ROMA. SOTTERRANEA.*

OF late years, the wonders of underground " Rome have been minutely and, we may add, scientifically explored. The title of this work can hardly be misleading, as most people know by this time that the famous Catacombs are not really under the city, but at some little distance from it. The volume before us is modestly described in the title-page as a compilation from Be Rossi's researches into this singular and interesting branch of archreology. De Rossi, indeed, for many years past has de- voted himself, heart and soul, to the subject, and though, from the fact that he has worked directly under the Papal auspices, we might fairly presume that he would have something of a bias, yet we find that even Moinmsen admits him to be both "conscientious and acute." His work is consequently of the highest value, and Messrs. Northcote and Brownlow have cer- tainly done well in attempting to popularise it. The volume before us is a new and greatly enlarged edition of a former work, published in 1869, and it gives us a very complete account * Roma soeterranea ; or, an Account of the Roman Catacombs. By the Bev. .T. Spenoor Northoote and the Rev. W. R. Brownlow. Part IX.: Illetory. London Longmane and 00.

of this ancient Christian burial-place, which we now plainly see to have been on a scale of magnitude unmistakably attesting the numbers and importance of the early Christian community in Rome itself. It used to be the fashion to look on the Catacombs as something quite apocryphal, or at least as the nucleus of a mass of legends invented by the Church of Rome for its own special glorification. Bishop Burnet, who saw some of them with his own eyes, spoke of them with the utmost con- tempt, and threw out the conjecture that they were originally nothing but the so-called puticuti, in which the meanest slaves were interred. This was very possibly the result of Protestant prejudice. The recent labours of Be Rossi have proved deci- sively that the Catacombs have the closest possible connection with the history of the early Church, and any one who now ques- tions this stands at once convicted of the most unreasonable incredulity.

One of the old theories about the Catacombs was that they were deserted sand-pits or quarries, which the Christians ap- plied to the purpose of burial. But the circumstance that they are, for the most part, excavated in localities where neither the ordinary building stone nor the sand known as puzzolana is found, seems to dispose of this view. Mommsen altogether concurs with De Rossi in the confident belief that the Cata- combs, in their first beginnings, were the very work of that society which St. Paul addressed in his Epistle to the Romans. But the question naturally occurs, How could these poor, perse- cuted people have ever been able to execute such works P How could they have contrived to get possession of so extensive an area for cemeteries for themselves in the immediate neighbourhood of Rome P This, according to our authors, admits of an easy ex- planation. "A few wealthy converts may have done what their pagan neighbours did,—that is, set aside a plot of ground for their own burial, and the burial of as many others as they might choose to admit." This, then, was the beginning of the work. There may, too, have been Christian Associations for burial, just as there were Pagan clubs among the poor for that pur- pose; and these Associations, if they had not exactly a legal status, may at least have been tolerated. That the Christians, with their scrupulous sentiments as to burial, would aim at something of this sort, seems in itself probable ; and the notion is confirmed by the testimony of writers, who speak of public Christian cemeteries in various parts of the world. As early as the third century the right of access to "those places which are called cemeteries" is a phrase often ". occurring in the imperial edicts ; and we may fairly infer that this was nothing new, but that it had been handed down from an earlier age. So, then, it is quite possible that, under the shelter of the Roman law, these places of Christian burial may have been provided both by wealthy members of the Church and by Associations of their poorer brethren. 'It appears that in the cemetery at St. Sebastian's was found a fragment of an inscription containing these words, &dales Pratres, and it is possible that as the members of a Pagan collegian?, or club, called themselves sodales, the Christians of a similar as- sociation wished to be known as fratrcs. Such, at least, is De. Rossi's view.

In discussing this subject of the first origin of the Catacombs,. Messrs. Northcote and Browulow are very anxious to prove that. there was no such thing as promiscuous burial of Christians and Pagans. They will not even admit that the Christians ever burnt their dead, or consigned their ashes to the tombs of their heathen patrons. From the very first, they maintain that they made themselves a wholly separate community. As to burning the dead, it is, we think, hardly enough to quote from Minucius. Felix, writing, at the close of the second century, to the effect that "Christians execrate the funeral pile." We find some difficulty in bringing ourselves to believe that the early converts cut themselves off wholly in all their habits and sympathies from their heathen kinsfolk. It is certain that they did not give up their ordinary occupations, that they intermarried with unbe- lievers, and from this it is not an improbable inference that in the matter of burial they may have conformed to pagan usage. We observe that our authors are very angry with Dr. Merivale for saying that the letters "D.M." (" Die Manibus ") often occur on early Christian tombs. As a fact, they assert that these letters occur very rarely, only about once in four hundred cases ; and for this statement, we presume, De Rossi can vouch, on the strength of his minute investigations. But the weighty authority of Dr. Lightfoot is against them on this matter of promiscuous interment. In the inscriptions in some of the lately discovered columbarict (sepulchral niches) at Rome, he has noted names which occur in St. Paul's salutation to his fellow-

countrymen at Rome. It is true that he does not regard the

identity as by any means established, and some of the names, 210 doubt, as Julia, Rufus, rtc., are so common, that no sort of

argument can be founded on them. But as to one name, with

which renata is coupled, a word pointing, it would seem, to the Christian sacrament of baptism, he is pretty confident that it

must have belonged to a Christian, and the only way in which our authors can evade the force of this consideration is by sug- gesting that the same word was applied to those who had been initiated in the mystic rites of the Great Mother of the Gods.

Here we must say that we are inclined to part company with them, and to subscribe to the view of Drs. Merivale and Light- foot (in which Mr. Parker also agrees), that it is probable that in the early days of the Church, Christians and. Pagans occa- sionally shared, together their last resting-place.

We are not at all surprised to find that our authors do their best to claim a good social position for some of the earliest con- verts to Christianity. There are, indeed, a few passages well known to scholars which really seem to favour such a conclusion. There is, for instance, the story of Porriponia Graecina, the wife of Aulus Plautius, the conqueror of Britain in the reign of

Claudius, of whom Tacitus says (Annals, xiii,, 32) that she was accused of "a foreign superstition," that after a judicial in-

quiry she was pronounced innocent, but that from that time "she lived a long life of unbroken melancholy." One would, of course, like to believe that this great Roman lady was a Christian convert, but Dr. Merivale throws very cold. water on such a surmise, • He remarks that her supposed conversion, being in the year A.D. 67, must have taken place four years before St.

Paul's arrival at Rome, However, it appears that in a very ancient crypt, near the Catacomb of St. Callixtus, have been discovered the gravestones of a Pompouius Graecinus, and other members of the same family; and this, it must be admitted, is a striking coincidence. The crypt itself has always been known as the Crypt of Lucius., and De Rossi ventures on the conjec- ture that Lucina may have been the Christian name given to Pomponia Graecina after her conversion, as referring to the spiritual illumination received through baptism. He admits that it is the merest guess ; still, the discovery of the name in a Christian sepulchre certainly does lend. some probability to the idea that the wife of a great Roman General really became a ' Christian.

One of the most ancient Christian monuments is that attri- buted to St. Domitilla. De Rossi has quite convinced himself that it belonged to some member of the Malian family, who lived and died during the reign of the ',Emperor Domitian. In this Mommsen is rather inclined to agree with him, and he is at least satisfied that Flavius Clemens, Domitian's cousin, em- braced the Christian faith, and that in consequence of this he was, while actually Consul, sentenced to death. It is not cer- tain whether Flavia Domitilla, who has given her name to one of the earliest catacombs, was his wife or his sister. At any rate, she, the grand-daughter of Vespasia,n, was banished to the island of Ponza, on a charge of atheism and conformity to

Jewish manners; and this we may fairly assume to have meant that she was a Christian. So Gibbon thought, and so thinks

Mommsen. Her catacomb has all the marks of extreme an- tiquity, and if genuine, it proves unquestionably that these monuments must have been begun in the Apostolic age. But on this point we must be cautious. Domitilla, though a Christian, may have been buried in the family vault, un- less unmistakable evidence is forthcoming against the pos-

sibility of such mixed burials ever taking place. She was certainly the donor of the burying-ground, as is attested by

a heathen-tomb inscription. Mr. Parker assumes that it was simply the sepulchre of a great Roman family, and that she, as a member of the family, was interred. in it. There are remains of frescoes which would. rather imply a Christian foundation for the monument. It seems pretty clear that they are of the same date as the building itself; they are very beautiful, and worthy of an artist of the Augustan age. There are representations of grapes, with birds pecking at them, and of winged boys press- ing out the fruit ; and then, too, there is Daniel in the lions' den, and the Good Shepherd, and what may have been intended for Noah's Ark. Pagan and Christian art would seem to be blended, and it is hard to say what is the exact conclusion to be fairly drawn. Unfortunately, the paintings have been sadly de- faced by ruthless hands, which attempted to tear them from the walls. Could we have seen these chambers in their original condition, our authors suppose that we might have seen traces and memorials of the "martyred Consul," Flavius Clemens. It is, however, perhaps, not altogether extravagant to claim for this remarkable tomb the glory of being one of the most ancient specimens of Christian subterranean burials at Rome.

De Rossi's opinion on this interesting subject, connected so closely with the history of the Early Church, may be rather biassed, but it is assuredly entitled. to the utmost con- sideration. It is the fruit of careful and critical in- quiry continued through many years. The tradition as to the primitive antiquity of a few of these cemeteries may rest on rather untrustworthy testimony, but it is corroborated by an examination of the crypts themselves, of the peculiarities of their structure, and of their ornamentation. Recent researches show us paintings in a thoroughly classical style ; crypts not hewn out of the bare rock, but carefully and elegantly built, with pilasters and cornices of bricks or terra cotta; whole families of inscriptions with classical names, and very few distinctly Christian forms of speech ; lastly, actual dates, furnished by the consulships, of the first and second century. Here we have, say our authors, "a marvellous uniformity of phenomena," enough to show that the beginnings of Boma Sotterranea, were far from being mean and insignificant. It may be that among the early converts to our faith were some few of rank and distinction. Such a notion is at least perfectly reasonable, and modern discoveries seem to favour it. We cannot quite look on De Rossi or our authors as altogether impartial judges in such a matter, but we are sure that they deserve a respectful hearing, as Mommsen himself admits. The present volume, with its chromolithographs and other illustrations, ought to be welcomed by all who take any interest in the study of Christian antiquity. It embodies the results of the life-long investigations of a scholar of genius, learning, and enthusiasm.