THE OSTORIAN CATACOMB.
(Custodian, Valentino.)
Signor Armellini has, it is reported, succeeded in deciphering an inscription in this catacomb, in which the name of S. Peter occurs. The supposed inscription is in an archway and on the stucco, the letters being in red colour. This cubiculum is lighted from the top by an old luminarium, and in shape is not unlike a basilica without aisles. At a short distance in front of the apse, jutting out from the right wall, is a chair of tufa, which looks across the chamber; opposite is a column, coming out in the same manner, above which is a niche for a lamp. The apse itself is filled up about four feet above the floor of the chamber, the filling up forming a tomb, the top of which was probably used as an altar (arcosolium). The vault of the apse is covered with scroll-worked stucco in very low relief, coloured red; this has fallen off, only some slight traces of it remaining, presenting in one or two instances the appearance of letters, which, we should say, it was impossible to make out. This is the inscription in which Signor Armellini reads the name of Peter. But even supposing that it is an inscription, and that Peter's name is there, it does not prove that Peter baptized there; for, in fact, the catacomb was made long after S. Peter's death. In the acts of the martyrs Liberius and Damasus, it is mentioned that in this catacomb S. Peter baptized (query, not the apostle). This is followed by Bosio, Aringhi, and De Rossi. This catacomb is supposed to have belonged to the descendants of Ostorius, the pro-prætor in Britain who sent Caractacus and his wife prisoners to Claudius. Of course the simple mention of S. Peter in the inscription does not prove that he ever was in Rome, for we have every evidence to the contrary. This catacomb is about two miles outside the Porta Pia, on the Via Nomentana, and adjoins that of S. Agnese, and is also known by the name of "Peter's Fountain," though there is no water there. Boldetti informs us that a vial of blood found in the Ostorian Cemetery bore these words: "Primitius in pace post multas angustias fortissimus martyr." This catacomb is also mentioned by Tertullian.
Resuming our ramble along the Via Nomentana, after a short walk we reach the railway bridge, from which we obtain a beautiful view of the Campagna and the distant hills, whilst at our feet is the Anio, spanned by the
PONTE NOMENTANA,
a Roman bridge, very picturesque, rebuilt, A.D. 565, by Narses, the eunuch, and conqueror of Italy. Its present upper part is, however, medieval. Just beyond is the ridge of
MONS SACER,
where the plebeians retired when they made their secession, B.C. 492, and where Menenius Agrippa addressed to them the famous fable of the "Belly and its Members" (Livy, ii. 32; Dionysius, vi. 86), so beautifully illustrated by S. Paul: "As the members of a natural body all tend to the mutual decency, service, and succour of the same body; so we should do one for another, to make up the mystical body of Christ" (see 1 Cor. xii.). "They erected an altar upon the summit of the hill, where they had encamped, which they named the altar of Jupiter Terribilis" (Dionysius, vi. 90). A second secession here took place after the death of Virginia, B.C. 449 (Livy, iii. 52).
Beyond the osteria (inn), on the left, is the so-called