Chapter IX: The Via Appia (1)

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.