marcia, he tossed the head of the unpopular Cleander to them

out of the window, and had the brains of that minister's child dashed

out against the stones. This villa is proved by the discovery of a

number of pipes bearing their names to have been that of the brothers

Condianus and Maximus, of the great family of the Quintilii, which was

confiscated by Commodus.

"L'histoire des deux frères est intéressante et romanesque.

Condianus et Maximus Quintilius étaient distingués par la science,

les talents militaires, la richesse, et surtout par une tendresse

mutuelle qui ne s'était jamais démentie. Servant toujours ensemble,

l'un se faisait le lieutenant de l'autre. Bien qu'étrangers à toute

conspiration, leur vertu les fit soupçonner d'être peu favorables à

Commode; ils furent proscrits et moururent ensemble comme ils

avaient vécu. L'un d'eux avait un fils nommé Sextus. Au moment de

la mort de son père et de son oncle, ce fils se trouvait en Syrie.

Pensant bien que le même sort l'attendait, il feignit de mourir

pour sauver sa vie. Sextus, après avoir bu sang du lièvre, monta à

cheval, se laissa tomber, vomit le sang qu'il avait pris et qui

parut être son propre sang. On mit dans sa bière le corps d'un

bélier qui passa pour son cadavre, et il disparut. Depuis ce temps,

il erra sons divers déguisements; mais on sut qu'il avait échappé,

et on se mit à sa recherche. Beaucoup furent tués parce-qu'ils lui

ressemblaient ou parce-qu'ils étaient soupçonnés de lui avoir donné

asile. Il n'est pas bien sûr qu'il ait été atteint, que sa tête se

trouvât parmi celles qu'on apporta à Rome et qu'on dit être la

sienne. Ce qui est certain, c'est qu'après la mort de Commode, un

aventurier, tenté par la belle villa et par les grandes richesses

des Quintilii, se donna pour Sextus et réclama son héritage. Il

paraît ne pas avoir manqué d'adresse et avoir connu celui pour

lequel il voulut qu'on le prît, car par ses réponses il se tira

très-bien de toutes les enquêtes. Peut-être s'était-il lié avec

Sextus et l'avait-il assassiné ensuite. Cependant l'empereur

Pertinax, successeur de Commode, l'ayant fait venir, eut l'idée de

lui parler grec. Le vrai Sextus connaissait parfaitement cette

langue. Le faux Sextus, qui ne savait pas le grec, répondit tout de

travers, et sa fraude fut ainsi découverte."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii.

253.

On the left of the Via Appia, appears a huge monument, on a narrow base,

called the Tomb of the Metelli. Beyond this, after the fifth milestone,

are the tombs of Sergius Demetrius, a wine merchant; of Lucius Arrius;

of Septimia Gallia; and of one of the Cæcilii, in whose sepulchre,

according to Eutropius, was buried Pomponius Atticus, the friend of

Cicero, whose daughter Vipsania was the first wife of Agrippa, and whose

granddaughter Vipsania Agrippina was the first wife of Tiberius.

Close to the sixth milestone is the mass of masonry sometimes called

"Casale Rotondo," or "Cotta's Tomb," from that name being found there

inscribed on a stone, but generally attributed to Messala Corvinus, the

poet, and friend of Horace, and believed to have been raised to him by

his son Valerius Maximus Cotta, mentioned in Ovid.

"Te autem in turba non ausim, Cotta, silere,

Pieridum lumen, præsidiumque fori."

_Epist._ xvi.

This tomb was even larger than that of Cecilia Metella, and was turned

into a fortress by the Orsini in the fifteenth century.

Beyond this are tombs identified as those of P. Quintius, tribune of the

sixteenth legion; Marcus Julius, steward of Claudius; Publius Decumius

Philomusus (with appropriate bas-reliefs of two mice nibbling a cake);

and of Cedritius Flaccianius.

Passing on the left the _Tor di Selce_, erected upon a huge unknown

tomb, are the tombs of Titia Eucharis, and of Atilius Evodus, jeweller

(margaritarius) on the Via Sacra, with the inscription, "Hospes

resiste--aspice ubi continentur ossa hominis boni misericordis amantis

pauperis." Near the eighth milestone are ruins attributed to the temples

of Silvanus and of Hercules,--of which the latter is mentioned in

Martial's Epigrams, beyond which were the villas of Bassus and of

Persius. The last tomb identified is that of Quintus Verranius. Near the

ninth milestone is a tomb supposed to be that of Gallienus (Imp. 268),

who lived close by in a villa, amid the ruins of which "the Discobolus"

was discovered.

From the stream called Pontecello, near the tenth milestone, the road

gradually ascends to Albano, passing several large but unnamed tombs. At

the Osteria delle Frattocchie it joins the Via Appia Nuova. Close to the

gate of Albano, it passes on the left the tall tomb attributed to Pompey

the Great, in accordance with the statement of Plutarch, and in spite of

the epigram of Varro Atacinus, which says:--

"Marmoreo Licinius tumulo jacet; at Cato parvo;

Pompeius nullo: quis putet esse Deus."

Among the many processions which have passed along this road, perhaps

the most remarkable have been that bearing back to Rome the dead body of

Sylla, who died at Pozzuoli, "in a gilt litter, with royal ornaments,

trumpets before him, and horsemen behind;"[223] and the funeral of

Augustus, who dying at Nola (A.D. 14), was brought to Bovillæ, and

remained there a month in the sanctuary of the Julian family, after

which the knights brought the body in solemn procession to his palace on

the Palatine.

But throughout a walk along the Appian Way, the one great Christian

interest of this world-famous road, will, to the Christian visitor,

overpower all others.

"And so we went toward Rome.

"And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet

us as far as Appii-forum, and the Three Taverns: whom when Paul

saw, he thanked God, and took courage.

"And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to

the captain of the guard; but Paul was suffered to dwell by

himself, with a soldier that kept him."--_Acts_ xxviii. 14--16.

"It is not without its manifold uses to remember that, amidst the

dim and wavering traditions of later times, one figure at least

stands out clear and distinct and undoubted, and this figure is the

Apostle Paul. He, whatever we may think concerning any other

apostle or apostolic man in connection with Rome, he, beyond a

shadow of doubt, appears in the New Testament as her great teacher.

No criticism or scepticism of modern times has ever questioned the

perfect authenticity of that last chapter of the Acts, which gives

the account of his journey, stage by stage, till he set foot within

the walls of the city. However much we may be compelled to distrust

any particular traditions concerning special localities of his life

and death, we cannot doubt for a moment that his eye rested on the

same general view of sky and plain and mountain; that his feet trod

the pavement of the same Appian road; that his way lay through the

same long avenue of ancient tombs on which we now look and wonder;

that he entered (and there we have our last authentic glimpse of

his progress) through the arch of Drusus, and then is lost to our

view in the great Babylon of Rome."--_A. P. Stanley's Sermons._

"When St. Paul was approaching Rome, all the bases of the mountains

were (as indeed they are partially now) clustered round with the

villas and gardens of wealthy citizens. The Appian Way climbs and

then descends along its southern slope. After passing Lanuvium it

crossed a crater-like valley or immense substructions, which still

remain. Here is Aricia, an easy stage from Rome. The town was above

the road, and on the hillside swarms of beggars beset travellers as

they passed. On the summit of the next rise, Paul of Tarsus would

obtain his first view of Rome. There is no doubt that the prospect

was, in many respects, very different from the view which is now

obtained from the same spot. It is true that the natural features

of the scene are unaltered. The long wall of blue Sabine mountains,

with Soracte in the distance, closed in the Campagna, which

stretched far across to the sea and round the base of the Alban

hills. But ancient Rome was not, like modern Rome, impressive from

its solitude, standing alone, with its one conspicuous cupola, in

the midst of a desolate though beautiful waste. St. Paul would see

a vast city, covering the Campagna, and almost continuously

connected by its suburbs with the villas on the hill where he

stood, and with the bright towns which clustered on the sides of

the mountains opposite. Over all the intermediate space were the

houses and gardens, through which aqueducts and roads might be

traced in converging lines towards the confused mass of edifices

which formed the city of Rome. Here no conspicuous building,

elevated above the rest, attracted the eye or the imagination.

Ancient Rome had neither cupola nor campanile, still less had it

any of those spires which give life to all the capitals of northern

Christendom. It was a widespread aggregate of buildings, which,

though separated by narrow streets and open spaces, appeared, when

seen from near Aricia, blended into one indiscriminate mass: for

distance concealed the contrasts which divided the crowded

habitations of the poor and the dark haunts of filth and

misery--from the theatres and colonnades, the baths, the temples,

and palaces with gilded roofs, flashing back the sun.

"The road descended into the plain at Bovillæ, six miles from

Aricia: and thence it proceeded in a straight line, with the

sepulchres of illustrious families on either hand. One of these was

the burial-place of the Julian gens, with which the centurion who

had charge of the prisoners was in some way connected. As they

proceeded over the old pavement, among gardens and modern houses,

and approached nearer the busy metropolis--the 'conflux issuing

forth or entering in' in various costumes and on various

errands,--vehicles, horsemen, and foot-passengers, soldiers and

labourers, Romans and foreigners,--became more crowded and

confusing. The houses grew closer. They were already in Rome. It

was impossible to define the commencement of the city. Its populous

portions extended far beyond the limits marked out by Servius. The

ancient wall, with its once sacred pomœrium, was rather an

object for antiquarian interest, like the walls of York or Chester,

than any protection against the enemies, who were kept far aloof by

the legions on the frontier.

"Yet the Porta Capena is a spot which we can hardly leave without

lingering for a moment. Under this arch--which was perpetually

dripping with the water of the aqueduct that went over it--had

passed all those who, since a remote period of the republic, had

travelled by the Appian Way,--victorious generals with their

legions, returning from foreign service,--emperors and courtiers,

vagrant representatives of every form of heathenism, Greeks and

Asiatics, Jews and Christians. From this point entering within the

city, Julius and his prisoners moved on, with the Aventine on their

left, close round the base of the Cœlian, and through the hollow

ground which lay between this hill and the Palatine: thence over

the low ridge called Velia, where afterwards was built the arch of

Titus, to commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem; and then

descending, by the _Via Sacra_, into that space which was the

centre of imperial power and imperial magnificence, and associated

also with the most glorious recollections of the republic. The

Forum was to Rome, what the Acropolis was to Athens, the heart of

all the characteristic interest of the place. Here was the

_Milliarium Aureum_, to which the roads of all the provinces

converged. All around were the stately buildings, which were raised

in the closing years of the republic, and by the earlier emperors.

In front was the Capitoline Hill, illustrious long before the

invasion of the Gauls. Close on the left, covering that hill, whose

name is associated in every modern European language with the

notion of imperial splendour, were the vast ranges of the

_palace_--the 'house of Cæsar' (Philipp. iv. 22). Here were the

household troops quartered in a _prætorium_ attached to the palace.

And here (unless, indeed, it was in the great Prætorian Camp

outside the city wall) Julius gave up his prisoner to Burrus, the

Prætorian Prefect, whose official duty it was to keep in custody

all accused persons who were to be tried before the

Emperor."--_Conybeare and Howson._