The Underground World: A mirror of life below the surface

by Thomas Wallace Knox

The catacombs of Rome are quite interesting, partly from their character and partly from the associations connected with them. Many of them are of great antiquity, and can be traced back nearly to the time when the city was founded. The rock on which Rome is built was of volcanic origin. It is a soft, yellow stone, generally known as tufa, and can be quarried very easily. The workmen shaped their shafts pretty much as they pleased, the stone in many places being so soft that it could be cut with an axe. Some of them are more ancient even than the city which Romulus and Remus founded, and they are so extensive that the original seven hills on which Rome stands were perforated and honey-combed by enormous passages and galleries, in which one might easily be lost. As the building of the city progressed, the quarries were extended, some of them several miles away from the banks of the Tiber. During the time of the prosperity of Rome these quarries were opened in every direction, and were steadily worked until the city began to decline, and the materials of the old buildings were used for the construction of new ones.

DESTROYING THE COLISEUM.

For a good many hundred years Rome has had very little occasion to open new quarries, as the old stone inside the city is quite sufficient for most of the building purposes of the present day. For several centuries some of the great works constructed by the emperors were torn down to furnish building material. A great part of the Coliseum was removed in this way. Thousands of tons of stone were carried off, but the work was so vast that, in spite of all the efforts of man to destroy it, it remains to-day a gigantic monument of the greatness and glory of Rome.

Beneath the modern city of Rome there are many underground passages which are not generally classed with the catacombs. The most interesting of the catacombs, those which furnished homes and hiding-places for the early Christians, are outside the walls of the modern city, and are visited annually by a great many persons. It is not clear for what purpose these places were used after their abandonment as quarries, but it is generally believed they were the resort of robbers and other persons who were escaping from or avoiding justice. At the present time a close watch is kept over them, to prevent their occupation by brigands or other violators of the law. Only a few years ago a band of robbers had their headquarters in one of the catacombs, and carried on their depredations for several months before their place of concealment was discovered.

During the time of the persecution of the Christians, beginning with that under Nero, and followed by those of several other emperors, down to the last persecution, a great many persons who could not be safe anywhere else crowded into the catacombs. Some of them lived there for years, while many others spent the greater part of their time there, and only went to the surface at night. Many of the workmen around the quarries were very early converted to Christianity, and it is supposed that they greatly aided their fellow-Christians in finding secure places of retreat.

EXPLORING THE CATACOMBS.

Very little attention was paid to the catacombs until nearly fourteen hundred years after the beginning of the Christian era. By that time the catacombs had ceased to be the abode of Christians, as it was no longer necessary for them to conceal themselves. Outlaws and assassins were gathered in large numbers in the catacombs, and it required very vigorous efforts on the part of the authorities to drive them out. The entrances to many of these places were closed altogether, and have remained closed ever since, so that there are numerous under-passages below and around the city of Rome which have not been visited for thousands of years, and their locality even is not known.

In 1535 the pope ordered some of the catacombs to be explored, and directed that they should be cleared and lighted. A great interest was awakened in subterranean Rome, and Father Bosio devoted about thirty years of his life to the exploration of the catacombs. He opened the way into some of the places which had been blocked up and closed for centuries, and he made drawings and descriptions of some of the most remarkable sculptures, paintings, monuments, and other things which he found there. Several books have been published concerning the catacombs, and anything like a full description of them would require thousands of pages.

During some of the explorations many valuable articles were carried away, until it was found that there was danger of the catacombs being entirely despoiled. Pope Clement VIII. took the catacombs under his especial protection, and forbade any one to enter or leave them without permission, or take away any article whatever, under penalty of excommunication. Since that time the catacombs have been regarded with great veneration as being the hiding-place of the early Christians, who adhered to their religious convictions through years of the severest persecution.

CHURCH OF THE CAPUCHINS.