Chapter II: 49 (2)

The early years of the reign of Diocletian were characterized for the most part by principles of religious toleration. Indeed, his wife and daughter, the empresses Prisca and Valeria, favoured, if they did not adopt, the Christian faith, and some of the first officers of the imperial household belonged to the now powerful sect.[122] But even during this period the Christians were not free from danger. Caius, the Roman bishop, is said to have lived for eight years in the Catacombs on account of the persecution, and at last underwent martyrdom in the year A. D. 296.[123] Marcus and Marcelianus, two Roman Christians of noble rank, who have given their name to one of the Catacombs, suffered about this time. Others, especially in the army, where the ancient faith had firmest hold, and where, indeed, Eusebius says, the persecution began,[124] endured martyrdom as the valiant soldiers of Christ. The storm, of which these events were the precursors, at length burst with fury on the Christians in the year 303. A series of cruel edicts, written, says Eusebius, with a dagger’s point,[125] were fulminated for the extirpation of the Christian name.[126] They were framed with malignant ingenuity, so as to leave 90 no chance of escape save in open apostasy. All ecclesiastical property was confiscated. The churches were razed to the ground, and the sacred scriptures burned with fire.[127] All assemblies for worship were prohibited on pain of death. The clergy of every order were zealously sought out, and thrust into dungeons designed for the worst of felons.[128] The whole Christian community was outlawed, degraded from every secular office, deprived of the rights of citizenship, and exposed to the punishment of the vilest slaves. With intensifying violence edict followed edict, like successive strokes of thunder in a raging storm. A universal and relentless proscription of the Christian name took place. The truculent monster Galerius, of whom his Christian subjects said, that he never supped without human blood,[129] proposed that all who refused to sacrifice to the gods should be burned alive; and the fiendish ingenuity of the persecutors was exhausted in devising fresh tortures for their victims.

In Italy, and especially at Rome, the work of destruction was eagerly carried on by Maximian, an implacable enemy of the Christians; and after his death by the abominable voluptuary Maxentius, in whom the twin passions of cruelty and lust struggled for the mastery. These 91 monsters of iniquity revelled in a carnival of blood, and glutted the Catacombs with victims, some of the most illustrious of whom will shortly be mentioned. On the retirement of Diocletian, satiated with slaughter and weary with the cares of state, to his retreat at Salonica, Galerius continued the persecution with increased zeal. It was the expiring effort of paganism, the death throes of its mortal agony. But the Christian religion, like the trodden grass that ranker grows, flourished still in spite of the oppression it endured. Like the rosemary and thyme, which the more they are bruised give out the richer perfume, it breathed forth the odours of sanctity which are fragrant in the world to-day. Though the frail and the fickle fell off in the blast of adversity, the staunch and true remained; and from the martyr’s blood, more prolific than the fabled dragon’s teeth, a new host of Christian heroes rose, contending for the martyr’s starry and unwithering crown.

But the period of deliverance was at hand. Smitten by the power of that God whose titles and attributes he had usurped, the wretched Galerius, amid the agonies of a loathsome disease, implored the intercessions of the Christians whom he had so ruthlessly proscribed. With sublimest magnanimity the church exhibited the nobility of a Gospel revenge, and obeyed the injunction of its divine Master to pray for those who persecuted and despitefully used it. From the dying couch of the remorseful monarch came an abject apology for his cruel deeds; and, in late atonement for his crime, a decree of amplest recognition of Christianity, and restoration of the right to worship God. Like the trump of jubilee, the edict of deliverance pealed through the land. It penetrated the gloomy dungeon, the darksome mine, the catacomb’s dim labyrinth; and from their sombre depths vast 92 processions of the “noble wrestlers of religion”[130] thronged to the long forsaken churches with grateful songs of praise to God.

But this treacherous calm was soon to be again broken. The superstitious tyrant Maximin endeavoured to revive the dying paganism, and to renew the persecution. He paid Christianity the high compliment of attempting a complete organization of the heathen priesthood on the model of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and restored the ancient worship with unwonted pomp. He prohibited the assemblies in the cemeteries, and reiterated the edict of extermination against the Christians.[131] But the loathsome death of this brutal voluptuary soon delivered the church from the most implacable of its foes. From the distant island of Britain--that ultimate far Thule of the empire--had arrived the Cæsar who should enthrone the new faith on the seat of its persecutors, and establish it as the religion of the state,[132] an event more perilous to its purity and spiritual power than the direst oppression it had ever endured. Constantine having overcome the enemies of Christianity, who were also his own, became its protector, more, it is easy to believe, either from conviction of its truth or from policy than on account of the alleged miraculous vision of the cross of Christ, the presage of a bloody victory.[133] He issued at Milan, A. D. 313, that decree of full and unlimited 93 toleration[134] which became thenceforth the charter of the church’s liberties.[135]

The sufferings of the more illustrious victims of persecution are 94 alone recorded in history, which is silent concerning the great army of unknown martyrs, whose names are recorded only in the Book of Life. The bishops of the church were ever the first to feel the tyrants’ rage. The episcopal chair was often but the stepping-stone to the scaffold. Yet faithful shepherds were not wanting to lead the flock of Christ, and to testify their devotion to their trust by the sacrifice of their lives. We have seen how Caius suffered even before the final outbreak of persecution. Marcellinus, his successor, incurred the resentment of the tyrant Maxentius, was degraded to the office of groom of the public stables, where the horses of the circus were kept, and soon sank beneath the weight of his miseries and those of the church.[136] Marcellus, sometimes confounded with Marcellinus, paid the penalty of exile for his firmness in maintaining the ecclesiastical discipline against those who apostatized from the faith in those times of fiery trial. This event is recorded in the Damasine inscription:

VERIDICVS RECTOR LAPSOS QVIA CRIMINA FLERE
PRAEDIXIT MISERIS FVIT OMNIBVS HOSTIS AMARVS
HINC FVROR HINC ODIVM SEQVITVR DISCORDIA LITES
SEDITIO CAEDES SOLVVNTVR FOEDERA PACIS
CRIMEN OB ALTERIVS CHRISTVM QVI IN PACE NEGAVIT
FINIBVS EXPVLSVS PATRIAE EST FERITATE TYRANNI
HAEC BREVITER DAMASVS VOLVIT COMPERTA REFERRE
MARCELLI VT POPVLVS MERITVM COGNOSCERE POSSET.[137]

The truth-speaking ruler, because he preached that the lapsed 95
should weep for their crimes, was bitterly hated by all those
unhappy ones. Hence fury, hence hatred followed, discord,
contentions, sedition, and slaughter; and the bonds of peace were
ruptured. For the crime of another, who in a time of peace had
denied Christ, he was expelled the shores of his country by the
cruelty of the tyrant. These things Damasus having learned, was
desirous to relate briefly, that the people might recognize the
merit of Marcellus.

Neither Marcellus nor Marcellinus was buried in the Catacomb of Callixtus--which, as Diocletian had confiscated all the public cemeteries, was inaccessible to the Christians--but in the private crypt of the Christian matron Priscilla, on the Salarian Way. Eusebius, the successor of Marcellus, was also banished on account of the controversy concerning the “lapsed.” New light has recently been thrown on this subject by De Rossi’s discovery, in the tomb of the bishop, of the following Damasine inscription in a fragmentary condition:

HERACLIVS VETVIT LABSOS [_sic_] PECCATA DOLERE
EVSEBIVS MISEROS DOCVIT SVA CRIMINA FLERE
SCINDITVR [IN] PARTES POPVLOS GLISCENTE FVRORE
SEDITIO CAEDES BELLVM DISCORDIA LITES
EXTEMPLO PARITER PVLSI FERITATE TYRANNI
INTEGRA CVM RECTOR SERVARET FOEDERA PACIS
PERTVLIT EXILIVM DOMINO SVB IVDICE LAETVS
LITORE TRINACRIO MVNDVM VITAMQ · RELIQUIT.

Heraclius forbade the lapsed to grieve for their sins. Eusebius
taught those unhappy ones to weep for their crimes. The people
were rent in parties, and with increasing fury began sedition,
slaughter, fighting, discord, and strife. Straightway both were
banished by the cruelty of the tyrant, although the ruler was
preserving the bonds of peace inviolate. He bore his exile with
joy, looking to the Lord as his Judge, and on the Trinacrian
shore gave up the world and his life.

The Heraclius mentioned in the inscription is probably the heretical leader referred to in the epitaph of Marcellus, previously given. No reference to this event occurs in any of the ecclesiastical writers, and this inscription, says Dr. Northcote, is the recovery of a lost 96 chapter in the history of the church.[138] The remains of Eusebius were brought from Sicily, the place of his exile, by his successor, Melchiades, and interred in the Catacomb of Callixtus, but not with the other bishops, the approaches to whose tomb were blocked up with earth, probably to prevent its violation by the enemies of the faith. Melchiades, with whom the long succession of Rome’s martyr bishops comes to a close, was the last of his order who was buried in the Catacombs, and De Rossi conjectures that he has discovered in the Cemetery of Callixtus his tomb, and the very sarcophagus in which he lay.[139]

One of the most illustrious of the lay martyrs of the Diocletian persecution was the gallant young soldier Sebastian, who has given his name to one of the most ancient basilicas of Rome and to the adjacent Catacomb, and Adauctus, a treasurer of the imperial palace. In the Damasine epitaph of the latter occur the fine lines:

INTEMERATA FIDE CONTEMPTO PRINCIPE MVNDI
CONFESSVS |XRM| CAELESTIA REGNA PETISTI.[140]

With unfaltering faith, despising the lord of the world, having
confessed Christ, thou didst seek the celestial realms.

Several of the Christian cemeteries receive their designation from the 97 martyrs of this period, among others those of Saints Agnes, Peter, and Marcellinus, of Pancratius, Generosa, Zeno, Soteris, and _Quattro Incoronati_, notice of whom will be more appropriate in the accounts of their respective sepulchres. History has also preserved the names of many other valiant confessors, who proved faithful even unto death amid the fiery trials and cruel mockings and scourgings to which they were exposed. Among these may be mentioned Cosmo and Damian, two holy brothers of Cilicia, who practised in Rome with great skill the healing art, from pure love to God and to their fellow-men, refusing to receive aught for their services;[141] Simplicius and Faustinus, who were drowned in the Tiber by the tyrant’s orders, and their martyred sister Beatrice, whose tombs and epitaphs De Rossi believes he has recovered.[142] Most of the legends, however, of what may be called the Romish mythology are disfigured by absurd and superstitious additions; and the martyrs themselves have become the objects of idolatrous veneration far alien from the spirit of that primitive Christianity for which they died.[143]

The following inscriptions from the Catacombs are the only records of 98 the victims of persecution whose names they bear.

PRIMITIVS IN PACE QVI POST
MVLTAS ANGVSTIAS FORTISSIMVS MARTYR
ET VIXIT ANNOS P · M · XXXVIII CONIVG · SVO
PERDVLCISSIMO BENEMERENTI FECIT.

Primitius in peace, after many torments, a most valiant martyr.
He lived thirty-eight years, more or less. [His wife] raised this
to her dearest husband, the well-deserving.

HIC GORDIANVS GALLIAE NVNCIVS
IVGVLATVS PRO FIDE CVM FAMILIA TOTA
QVIESCVNT IN PACE
THEOPHILA ANCILLA FECIT.

Here lies Gordianus, deputy of Gaul, who was executed for the
faith, with all his family: they rest in peace. Theophila, a
handmaid, set up this.[144]

The history of the Catacombs is inextricably interwoven with that of 99 Christianity. Their very structure reflects the character of the times in which they were made. The absence of constraint or concealment, and the superior construction and ornamentation of those belonging to the earliest times, indicate the comparative security of the church before it had awakened the jealousy or fear of the Roman emperors. Their immense extension and crowded galleries testify to the rapid increase of the Christian community. The altered character which they gradually assumed, the obstructed passages, the masked entrances, devious windings, and devices for concealment or escape, and the rudely scratched inscriptions and uncouth paintings, betray the sense of fear and the kindling rage of persecution which pursued the hunted Christians to these subterraneous sanctuaries of the faith. Their greater magnificence and more ornate structure, the costly mosaics, the marble stairways, and richly carved sarcophagi of the later ages, tell of the enthronement of Christianity on the seat of the Cæsars, and of the homage paid to the relics and shrines of the saints and martyrs. And their debased architecture, barbarous paintings, and progressive ruin during the later years of their history indicate the gradual eclipse of art, and their final abandonment. We must therefore carefully determine at least the proximate date of any particular feature if we would correctly interpret its significance.

The last and most terrible persecution of the church before its final 100 triumph left abundant evidence of its violence and lengthened duration in the changes which contemporaneously took place in the Catacombs. God prepared a place for his saints, and hid them in the clefts of the rock as in the hollow of his hand. When the public observance of Christianity was proscribed by law the believers withdrew from the light of day, and in the inmost and darkest recesses of these subterranean crypts, by the graves of their martyred dead, enjoyed the consolation of religious worship, and broke the bread and drank the wine in memory of their dying Lord.[145]

But after the decree of Valerian which forbade the entering or holding any assemblies in the Christian cemeteries, even these retreats were not safe, and the last sanctuaries of the faith were unscrupulously invaded. Persecution relentlessly followed the Christians through the labyrinthine windings of the Catacombs, and violated the sepulchres of the sainted dead by sacrilegious tumult and bloodshed. Sometimes the heathen soldiery, fearing to pursue their victims into these unknown passages, blocked up the entrance to prevent their escape; and many were thus buried alive and perished of hunger in these chambers of gloom.[146]

An entire change in the construction of the Catacombs now took place. They became obviously designed for purposes of safety and concealment. The new galleries were less wide and lofty, and the _loculi_ more crowded on account of the greater difficulty of removing the excavated 101 material. At this time, too, many of the lower _piani_ were made for additional graves and greater secrecy. The main entrances were blocked up and the stairways demolished. Sometimes entire galleries were filled with earth, the removal of which is the chief obstacle to modern exploration, or were built up with masonry to obstruct pursuit; and means of escape were provided, in case of forcible invasion of these retreats. A striking example of this occurs in the Catacomb of Callixtus. The ancient stairway was partially destroyed, the entrance completely obstructed, and some of the galleries walled up. Narrow passages for escape were made connecting with an adjacent _arenarium_, and a very narrow secret stairway constructed from the roof of the latter to the surface of the ground, as shown in the section above [Transcriber’s Note: Fig. 22, below], which stairway could only be reached by a movable ladder connecting it with the floor.[147]

It is impossible that the mass of the Christian community, or even any 102 considerable proportion of it, could ever have taken refuge in these subterraneous crypts. Their vast extent and the number of chambers would indeed permit a great multitude to remain concealed for a time in their depths; but the difficulty of procuring a regular supply of food, the confined atmosphere, and the probable exhalation of noxious gases from the graves--especially on the opening of a _bisomus_, or double tomb, for its second inmate--seem insuperable obstacles. As it was the religious leaders of the Christian community who were especially obnoxious to those in power, they would be the most likely to seek concealment in the Catacombs, not from inferiority of courage, but, like the afterward martyred Cyprian, that they might the better guide and govern the persecuted church. Hence the examples before given of bishops and other ecclesiastics lying hidden, some for years, in these depths, and visited by the faithful for instruction or for the celebration of worship.[148] There is evidence, however, that during the exacerbations of persecution private Christians sought safety in these recesses, and, burrowing in their depths, evaded the pursuit of their enemies. Tertullian speaks of “a lady, unaccustomed to privation, trembling in a vault, apprehensive of the capture of her maid, upon whom she depends for her daily food.” The heads of Christian families, and those most obnoxious to the pagan authorities, would be especially likely to leave the fellowship of the living in order to live in security among the dead. Father Marchi conjectures that supplies of grain were laid up for the maintenance of the hidden 103 fugitives, and De Rossi describes certain crypts in the Catacomb of Callixtus which were probably employed for storing corn or wine in time of persecution. Frequent wells occur, amply sufficient for the supply of water; and the multitude of lamps which have been found would dispel the darkness, while their sudden extinction would prove the best concealment from attack by their enemies.[149] Hence the Christians were stigmatized as a skulking, darkness-loving race,[150] who fled the light of day to burrow like moles in the earth.

These worse than Dædalian labyrinths were admirably adapted for eluding pursuit. Familiar with their intricacies, and following a well-known clew, the Christian could plunge fearlessly into the darkness, where his pursuer would soon be inextricably lost. Perchance the sound of Christian worship, and the softened cadence of the confessors’ hymn, stealing through the distant corridors, may have fallen with strange awe on the souls of the rude soldiery stealthily approaching their prey; and, perhaps, not unfrequently with a saving and sanctifying power. But sometimes, tracked by the sleuth-hounds of persecution, or betrayed by some wretched apostate consumed by a Judas-greed of gold, the Christians were surprised at their devotions, and their refuge became their sepulchre. Such was the tragic fate of Stephen, slain even while ministering at the altar; such the event described by Gregory of Tours, when a hecatomb of victims were immolated at once by heathen hate; such the peril which wrung from a stricken heart the cry, not of anger but of grief, _Tempora infausta, quibus inter sacra et vota ne in cavernis quidem salvari 104 possimus!_--“O sad times in which, among sacred rites and prayers, even in caverns, we are not safe!” It requires no great effort of imagination to conceive the dangers and escapes which must have been frequent episodes in the heroic lives of the early soldiers of the cross.

In the Catacombs more safely than elsewhere could the Christians celebrate the ordinances of religion, often under cover of the rites of sepulture, which might even yet be sacred in the eyes of their enemies. And next to their funeral purposes this seems to have been their chief use. For this many of their principal chambers and chapels were excavated, supplied with seats, ventilated by _luminari_, and adorned with biblical or symbolical paintings. With what emotions must the primitive believers have held their solemn worship and heard the words of life, surrounded by the dead in Christ! With what power would come the promise of the resurrection of the body, amid the crumbling relics of mortality! How fervent their prayers for their companions in tribulation, when they themselves stood in jeopardy every hour! Their holy ambition was to witness a good confession even unto death. They burned to emulate the zeal of the martyrs of the faith, the plumeless heroes of a nobler chivalry than that of arms, the Christian athletes who won in the bloody conflicts of the arena, or amid the fiery tortures of the stake, not a crown of laurel or of bay, but a crown of life, starry and unwithering, that can never pass away. Their humble graves are grander monuments than the trophied tombs of Rome’s proud conquerors upon the Appian Way. Lightly may we tread beside their ashes; reverently may we mention their names. Though the bodily presence of those conscripts of the tomb--the forlorn hope of the 105 army of Christianity--no longer walked among men, their intrepid spirit animated the heart of each member of that little community of persecuted Christians, “of whom the world was not worthy; who wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth, ... being destitute, afflicted, tormented.”[151]

It is impossible to arrive at even an approximate estimate of the number of victims of the early persecutions. That number has sometimes, no doubt, been greatly exaggerated. It has also, in defiance of the testimony of contemporary history, been unreasonably minified.[152] Tacitus asserts that under Nero a great multitude[153] were convicted and punished. Pliny says the temples were almost deserted[154] through this contagious superstition. Juvenal, Martial, and other classical authors, notice the extraordinary sufferings of the Christians. Cyprian, in the middle of the third century, says, “It is impossible to number the martyrs of Christ.”[155] Eusebius, an eye-witness of the last persecution, states that innumerable multitudes suffered during its prevalence. After describing their excruciating tortures, he adds: “And all these things were doing not 106 for a few days, but for a series of whole years. At one time ten or more, then twenty, again thirty or even sixty, and sometimes a hundred men, with their wives and children, were slain in one day.”[156] He also describes the destruction of a Christian town, with all its inhabitants, by fire.[157] Lactantius, also a contemporary witness, tells us that the Christians were often surrounded on all sides and burnt together.[158]

It is very remarkable that so few martyrs’ epitaphs have been found in the Catacombs, not more than five or six altogether, and some of these are not of unquestioned genuineness. But this may be attributed to the humility and modesty of the early Christians, who shrank from claiming for the sufferers for the truth the august title of martyr, which they restricted to the one faithful and true witness, Jesus Christ. “We,” said the victims of persecution at Lyons, “are only mean and humble confessors.”

There do occur, it is true, certain inscriptions of a memorial character and of later date than the time of the persecution, some of which commemorate a large number of martyrs, but they are of little or no historic value. Such is the inscription to three thousand martyrs in the Catacomb of Priscilla, already given,[159] and the following from the Callixtan Catacomb: MARCELLA ET CHRISTI MARTYRES CCCCL--“Marcella and four hundred and fifty martyrs in Christ.” Ancient itineraries speak of eighty, or even eight hundred, martyrs buried in one spot in the Catacombs; and Prudentius declares that he 107 saw the remains of some sixty in a single grave.[160] But surpassing all the others in exaggeration is an inscription in the church of St. Sebastian commemorating one hundred and seventy-four thousand holy martyrs, and forty-six bishops, also martyrs, said to be interred in the neighbouring Catacomb. Another ancient tradition asserts that twelve thousand Christians, who were employed in building the Baths of Diocletian, were buried in the Catacomb of St. Zeno.[161] Piazza asserts that two hundred and eighty-five Christians were put to death in two days, under the Emperor Claudius II., A. D. 268, and that more than two thousand were executed for refusing to sacrifice to the image of the sun. Indeed, some Roman archæologists discern in every palm branch or cup, which are so frequently found in the Catacombs, irrefragable evidence of the martyr’s tomb.[162]

Such atrocious cruelty and lavish destruction of life as these 108 traditions, even if exaggerated, imply, seem incredible; but the pages of the contemporary historians, Eusebius and Lactantius, give too minute and circumstantial accounts of the persecutions of which they were eye-witnesses to allow us to adopt the complacent theory of Gibbon, that the sufferings of the Christians were comparatively few and insignificant. “We ourselves have seen,” says the bishop of Cæsarea, “crowds of persons, some beheaded, others burned alive, in a single day, so that the murderous weapons were blunted and broken to pieces, and the executioners, wearied with slaughter, were obliged to give over the work of blood.[163] ... They constantly vied with each other,” he continues, “in inventing new tortures, as if there were prizes offered to him who should contrive the greatest cruelties.”[164] Men whose only crime was their religion were scourged with iron wires or with _plumbatæ_, that is, chains laden with bronze balls, specimens of which have been found in the martyrs’ graves, till the flesh hung in shreds, and even the bones were broken; they were bound in chains of red-hot iron, and roasted over fires so slow that they lingered for hours, or even days, in their mortal agony; their flesh was scraped 109 from the very bone with ragged shells, or lacerated with burning pincers, iron hooks, and instruments with horrid teeth or claws, examples of which have been found in the Catacombs;[165] molten metal and plates of red-hot brass were applied to the naked body till it became one indistinguishable wound; and mingled salt and vinegar or unslaked lime were rubbed upon the quivering flesh, torn and bleeding from the rack or scourge--tortures more inhuman than savage Indian ever wreaked upon his mortal foe. Men were condemned by the score and hundred to labour in the mines, with the sinews of one leg severed, with one eye scooped out and the socket seared with red-hot iron. Chaste matrons and tender virgins were given over--worse fate a thousand-fold than death--to dens of shame and the gladiators’ lust, and subjected to nameless indignities, too horrible for words to utter.[166] And all these intense sufferings were endured often with joy and exultation, for the love of a divine Master, when a single word, a grain of incense cast upon the heathen altar, would have released the victims from their agonies. No lapse of time, and no 110 recoil from the idolatrous homage paid in after ages to the martyr’s relics, should impair in our hearts the profound and rational reverence with which we bend before his tomb.

We are left, however, for the most part, without authentic record of the tragic scenes of Christian martyrdom. The primitive church, indeed, treasured up these memories of moral heroism as her most precious legacy to after times. Clement of Rome, it is said, appointed notaries to search out the acts of the martyrs;[167] and, as we have seen, Fabian suffered death for his zeal in preserving these records.[168] But these precious documents for the most part perished in the Diocletian persecution, although fragments were probably incorporated with the later martyrologies. The earlier Acts are the more authentic, and the more simple in character. Those of later date become more and more florid in style, and are overladen with the incredible and impossible, till their historic value is entirely destroyed, except when they are corroborated by collateral testimony, or by the monumental evidence of the Catacombs. Prudentius, attracted to Rome by the fame of these repositories of the martyrs’ ashes, wrote a treatise[169] on their sufferings, in which his fervid imagination and rhetorical style found amplest indulgence. Later writers still further embellished and exaggerated the original Acts, till the wildest stories of ancient mythology, or mediæval legend, were surpassed by the monkish martyrologists.

This “holy romance,” as Gibbon contemptuously calls it, becomes little 111 else than a record of the most astounding miracles, the most horrible tortures, and of more than human endurance.[170] It minutely describes the conflict between the Christian and his heathen persecutor: _hinc martyr, illinc carnifex_--here the martyr, there the executioner. The one wreaks his rage upon his victim, the other exhibits a stoical endurance of suffering rivaling that of the American savage at the funeral stake, or else an insensibility to pain that lessens the merit of his acts. “It is cooked, turn and eat,”[171] says St. Lawrence, broiling on a gridiron. He feels no pain from the vinegar and salt rubbed on his bleeding wounds. “Salt me the more, that I may be incorruptible,” says Tarachus to his torturer. He continues to speak after his tongue is torn out by the roots. The lacerations of the ungulæ assume to the excited imagination the form of the name of Christ.[172] Divine odours breathe from the body, which shines like gold amid the flames that refuse to kindle upon it. A voice from heaven hails the invincible conqueror, and his soul in the form of a dove ascends to the skies.[173] The undying instincts of nature are 112 flagrantly violated in some of the Acts. A mother rebukes her child for begging a cup of water while suffering under the rods of the lictors; and while it is beheaded before her eyes she, alone unmoved, sings a versicle of thanksgiving.[174] Often the martyr endeavours to exasperate with taunts and defiance the heathen magistrate, who gnashes his teeth and rolls his eyes in impotent rage.[175] “Be dumb, wretch! O serpent of darkest mind, a curse be upon thee!” exclaims St. Boniface to his executioner. Vincentius menaces his judge with the fiery fate of the bottomless pit.[176] These Acts of the Martyrs were appointed to be read in the churches,[177] till they were prohibited by the Council of Trullo, A. D. 706.

The enthusiasm for martyrdom prevailed, at times, almost like an epidemic. It was one of the most remarkable features of the ages of persecution. Notwithstanding the terrific tortures to which they were exposed, the fiercer the tempest of heathen rage the higher and brighter burned the zeal of the Christian heroes. Age after age summoned the soldiers of Christ to the conflict whose highest guerdon 113 was death. They bound persecution as a wreath about their brows, and exulted in the “glorious infamy” of suffering for their Lord. The brand of shame became the badge of highest honour. Besides the joys of heaven they won imperishable fame on earth; and the memory of a humble slave was often haloed with a glory surpassing that of a Curtius or Horatius. The meanest hind was ennobled by the accolade of martyrdom to the loftiest peerage of the skies. His consecration of suffering was elevated to a sacrament, and called the baptism of fire or of blood.

Burning to obtain the prize, the impetuous candidates for death often pressed with eager haste to seize the palm of victory and the martyr’s crown. They trod with joy the fiery path to glory, and went as gladly to the stake as to a marriage feast. “Their fetters,” says Eusebius, “seemed like the golden ornaments of a bride.”[178] They desired martyrdom more ardently than men afterward sought a bishopric.[179] They exulted amid their keenest pangs that they were counted worthy to suffer for their divine Master. “Let the ungulæ tear us,” exclaims Tertullian,[180] “the crosses bear our weight, the flames envelope us, the sword divide our throats, the wild beasts spring upon us; the very posture of prayer is a preparation for every punishment.” “These things,” says St. Basil, “so far from being a terror, are rather a pleasure and a recreation to us.”[181] “The tyrants were armed,” says St. Chrysostom, “and the martyrs naked; yet they that were naked got 114 the victory, and they that carried arms were vanquished.”[182] Strong in the assurance of immortality, they bade defiance to the sword.

Though weak in body they seemed clothed with vicarious strength, and confident that though “counted as sheep for the slaughter,” naught could separate them from the love of Christ. Wrapped in their fiery vesture and shroud of flame, they yet exulted in their glorious victory. While the leaden hail fell on the mangled frame, and the eyes filmed with the shadows of death, the spirit was enbraved by the beatific vision of the opening heaven, and above the roar of the mob fell sweetly on the inner sense the assurance of eternal life. “No group, indeed, of Oceanides was there to console the Christian Prometheus; yet to his upturned eye countless angels were visible--their anthem swept solemnly to his ear--and the odours of an opening paradise filled the air. Though the dull ear of sense heard nothing, he could listen to the invisible Coryphæus as he invited him to heaven and promised him an eternal crown.”[183] The names of the “great army of martyrs,” though forgotten by men, are written in the Book of Life. “The Lord knoweth them that are his.”

There is a record, traced on high,
That shall endure eternally;
The angel standing by God’s throne
Treasures there each word and groan;
And not the martyr’s speech alone,
But every wound is there depicted, 115
With every circumstance of pain--
The crimson stream, the gash inflicted--
And not a drop is shed in vain.[184]

This spirit of martyrdom was a new principle in society. It had no classical counterpart.[185] Socrates and Seneca suffered with fortitude, but not with faith. The loftiest pagan philosophy dwindled into insignificance before the sublimity of Christian hope. This looked beyond the shadows of time and the sordid cares of earth to the grandeur of the Infinite and the Eternal. The heroic deaths of the believers exhibited a spiritual power mightier than the primal instincts of nature, the love of wife or child, or even of life itself. Like a solemn voice falling on the dull ear of mankind, these holy examples urged the inquiry, “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” And that voice awakened an echo in full many a heart. The martyrs made more converts by their deaths than in their lives. “Kill us, rack us, condemn us, grind us to powder,” exclaims the intrepid Christian Apologist; “our numbers increase in proportion as you mow us down.”[186] The earth was drunk with the blood of the saints, but still they multiplied and grew, gloriously illustrating the perennial truth--_Sanguis martyrum semen ecclesiæ._[187]

Christianity, after long repression, became at length triumphant. The 116 church on the conversion of Constantine emerged from the concealment of the Catacombs to the sunshine of imperial favour. The legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus strikingly illustrates the wondrous transformation of society. These Christian brothers, taking shelter in a cave during the Decian persecution, awoke, according to the legend, after a slumber of over a century, to find Christianity everywhere dominant, and a Christian emperor on the throne of the Cæsars.[188] The doctrines of Christ, like the rays of the sun, quickly irradiated the world.[189] With choirs and hymns, in cities and villages, in the highways and markets, the praises of the Almighty were sung.[190] The enemies of God were as though they had not been.[191] The Lord brought 117 up the vine of Christianity from a far land, and cast out the heathen, and planted and watered it, till it twined round the sceptre of the Cæsars, wreathed the columns of the Capitol, and filled the whole land. The heathen fanes were deserted, the gods discrowned, and the pagan flamen no longer offered sacrifice to the Capitoline Jove. Rome, which had dragged so many conquered divinities in triumph at its chariot wheels, at length yielded to a mightier than all the gods of Olympus. The old faiths faded from the firmament of human thought as the stars of midnight at the dawn of day. The banished deities forsook their ancient seats. They walked no longer in the vale of Tempe or in the grove of Daphne.[192] The naiads bathed not in Scamander’s stream nor Simois, nor the nereids in the waters of the bright Ægean Sea. The nymphs and dryads ceased to haunt the sylvan solitudes. The oreads walked no more in light on Ida’s lofty top.

O ye vain false gods of Hellas!
Ye are vanished evermore!

Long before the recognition of Christianity as the religion of the empire its influence had been felt permeating the entire community. Amid the disintegration of society it was the sole conservative element--the salt which preserved it from corruption. In the midst of anarchy and confusion a community was being organized on a principle previously unknown in the heathen world, ruling not by terror but by 118 love; by moral power, not by physical force; inspired by lofty faith amid a world of unbelief, and cultivating moral purity amid the reeking abominations of a sensual age.

Yet this mighty energy thus at work eluded the notice, or excited only the disdain, of some of the keenest observers and greatest thinkers the world has seen. Classical literature contains only a few short notices of that religion which was transforming the age. A galaxy of philosophers and historians, gazing mournfully at the seething mass of moral putrefaction around them, and profoundly conscious of its apparently cureless evil, treated as contemptible the most powerful moral agent in the world--that regenerative principle which was to reorganize society on a higher type than ever was known before.[193] The kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation, and paganism seemed entirely unconscious of its impending doom.

But this wonderful influence, which accomplished so much, seemed at length strangely to lose its power, and did not fulfil the regenerative work which it began. It failed to check the degeneracy of the age or to avert the dissolution of the empire. The many crimes of that colossal orgy cried to heaven for vengeance. The taint was too inveterate to be eradicated; the evil was immedicable; Rome was already effete and moribund. It was weighed in the balance and found wanting. Therefore the inexorable penalty, which evermore follows wrong, as a shadow its substance, was suffered to descend. An awful Nemesis, like an avenging Fate, overtook the great and wicked city 119 in its pride and guilt; and the mystical Babylon of the West, reeking with sensuality, idolatry, and blood, soon beheld the Goths at her gates, and the Huns within her walls.[194]

[31] A deal of fanciful theory has been indulged in as to the
origin of the Catacombs. They have been attributed to a
pre-historic race of Troglodytes, who loathed the light of day,
and burrowed like moles in the earth. MacFarlane has an eloquent
apostrophe to the old Etrurians, by whom he imagined they were
excavated twelve hundred years before the Christian era. We have
seen also how they were erroneously attributed to the pagan
Romans.

[32] _Victoribus victi leges dederunt._ On the Tiber, the
Tigris, and the Nile, this saying was strikingly verified. Yet
Judaism is an essentially conservative, not an aggressive,
religion. It was unadapted for such wide-spread conquests as
those of Christianity, or even of Mohammedism. The ancient mould
of thought, having served its purpose, was broken. Judaism may be
said to have died in giving birth to Christianity.

[33] _Hist._, v, 5.

[34] In 1853 a Jewish Catacomb was discovered at Venosa, in
Southern Italy, containing one gallery seven feet high and four
hundred feet long. In 1854 another was discovered at Oria, with
many Hebrew symbols and inscriptions. There were many Jews in
Apulia and Calabria.

[35] In eo quippe haud ulla, ut in reliquis, Christianæ religionis
indicia et signa apparebant--Bosio, _Rom. Sott._, 142.

[36] _Cimitero degli Antichi Ebrei Scoperto recentemente in
Vigna Randanini, illustrato da Raffaele Garrucci._ 8vo. Roma,
1862.

[37] See Fig. 18.

[38] Nunc sacri fontis nimus, et delubra locantur
Judæis.--_Sat.,_ iii, 13.

[39] It is incredible that the Apostle Peter had any share in
planting the Roman Church. If he had, Paul would not, as he does,
utterly ignore his labours. “_Only Luke_ is with me,” writes
St. Paul, just before his death; yet he and Peter are feigned to
have suffered on the same day. The story of St. Peter’s
twenty-five years’ episcopate at Rome is too absurd to require
disproof. The very minuteness of detail in the legends of St.
Peter is their own refutation. In vain are we shown the chair in
which tradition asserts that he sat, the font at which he
baptized, the cell in which he was confined, the fountain which
sprang up in its floor, the pillar to which he was bound, the
chains which he wore, the impression made by his head in the wall
and by his knees in the stony pavement, the scene of his
crucifixion, the very hole in which the foot of the cross was
placed, and the tomb in which his body is said to lie; they all
fail to carry conviction to any mind in which superstition has
not destroyed the critical faculty. The mighty fane which rises
sublimely in the heart of Rome in honour of the Galilean
fisherman, like the religious system of which it is the visible
exponent, is founded on a shadowy tradition, opposed alike to the
testimony of Scripture, the evidence of history, and the
deductions of reason. The question whether Peter _ever_ was
in Rome has recently been publicly discussed under the very
shadow of the Vatican. Verily, _Tempora mutantur_.

[40] Nos quoque ut Judaicæ religionis propinquos, sub umbraculum
insignissimæ religionis certé licitæ.--_Ad Nat._, i, 11.

[41] Execrantur rogos, et damnant ignium sepulturas.--Minuc.
Felix, _Octav._, ii, 451. Tertullian declared it to be a
symbol of the fires of hell. Possibly, also, the expense and
publicity inseparable from the practice of cremation made it a
matter of necessity for the early Christians to adopt the less
costly and more private mode of subterranean interment. Merivale,
indeed, asserts that the early Roman Christians burned their
dead, (vi, 444,) and adduces in support of this strange theory
only the pagan dedication D. M., found on some Christian tombs.
As will be shown, (Book III, i,) these letters were part of a
common epigraphic formula, and give no warrant for this startling
statement.

[42] Bishop Hall.

[43] It would appear from this inscription that some of the
family of Restitutus were still pagans, and were buried apart
from the rest. The early Christians regarded it as unlawful to
commingle the heathen and believers in common burial. St. Cyprian
makes it a capital charge against the heretical Bishop of
Asturia, that he “buried his children in profane sepulchres and
in the midst of strangers.” See also Ruth i, 17. Compare Cic.,
_de Leg._, ii, 22, and _de Off._, lib. ii.

[44] Apol. xxxix. The following inscription, recently discovered
in the ruins of Cæsarea, a Roman town in Africa, attests the
provision made by wealthy Christians for the burial of their
poorer neighbours:

AREAM AT [AD] SEPVLCHRA CVLTOR VERBI CONTVLIT
ET CELLAM STRVXIT SVIS CVNCTIS SVMPTIBVS
ECCLESIÆ SANCTÆ HANC RELIQVIT MEMORIAM,
SALVETE FRATRES PVRO CORDE ET SIMPLICI
EVELPIVS VOS SATOS SANCTO SPIRITV.
ECCLESIA FRATRVM HVNC RESTITVIT TITVLVM....

A worshipper of the Word has given this area for sepulchres, and
has built a vault at his own cost; he left this memorial to the
Holy Church. Hail, brethren! with a pure and simple heart,
Euelpius [salutes] you, born of the Holy Spirit.

The congregation of the brethren replaced this inscription....

[45] 2 Tim. iv, 21. Suet., _Vit. Ner._, c. 28, 29; Tac.,
_Ann._, xv, 37. See also Dio., lxiii, 13.

[46] E.g. Flavia Domitilla, the niece of Domitian, and her
husband, Clemens. Their children had been adopted by the Emperor,
and designated as his successors. So near came Christianity to
grasping the sceptre of the Cæsars in the first century. Dio
Cass., _Hist._, lxvii, 13. Suet. in _Domit._, xv. The niece of
Domitilla, also of the same name, suffered exile for the faith,
A. D. 97. She gave the land for the Catacomb which still bears
her name.

Marcia, Mammæa, the mother of Alex. Severus, the Emperor Philip,
and Prisca and Valeria, the wife and daughter of the
arch-persecutor Diocletian, either embraced or greatly favoured
Christianity.

[47] _Apol._, c. 37.

[48] [Transcriber’s note: Footnote missing in the original.]

[49] Religiosum locum unusquisque sua voluntate facit, dum
mortuum infert in locum suum. _Marcian. Digest._, i, 8, 6, § 4.

[50] _Cod. Justin._, lib. ix, tit. 19, _de Sepulchro
Violato_, leg. 1, 5; _Cod. Theod._, lib. ix, tit. 17.
Proximum sacrilegio majores semper habuerunt. So the poet
exclaims:

Res ea sacra, miser; noli mea tangere fata:
Sacrilegae bustis abstinuere manus.--

“Touch not my monument, thou wretch; it is a sacred thing: even
sacrilegious hands refrain from the violation of graves.”

[51] Xen., _Mem._, ii, 2, § 13.

[52] _Roman Sepulchral Inscriptions_, p. 9, London, 1858.

[53] Mille pedes in fronte, trecentos cippus in agrum
Hic dabat; heredes monumentum ne sequeretur.
Hor., _I Sat._, viii, 12.

[54] Literally, “the angry gods.”

[55] Reinesius.

[56] Corpora animadversorum quibuslibet petentibus ad sepulturam
danda sunt. _Digest._, xlviii, 24, 2.

[57] Both of these are given by Dr. McCaul in his _Christian
Epitaphs of the First Six Centuries_, an admirable little
volume, my indebtedness to which will be elsewhere acknowledged.
He also quotes the following from Henzen’s _Inscr. Lat. Select.
Col._, No. 6371: PETO A BOBIS [VOBIS] FRATRES BONI PER
VNVM DEVM NE QVIS VI TITVLO MOLESTET POST MORTEM--“I beseech
you, good brothers, by the one God, that no one by force injure
this inscription after my death.”

[58] Aringhi, lib. iv, c. xxvii.

[59] Sometimes an anathema was invoked upon the disturber of the
grave, as in the following interesting example, found in the
island of Salamis, and quoted by Dr. McCaul from Kirchoff,
_Corpus Inscript. Græc._, No. 9303: Οἶκος αἰώνιος Ἀγάθωνος
ἀναγνώστου καὶ Εὐφημίας ἐν δυσὶ θήκαις ἰδίᾳ ἑκάστῳ ἡμῶν. Εἰ δέ
τις τῶν ἰδίων ἢ ἕτερός τις τολμήσῃ σῶμα καταθέσθαι ἐνταῦθα παρὲξ
τῶν δύω ἡμῶν, λόγον δῴη τῷ θεῷ καὶ ἀνάθεμα ἤτω μαραναθάν--“The
everlasting dwelling of Agatho, a reader, and Euphemia, in two
graves, one for each of us separately. If any one of our
relatives, or any one else, shall presume to bury a body here
beside us two, may he give an account of it to God, and may he be
anathema maranatha.”

[60] It is remarkable that Shakespeare’s epitaph should present
almost as uncouth a specimen of epigraphy as any of the barbarous
inscriptions of the Catacombs. See the following copy:

Good Friend for Iesus SAKE forbeare
To diGG T-E Dust EncloAsed HERe
Blest be T-E Man T/Y spares T-es Stones
And curst be He T/Y moves my Bones.

[61] Maitland reads thus: IN CHRISTO. MARTYRIVS VIXIT ANNOS
XCI PLVS MINVS ELEXIT DOMVM VIVVS. IN PACE.--“In Christ.
Martyrius lived ninety-one years, more or less. He chose a home
during his life-time. In peace.”

[62] Collegium salutare Dianæ et Antinoi, constitutum ex Senatus
Populique Romani decreto, quibus coire, convenire, collegiumque
habere liceat. Qui stipem menstruam conferre volent in funera, in
id collegium coeant, neque sub specie ejus collegii nisi semel in
mense coeant, conferendi causa unde defuncti sepeliantur.

[63] The _sesterce_, or _sestertius_, was about 2d·5 farthings,
the _as_ about 3d·4 farthings. The _amphora_ held about six
gallons.

[64] Muratori, tom. ii, classis vii, _Collegia Varia_.

[65] _Ibid._

[66] Trajan regarded with suspicion even fire brigades and
charitable societies, (Pliny, X _Epis. 43 et 94_,) and forbade
the assemblies of the Christians, but permitted the monthly
contribution of the clubs--Permittitur tenuioribus stipem
menstruam conferre. _Digest._, xlvii, 22, 1.

[67] Modicam unusquisque stipem _menstrua die_, vel quum velit,
et si modo velit, et si modo possit, apponit: nam nemo
compellitur, sed sponte confert.... Nam inde non epulis ... sed
egenis alendis _humandisque_ ... etc. Tert., _Apol._, c. 39.

[68] See first footnote.

[69] _Bullettino_, 1864, 62.

[70] Rom. xvi, 5, 3.

[71] _Philosophoumena_, ix, 11.

[72] Actorem sive syndicum, per quem, quod communiter agi
fierique oporteat, agatur, fiat.--_Digest._, iii, 4, 1, § 1.

[73] E veramente che almeno fino dal secolo terzo i fideli
abbiano possiduto cemeteri a nome commune, e che il loro possesso
sia stato riconosciuto dagl’imperatori, è cosa impossibile a
negare.--De Rossi, _Rom. Sott._, tom. i, p. 103.

[74] The dreaded _crimen majestatis_.

[75] Hostes Cæsarum, hostes populi Romani.

[76] Non pluit Deus, duc ad Christianos.--Aug., _Civ. Dei_, ii, 3.

[77] Si Tiberis ascendit in mœnia, si Nilus non ascendit in arva,
si coelum stetit, si terra movit, si fames, si lues, statim,
“Christianos ad leones.”--_Apol._, x. “But I pray you,” he adds,
“were misfortunes unknown before Tiberius? The true God was not
worshipped when Hannibal conquered at Cannæ, or the Gauls filled
the city.”

[78] Eusebius describes their activity in bringing wood and straw
from the shops and baths for the burning of Polycarp. _Eccl.
Hist._, iv, 15.

[79] Ergo abolendo rumori Nero subdedit reos et quæsitissimis
poenis affecit, quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Christianos
appellabat.... Et pereuntibus addita ludibria, ut ferarum tergis
contecti laniatu canum interierint, aut crucibus affixi, aut
flammandi atque, ubi defecisset dies, in usum nocturni luminis
urerentur.--_Ann._, xv, 44.

[80] A telegraphic despatch from Rome of date January 16, 1873,
announces that the Pope claims to have discovered the bodies of
the apostles Philip and James. Highly improbable, and of no
practical importance if true. Not the bones of the saints buried
centuries ago, but the spirit which animated them and the
principles for which they died, are the true sources of the
church’s power.

[81] Sulpic. Sever., _Hist._, ii, 41.

[82] Euseb., _Hist. Eccles._, iii, 17. A. D. 93-96.

[83] Prope jam desolata templa coepisse celebrari; et sacra
solennia diu intermissa repeti.--_Epis. ad Traj._ Among the
most distinguished sufferers during this persecution was Clement,
third bishop of Rome, exiled to Pontus, and, it is said, cast
into the sea, A. D. 103; also the venerable Ignatius, bishop of
the church at Antioch, linked by tradition with the Saviour
himself, as one of the children whom he took in his arms and
blessed. Condemned by Trajan to exposure to wild beasts in the
amphitheatre at Rome, a passion for martyrdom possessed his soul.
“Suffer me to be the food of the wild beasts,” he exclaimed, “by
whom I shall attain unto God. For I am the wheat of God; and I
shall be ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may become the
pure bread of Christ.”--_Epis. ad Romanos_, §§ 4, 5.

[84] Sacra Romana diligentissimè curavit, peregrina
contempsit.--Spartian. in _Hadrian._ A. D. 117-138.

[85] Euseb., _Hist. Eccles._, iv, 9. Jus. Mar., _Apol._, i, 68,
69.

[86] A. D. 138-161.

[87] Irenæus, iii, 3, § 3.

[88] A. D. 161-180.

[89] The following inscription, referring to the Antonine period,
is given by Maitland, (page 40,) as from the Catacomb of
Callixtus. Although it seems to imply the actual prevalence of
persecution, it is evidently, even if genuine, of later date than
the time alleged. The presence of the sacred monogram, as well as
the somewhat florid and pleonastic style, indicate an origin not
anterior to the age of Constantine, when it became the fashion
with outward pharisaism to adorn the sepulchres of the martyrs,
although the truths for which they died were often treated with
neglect:

ALEXANDER MORTVVS NON EST SED VIVIT SVPER ASTRA ET CORPVS
IN HOC TVMVLO QVIESCIT. VITAM EXPLEVIT SVB ANTONINO IMP
QVI VBI MVLTVM BENEFITII ANTEVENIRE PRAEVIDERET PRO
GRATIA ODIVM REDDIDIT. GENVA ENIM FLECTENS VERO DEO
☧ SACRIFICATVRVS AD SVPPLICIA DVCITVR. O TEMPORA INFAVSTA
QVIBVS INTER SACRA ET VOTA NE IN CAVERNIS QVIDEM SALVARI
POSSIMVS. QVID MISERIVS VITA SED QVID MISERIVS IN MORTE
CVM AB AMICIS ET PARENTIBVS SEPELIRI NEQVEANT TANDEM IN
COELO CORVSCANT. PARVM VIXIT QVI VIXIT IN. X. TEM.

“In Christ. Alexander is not dead, but lives above the stars, and
his body rests in this tomb. He ended his life under the Emperor
Antonine, who, foreseeing that great benefit would result from
his services, returned evil for good. For while on his knees and
about to sacrifice to the true God, he was led away to execution.
O sad times! in which, among sacred rites and prayers, even in
caverns we are not safe. What can be more wretched than such a
life? and what than such a death? when they cannot be buried by
their friends and relations--at length they sparkle in heaven. He
has scarcely lived who has lived in Christian times.”

Maitland renders the concluding letters, IN. X. TEM, by “In
Christianis temporibus.” The furnace seems to indicate that the
martyr suffered death by fire, or, possibly, by immersion in
boiling oil--a mode of punishment which St. John is said to have
undergone, but without receiving any harm.

Another still more apocryphal inscription is given by Maitland,
(page 65.) It is probably of the fifth century. The Pudentiana
referred to is said to have spent her patrimony in relieving the
poor and burying the martyrs.

HOC EST COEMETERIVM PRISCILLAE
IN QVO EXISTVNT CORPORA TRIVM MILLIVM MARTYRVM
MARTYRIO PER ANTONINUM IMPERATOREM
AFFECTORVM QVOS S. PVDENTIANA
FECIT IN HOC SVO VENERABILI TEMPLO SEPELIRI.

“This is the Cemetery of Priscilla, in which are the bodies of
three thousand martyrs, who suffered under the Emperor Antonine,
whom St. Pudentiana caused to be buried in this her own place of
worship.”--Aicher, _Hortus Inscriptionum_. More authentic relics
of this reign are the large tiles with which part of the Catacomb
of Callixtus is paved. They all bear the words, OPVS DOLIARE EX
PRAEDIIS DOMINI N ET FIGL NOVIS, which, according to Marini, is
the stamp of the imperial manufactory of Marcus Aurelius.