The passages are from six to twelve feet high and have an average width of from three to six feet. In the tufa rock of which their walls are composed niches are hollowed out, one above the other, in which the dead were laid, from three to six persons having been placed on each side. All the passages and galleries have these ghastly linings, and most of them end their long and dreary course in a chamber, as the reader may observe on examining the cuts below.
These chambers are often of large dimensions, and were originally adorned with great splendor and high art. They were the tombs of wealthy and noble families, who spared neither labor nor money in beautifying their final habitations. The walls and ceilings were exquisitely sculptured and painted by the most gifted artists of the age. Sarcophagi or coffins of bronze, of porphyry and other rare marbles contained the bodies of the dead. On their massive lids and sides were carved the forms and features of those lying within, so that even to-day we are in possession of fine and accurate portraits of ancient people. Around the sarcophagi were placed rich vases of gold, drinking cups of silver, and many other valuable treasures dear to the departed when alive. Statues of bronze and marble were ranged about in lavish array and gleamed under the soft light which fell from quaint lamps of precious metals, curious in shape and wrought with elaborate skill.
In the Roman Campagna there were forty-three catacombs, whose names are recorded in inscriptions, in martyrologies, and in the Pontifical Registers used by Anastasius, since republished, with additions, in various forms, and repeated in substance by Baronius in his Annals, and Panvinius in his treatise on the Cemeteries. Aringhi reckons on the number at fifty-six, and from the account of Signor de Rossi it appears that the number is now reckoned at about sixty. The number of general cemeteries is not so large.
PLAN OF CATACOMBS AT ROME. (Estimated to be between 800 and 900 miles in length.)[ToList]
The original entrances to the catacombs were in many instances by subterranean roads or corridors, sometimes called streets. These corridors, which served as entrances to and passages in the burial-places, were originally old sand-pit roads, from which the Pozzolana sand had been extracted; when this bed of sand is extracted, the entrance is usually closed. The soft bed of Pozzolana sand was, however, not generally used for interments, but the harder bed under it, called "tufa granulare." The different horizontal layers or beds of tufa vary very much in hardness and also in thickness.
Although these catacombs may not be the finest cemeteries, yet the use of these would be infinitely preferable to the recent Roman practice of throwing the bodies of all persons, whose families can not afford to buy a piece of land in perpetuity, into a pit, in the same manner as the ancient Romans did the bodies of their slaves.
There are three hundred and eighty pits provided in the burial ground of S. Lorenzo, one of which was opened every night. All the bodies brought for interment that day or night were thrown into it, after being first stripped to the skin by the officials; and then hot lime was thrown upon them, that they might be thoroughly decayed before the year came round. The mouth of the pit was closed with lime grouting, so that no effluvium could escape, and this covering was not broken until the pit was wanted to be used again.