Pagan and Christian Rome

by Rodolfo Amedeo Lanciani

Such being the case, the mind runs at once to the paragraph of S. Paul's Epistle to the Romans (xvi. 8): "Salute Ampliatus my beloved in the Lord," and one feels inclined to kneel before the tomb of the dear friend of the apostle. However, when discoveries of this kind happen, it is wise to proceed with caution, and examine every detail from a sceptical point of view. Doubtless the cubiculum of Ampliatus was made and painted in the first century of our era. The type of the letters engraved above the tomb is peculiar to painted or written inscriptions of the beginning of the second century. It is possible, therefore, that the name was at first painted on the white plaster, and engraved on marble many years after the deposition of Ampliatus. As regards Ampliatus himself, it is true that according to Greek tradition he died when Bishop of Mœsia,[161] but the tradition is derived from an apocryphal source. There are those who doubt whether all the salutations contained in S. Paul's epistle are really addressed to the faithful residing in Rome and belonging to the Roman community.[162] Another difficulty arises from the fact that in the same cubiculum a tombstone has been found, inserted in the wall above the arcosolium, between two painted peacocks, with this inscription: "Aurelius Ampliatus and his son Gordianus have placed this memorial to Aurelia Bonifatia, wife and mother incomparable, and truly chaste, who lived 25 years, 2 months, 4 days, and 2 hours." Although the name Aurelius is not uncommon on tombstones of the first century in this very Cemetery of Domitilla, there is no doubt that the tablet of Aurelia Bonifatia belongs to a later period. The name Bonifatius—derived from bonum fatum, not from bonum facere as commonly believed—did not come into use before the middle of the second century. At all events, Ampliatus, husband of Bonifatia and father of Gordianus, may be the son, grandson, or even a later descendant of the man in whose memory the cubiculum was originally built.

Shall we recognize in this man the friend of S. Paul? I do not think the question can as yet be answered with certainty. Further excavations in the galleries radiating from the crypt may disclose fresh particulars, and supply more conclusive evidence.

The discoveries of which a summary description has here been given deserve a place of honor in the comments to Suetonius' "Lives of the Emperors." The exploration of underground Rome must be greeted with pleasure, not only by the pious believers in Christ and his martyrs, but also by agnostic students of classical history. A tombstone, which on one side is inscribed with the records of the victories gained by the imperial legions, on the other with the simple and humble name of a Christian who has given his life for his faith, is a monument worthy the consideration of all thoughtful men. Christian archæology has an intimate and indissoluble connection with classical studies, and there is no discovery referring to the first century of Christianity which does not throw new and often unexpected light on general history, art, and science. Those made at Torre Marancia in 1875 illustrate the history of Rome and the Campagna, after the fall of the empire. In the niche where the episcopal chair was placed,—behind the high altar, in the middle of the apse,—a rough hand has sketched the figure of a priest, dressed in a casula, in the act of preaching from his seat. This sketch reminds us of Gregory the Great, when in this very cemetery of Nereus and Achilleus, in this very apse, he read one of his homilies from this episcopal chair, deploring to the panic-stricken congregation the state of the city, the queen of the world, desolated by famine, by pestilence, and by the Lombards, who at that very moment were burning and plundering the villas and farms of the surrounding Campagna.

Cemetery ad catacumbas.[163] The cemetery near the church of S. Sebastiano was originally called in an indefinite way cimiterium ad catacumbas. The etymology of the name is uncertain. De Rossi suggests the roots cata, a Græco-Latin preposition of the decadence, signifying "near," and cumba, a resting-place. The word would therefore mean apud accubitoria, "near the resting-places," an allusion to the many tombs which surrounded the old crypt above and below ground. This crypt dates from apostolic times, or, at all events, from a period much earlier than the martyrdom of Sebastian, the Christian officer whose name it now bears.

The great interest of the cemetery is derived from the shelter which the bodies of the apostles are said to have had in its recesses during the fiercest times of persecution. The temporary transferment of the remains of SS. Peter and Paul, from their graves on the Via Cornelia and the Via Ostiensis, to the catacombs, is not a mere tradition. It is described by Pope Damasus in a metric inscription published by de Rossi,[164] and by Pope Gregory in an epistle to the empress Constantina, no. 30 of book iv. A curious entry in the calendar called Bucherianum, from its first editor, seems to point to a double transferment. The entry is dated June 29, a. d. 258:—

Tertio Kalendas Julias, Tusco et Basso consulibus, Petri in Vaticano, Pauli in via Ostiensis—utriusque in Catacumbas.

Since, in early calendars, the date is only appended in case of transferment of remains, archæologists have suggested the theory that the bodies of the apostles may possibly have found shelter in the catacombs of the Appian Way a second time, during the persecution of Valerian (a. d. 258). Marchi asserts that the evidences of a double concealment are still to be found in the frescoes of the crypt, some of which belong to the first, others to the third, century; but this hardly seems to be the case. I lowered myself into the hiding-place on February 23 of the present year, and, after careful examination, have come to the conclusion that its paintings are by one hand and of one epoch, the epoch of Damasus. However, whether they were laid there once or twice, its temporary connection with the apostles made the "locus ad catacumbas" one of the great suburban sanctuaries. The cubiculum, called Platonia, was decorated by Damasus with marble incrustations. According to the Acts of S. Sebastian (January 20) he expressed the wish to be buried "ad catacumbas, at the entrance of the crypt, near the memorial of the apostles." These events were represented in the frescoes of the old portico of S. Peter's, destroyed in 1606-1607 by Paul V. One of them showed the bodies of the apostles, bandaged like mummies, being lowered into the place of concealment; the other, Lucina and Cornelius bringing back the bodies to their original graves in the Via Cornelia and the Via Ostiensis.

A remarkable monument was discovered in the crypt four years ago. It is a marble bust, or rather the fragment of a bust, of the Redeemer, with locks of hair descending on each shoulder,[165] a work of the fourth century.

It is well known that the oldest representations of the Redeemer are purely ideal. He appears as a young man, with no beard, his hair arranged in the Roman style, wearing a short tunic, and showing the amiable countenance of the Good Shepherd. I give here a characteristic specimen of this type, a statue of the first quarter of the third century, now in the Lateran Museum.[166] Whether performing one of the miracles which prove his divinity, or teaching the new doctrine to the disciples, the type never varies. It is evident that the Christian painters or sculptors of the first three centuries, in drawing or modelling the head of Jesus, had no intention of making a likeness, but only a conventional type, noble and classic, and suggestive of the eternal youth of the Word. A new tendency appears in Christian art towards the middle of the fourth century, the attempt to reproduce the genuine portrait of Christ, or what was regarded as such by the Orientals. The change was a consequence of the peace and freedom given to the Church, and of the cessation of that overbearing contempt in which the Gentiles had held a religion which they believed to be that of the vile followers of a crucified Jew. It had been considered prudent, at the outset, to present the Redeemer to the neophytes, who were not yet entirely free from pagan ideas, in a type which was familiar and pleasing to the Roman eye, rather than with the characteristics of a despised race. The triumph of the Church made these precautions unnecessary, and then arose the desire of exhibiting a truer portraiture of Christ. The first addition to the conventional type was that of the beard, and probably of the hair parted in the middle.