Origin, purpose and structure of the Roman catacombs

The prayer meetings of believers of the first three centuries, taking place mainly in private homes and open public buildings, also had a secret, underground history, which took place unknown to the rest of the world under the vaults of caves and which, relatively speaking, was only recently revealed in all its details, becoming the subject of scientific research. We mean the Roman catacombs. Despite the enormous and extremely important importance that the catacombs enjoyed in the social and religious life of the original Christian society, no detailed information has been preserved about them from the most ancient era. Almost none of the contemporaries of the glorious time of their existence left us any information about when, by whom and how they were built, what purposes they served, as if this gigantic structure did not exist at all then or was completely unknown to them. True, numerous inscriptions and images located on the walls and vaults of these dungeons indicate the presence of Christian dead in them, reproducing before us the names of Roman bishops and martyrs of the 2nd–3rd centuries and countless numbers of ordinary believers; but this genealogy of the catacombs was drawn by an outside hand and not at all in order to tell the world the history of the famous necropolis; it’s the caves themselves that speak about themselves and their ancient destiny... The literary fame of the catacombs begins from the time when underground Rome, having fulfilled its historical purpose, began to become a monument of the past. With the exception of brief indications accidentally dropped by a few ancient writers, the earliest and most significant that we know about the Roman catacombs belongs to two almost simultaneous Western writers: Blessed. Jerome and Aurelius Prudentius. The first, growing up in Rome, visited these dungeons and left us a living sketch of the personal impressions he took from these visits. “Together with his fellow peers,” says the blessed one about himself. Jerome, - on Sundays I had the custom of visiting the tombs of the apostles and martyrs, often going down into caves dug in the depths of the earth, in the walls of which on both sides lie the bodies of the dead and in which there is such darkness that here this prophetic saying almost comes true: let them go down to hell and live (Ps. 54:16). Occasionally, light admitted from above moderates the horror of the darkness, so that the opening through which it enters is better called a crevice than a window. There they walk step by step (groping) and in the midst of the gloomy night this Virgilian verse is remembered: “everywhere there is horror and silence itself frightens the soul.” 1 Describing in verse “The Suffering of the Most Blessed Martyr Hippolytus,” Prudentius introduces several new features into the image of the catacombs and thereby complements the blessedness. Jerome. “Not far from the place where the city rampart ends, in the cultivated area adjacent to it, a deep crypt opens its dark passages. A sloping path, winding, leads to this shelter, devoid of light. Daylight penetrates into the crypt through the entrance, and in its winding galleries, already a few steps from the entrance, the dark night turns black. However, clear rays are thrown into these galleries from above by holes cut in the vault of the crypt. And although there are dark places here and there in the crypt, nevertheless, through the indicated holes, significant light illuminates the inside of the carved space. Thus, it is possible to see the light of the absent sun underground and enjoy its radiance. In such a hiding place the body of Hippolytus is hidden, next to which an altar for divine rites is erected. From the 4th century, the catacombs began to lose their original purpose; from that time on, Roman high priests ceased to be buried in them, and Pope Melchiades († 314) was the last who had to find posthumous rest in coemeterio Callisti. His successor is St. Sylvester, so famous among the contemporaries of Constantine the Great, was no longer laid to rest in an underground crypt, but in an above-ground basilica, specially built for this purpose and named after this pope. The people began to follow the example of the clergy. Although in the 5th century burial still continued in the catacombs, the majority of believers began to prefer above-ground cemeteries to dungeons, adjacent to those memorials or open buildings that Christians began to erect from a very early time at their burial sites, mainly above the tombs of martyrs and other most revered deceased brethren. The reduction in the number of funerary inscriptions preserved in the catacombs from this period quite clearly indicates a decrease in the number of burials there. However, this did not prevent the Roman catacombs from enjoying great fame and reverent veneration in the Christian world. The sacred memories associated with these dungeons, dear to the Christian sense, could not immediately emerge from the bowels of the earth to its surface and continued to attract devout worshipers of the Christian shrine here. In the 4th–5th centuries, numerous crowds of pilgrims, driven by the desire to worship at the graves of the apostles, martyrs and confessors, headed to the Roman caves. Leaving on the walls of the catacombs, especially near the tombs with the relics of saints, traces of their visits in the form of images and inscriptions, some of these fans recorded their observations in travel notes, which, in connection with martyrologies, still serve as an important tool for researchers when studying the catacombs. 2 But soon there was no incentive to visit the shrines of underground Rome. After the defeat and terrible devastation caused by the Goths, Vandals and other peoples in Rome and its environs, the Roman high priests, for various reasons, began to remove the remains of the most revered saints from the catacombs to suburban and city basilicas, and this transfer continued for several centuries. How diligently the popes acted in this field is proven by the official lists of the relics they brought out and the chronicle news. Pope Boniface IV, on the occasion of the consecration of the pantheon to the Christian church, took, according to legend, thirty-two carts with the relics of saints from the catacombs. In the 9th century, under Pope Paschal, as the inscription in the Basilica of Praxeda says, two thousand three hundred holy relics were removed from the catacombs. As a result of this circumstance, as well as due to the gradual abandonment of the sacred dungeons, the number of their fans greatly decreased. At the end of the 9th century, travel to the Roman catacombs almost stopped, and in the 11th–12th centuries. Only occasionally are single cases of such visits mentioned. Underground Rome, which attracted the attention of the entire ancient Christian world, falls into oblivion in the dark medieval era; for a reason that is not easily explained, even supermundane Rome almost completely forgets its glorious cemetery and all the relatively little that has been written about it. Three hundred years ago, in 1378, on May 31, workers digging up the ground near Rome to obtain building materials suddenly came across stone slabs covered with ancient inscriptions and images. The area where this accidental discovery took place is located in via Salaria - on the Salar road leading to Rome from the north. The find aroused great interest, and rumors about it soon spread in Rome and its environs, attracting, as always, crowds of curious people to the excavation site. No one could then predict the great consequences for science associated with this apparently insignificant discovery, 3 and yet, thanks to it, archaeological science began its existence and, one might say, first came into being along with underground Rome and the great many monuments of ancient Christian art preserved in it. But where did this underground world come from, what brought it to life and to whom it owed its origin - these questions did not lend themselves to a satisfactory solution for a long time, and only in relatively recent times was it finally possible to master the key to the explanation and come to positive conclusions. The origin of the Roman catacombs is connected with the burial customs of the ancients and is most closely explained by the conditions of burial in Rome and the situation of Christians in this city. Two main methods of burial existed in the ancient world: burning the corpse (crematio) and burying it in the ground (inhumatio) or burial in the proper sense. The Semitic peoples adhered to the latter method; in Greece both existed; but the predominant form was cremation. In Italy, in the cities it was also customary to burn corpses, but in rural life, especially among simple and poor people, the ancient custom of burying the dead in the ground was maintained. In mountainous areas, most often a special place was carved out of the rock for each deceased, the hole which was filled with a stone or covered with a slab. Sometimes, for the same purpose, entire rooms were pierced along the slopes, like large rooms or crypts, along the walls of which small depressions were cut out, where the dead were placed, in the same way as they are placed in coffins. A special type of underground graves was also known, when instead of chambers in the rock, underground galleries with rooms were dug in softer layers of soil, where the dead were taken down, placing them in rows along the walls in prepared niches. These underground galleries, sometimes extending over a very considerable distance, make up what is now called catacombs. 4 As they originate from a burial custom widely practiced in antiquity, the catacombs, of course, cannot be confined to any specific area. Now it has been found that they belong to almost all of Europe, are found in considerable numbers in Asia and Africa, and with further research they promise to become the property of the entire ancient Christian world. The most famous in modern archaeological science for their antiquity and wealth of monumental material, in addition to the main Roman ones, are the Neapolitan, Gallic, Sicilian catacombs and the large gallery near Alexandria with an interesting fresco of the Eucharistic content found in it. All the catacombs, both western and eastern, in addition to the similarity in their structure, also have the peculiarity that they open onto large roads and lie outside the city limits - extra muros, according to custom, which forbidden for hygienic reasons to bury anyone in the city itself. This requirement in relation to Rome is expressed in the law of the XII tables as follows: Hoinem mortuum in urbe ne sepelito neve urito, i.e. the dead in the city should neither be buried nor burned. And since this law was mandatory for everyone, it turned out that Christian, Jewish, and Roman graves ended up in one place, not far from the city. Representing a network of underground corridors going in different directions, the Roman catacombs occupy a huge space, but their length is even greater. Although they do not go further than three miles beyond the city limits and stay constantly in this area, the number of galleries is so large, they intersect so often that the overall result is a very complex labyrinth with many branches and several floors. If these corridors and passages were deployed in one line, they would take up an extremely long stretch. Although the exact dimensions of the catacombs are not yet fully known, according to the calculations of Father Marka, the space they occupy is 1200 kilometers, and according to later, more accurate calculations by Mikel Rossi, their explored network extends to 876 kilometers or 120 geographical miles (120 x 7 = 840 versts). The cultivation of such a vast space, which initially had undoubtedly more modest dimensions and expanded gradually, was the work of several centuries. 5 On this all researchers of Christian antiquity agree with each other, but they differ greatly in resolving the issue of the time and method of formation of this wonderful underground cemetery. Until very recently, it was almost generally accepted that underground galleries near Rome and Naples were dug long before the Christians by the Romans or by the primitive inhabitants of Italy for their own needs. Some of the defenders of this opinion, and among them Bosio, argued that the catacombs are nothing more than ancient Roman quarries, from where workers extracted building material (tuff). Since the demand for stones and sand was very large, the quarries themselves became quite large over time. In order not to damage the topsoil necessary for agricultural work, the Romans dug these underground mines at a significant depth, while the topsoil remained untouched. These quarries, which Cicero mentions when speaking about the murder of a Roman citizen in them, were called by the Romans arenariae - lathomiae and were located outside the city. Over time, these quarries were abandoned. During the era of persecution, Christians took advantage of these little-known and inaccessible dungeons as a place of refuge. Here they buried their fellow believers and held their services. They could take advantage of these abandoned dungeons and then strengthen them for themselves all the more easily since the work in the quarries was carried out by slaves and people of the lower classes, to which most of the first Roman Christians belonged. It is also known that the Roman government was in the habit of not only appointing Christians to excavation and construction work, but also exiling them to the mines for confessing their faith. So under the imperial Trajan St. Clement of Rome was exiled to the Inkerman quarries near Chersonesus - present-day Sevastopol. The Christians who worked in the quarries reported them to their fellow believers as a safe refuge from enemy persecution and, being well acquainted with the location of the cave passages, could easily become their leaders in this underground labyrinth. Other defenders of the pre-Christian origin of the catacombs and between them Pellicha and Binterim attributed their origin to deep prehistoric antiquity and explained the formation of these dungeons from the custom of peoples to lay underground paths in mountainous areas for convenient communication. To prove their hypothesis, they referred, among other things, to the testimony of Strabo, who says that such a custom once existed in Campania. When the natives of this country were driven out by new rapists who did not know about these underground structures, the original purpose of the catacombs was forgotten and traces of their existence were lost. This continued until the Christian era. Christians occupied these forgotten dungeons because no one owned them and no one needed them. Once at their disposal, these underground passages were restored and used for burial purposes. Applying this hypothesis to the formation of catacombs in general, the scientists we named especially use it to explain the origin of the Neapolitan catacombs. Some of the Romans were also inclined to the same assumption at the time when the finds at the site of the catacombs first became known. Conveying the current rumor about these underground wonders, one writer of that time says the following: “the Romans were extremely surprised to learn about the discovery of hitherto unknown underground passages and cities, and on this occasion they involuntarily recalled ancient stories about the underground passages and mountains of campaign.” 6 In modern times, the theory of the pre-Christian origin of the Roman catacombs has been abandoned in one form or another. Marchi and Rossi, based mainly on the structure of the catacombs, which differ sharply from quarries and sand pits, and catacomb epigraphy, supported by historical data, came to the completely opposite conclusion that these dungeons are the work of Christian hands and owe their origin and processing to them alone. This opinion, which has now become dominant in science, may seem paradoxical at first. The question arises: how could Christians carry out such a huge undertaking almost in front of their enemies? No matter how secretly they conducted their business, this underground work near the city and in view of the city administration could not remain a secret to anyone. But even if we assume the latter, no matter how strange it may be, it will remain inexplicable: with what means was this enormous work accomplished and on what rights could Christians become the owners of such a vast expanse of land? Starting to resolve these issues with the data that the written monuments of that time tell us, for example, martyrologies and the church history of Eusebius, such a matter turns out to be impossible and is at odds with the position of Christians in Roman society. The study of the catacombs significantly weakened the pessimistic view of the church historian and presented the initial attitudes towards Christians of Roman society in a slightly different light. De Rossi was able to prove that the catacombs were formed from private land holdings that belonged to Roman owners. These latter, by right, retained ownership and passed them on to their heirs when they converted to Christianity; and performed this act of transfer by gift - ex indulgentia. Here they arranged either a single grave or an entire family crypt, where they admitted their heirs and loved ones, precisely designating the circle of these persons and their rights to the grave. One inscription discovered by de Rossi in 1853 in the catacomb of Nereus reads: Marcus Antonius Restutus fecit ypogeum sibi et suis fidentibus in Domino. Another inscription, found by the same person in 1865, states the matter even more clearly and reads as follows: Monumentum Valerii Mercurii et lulittos luliani et Quintiles verecundes libertis libertabusque posterisque eorum at (= ad) religionem pertinentes (pertinentibus) meam. Then the inscription indicates how much land belongs to this monument: Hoc amplius in circuitum circa monumentum lati longi per pedes sinos, quod pertinet at ipsum monumentum. 7 According to the inscription used in Roman tombs: Hoc monumentum haeredes sequitur - this monument is given to the heirs; epitaphs of the same kind are found on Christian tombstones. All this indicates the full legal rights of plot owners. In the above inscriptions, one of the owners of the grave (ypogeum) expresses the desire that only his coreligionists find a posthumous shelter in his crypt, and the other extends this right to freedmen, freedwomen and their descendants, subject to the condition that they belong to Christianity. This is how sopulchra familiaria were formed - family tombs, which probably served as the starting point for the formation of the catacombs. Being at first private possessions - a kind of topographical units, over time these family crypts gradually expanded and connected with each other, entering the system of a common underground cemetery, which more and more covered the suburban space of Rome. This increase or growth of the catacomb territory can be guessed by the various names of the burial crypts; in these names one hears the names of individuals and entire families who were the original owners of a certain area, one or another part of the current catacombs. Among these owners were persons of wealthy families and noble origins, and therefore the opinion that Christian society in Rome consisted only of slaves and poor people is not entirely fair. Indeed, there were many Christians from this class and it is easy to understand why Christianity made rapid progress in this segment of the population; but next to them, an influential part of Roman society, persons of high position and patrician families, soon found themselves on the side of Christianity. In the catacomb tombs, between the mass of dark, unknown coffins, Rossi found monuments with venerable names from the family of Caecilians, Cornelians, Emilians, Flavians and others. It is also known that Christians were initially mixed with Jews, who lived in large numbers in Rome at that time; but the Jewish nation enjoyed the protection of the laws of the Romans and had legal rights that extended to its religious beliefs, as long as these latter did not diverge from state interests. Thanks to this circumstance, Christians could at first enjoy some of the benefits of the tolerant sect and freely perform their funeral rites. Such a lenient attitude was in the spirit of Roman legislation itself. According to Roman laws, the coffin with the body of the deceased was considered a sacred object (res sacra), and any place intended for burial was recognized as inviolable, as locus religiosus. Roman customs required everyone to bury a dead body that came across anywhere, or at least throw a handful of earth on the dead person and pronounce the prescribed prayer words. 8 The right of burial was not denied to the criminals themselves. That is why the remains of Christian martyrs were often carried away and buried by their brothers in faith before the eyes of their tormentors. Without a doubt, pagan fanaticism made this matter impossible; the mob sometimes attacked Christian cemeteries, threatening them with destruction. Tertullian's famous exclamation: arcae non sint, of course, was repeated many times by the pagans, but this was not a formal deprivation of the right of burial from Christians. Until the middle of the 3rd century, not a single edict or government order was known that would have taken away this right from Christians; and there is no doubt that most of the catacomb crypts arose at this time. Even the imperial decree. Valerian of 257, who were forbidden to “hold meetings or visit the so-called tombs,” was not directed against the funeral rite itself, but against the meetings for which it gave rise, meetings that seemed suspicious to the Roman government. In 260, Gallienus canceled the order of his predecessor and placed at the disposal of Christian bishops “places of worship” - loca religiosa, and between them the tombs, confiscated by virtue of the Edict of Valerian. 9 Since that time, government regulations regarding Christian cemeteries have changed, and their use has been endangered. But now, more than at any other time, Christians were forced to hide in their dungeons and make places of refuge out of them. Finally, this freedom of burial in Rome is supported by the rights and advantages granted by Roman laws to associations of poor people, formed to provide their members with a decent burial. These corporations, the so-called collegia funeraria, were caused by two reasons: the lack, and therefore the high cost, of burial places and the poverty of the majority of people of the middle and lower classes, freedmen and slaves. Both motives were so urgent that they forced the government, which was generally distrustful of corporations, not only to tolerate them, but also to protect their existence with a positive law. Inscriptions found in Roman columbariums or tombs attest to their existence in the most graphic manner. So, for example, according to the law of the colleagues of Aesculapius and Hygieia, as it is stated on one grave monument, two persons: Silvia Marcellina - daughter of Gaia and Publius Zeno - freedman of Augustus, donated in memory of the deceased persons from the college of Aesculapius and Hygeia a certain amount of money and, in addition, a plot of land, limiting the use of this donation to certain conditions. Another highly curious monument of this kind represents, as it were, the charter of the funeral college and introduces us to the details of both its internal structure and the ritual side of burial and commemoration. It shows that each college, which usually elected some deity as its patron, had its own holidays associated with the names of its prominent members. On these days, the main meetings of participants of one or another association took place. The ceremonies observed at this time consisted of the relatives or executors of the will of the deceased going to his grave, decorating it with wreaths and strewing it with flowers, namely: roses on the day of the rosary and violets on the day of the violary. In addition to flowers, libations were sometimes made and a funeral sacrifice was generally made. At the end of these rituals, a memorial dinner was held for those close to the deceased and participants in the ceremony. It is known from other sources that members of the colleges monthly contributed a small amount, about seven kopecks, to the general treasury for the construction and maintenance of the tomb and, according to the contribution, received an allotment of a certain size. The resulting plot became the full property of the owner and he had the right to dispose of it at his own discretion. He could sell it, donate it and bequeath it, just as he could increase the size of the plot through purchase and inheritance. 10 Christianity appeared and made its first advances at the very time when funerary societies were becoming widespread in the Roman Empire, especially in Rome itself, and when the law which ensured the existence of these associations was in full force. Thanks to Rossi's research, it turned out that Christians, along with other funeral colleges, widely took advantage of this law. Their partnerships are known in inscriptions under different names. In one their college is called ecclesia fratrum, in another its members are called fratres and ἀδελφοί; sometimes this partnership is designated by the expression cultores Verbi or simply by the word corpus. It is known from Tertullian that Christians made a monthly contribution to the church treasury, part of which was used for the burial of the poor. 11 They, just like the Romans among whom they lived, practiced the custom of decorating the graves of fellow believers with garlands of flowers. At least from the words of the blessed one. Jerome shows that some husbands scattered violets, roses, lilies and purple flowers on the graves of their wives and with these memorials eased their heartfelt grief. 12 Judging by the vast spaces excavated in the vicinity of Rome, one can imagine what a busy work was then going on in underground Rome and how much hard work was put into fulfilling this duty of pietatis towards the dead. For Christians, this work fell on the responsibility of a special class of lower ministers of the church, the so-called fossores, κοπιαταί. At each tomb, apparently, there was a certain number of such persons, as can be concluded, for example, from the following inscription: ἐπέγραψεν Χρυσῆς, ἡ σύμβιος αὐτοῦ. These χωρία or areas were marked with special icons, by which each of them recognized the boundaries of their area. There is some reason to think that all the fossori together constituted a properly organized institution, the importance of which increased especially from the 3rd century; they are now ranked among the clergy of the lowest rank - ordinisminoris and are in charge of the tombs under the supervision of the bishop or presbyters appointed by him. Their duties included not only the allocation and preparation of graves in a common area, but also mediation between purchasers and sellers. One inscription records something like an agreement between the digger Gilar and the buyer Artemisius, concluded in the presence of two witnesses - the gravedigger Severus and a certain Lavrenty, and the price for the sold grave is also indicated. Here are the restored words of this inscription: Emptum locum ab Artemisio bisomum. Hoc est et pretium datum fossori Hilaro, id est folles numero 1500, praesentia Severi fossoris et Laurentis. Or for example: Herculanus et Claudia se vivis emerunt a Aurentino fossore... Serbulus emit bisomum a Leontio fossore. 13 The pioneering church commemorated the Fossori in its prayers under the name of the toilers, and in the Roman catacombs their memory is still preserved in the images of grave diggers on the walls of crypts and galleries. Here they are presented either at work or standing quietly with the tools of their craft, among which are given: an axe, a pickaxe, a crowbar and a clay lamp to illuminate the dark corridors. Remarkable in this regard is the image of Diogenes's fossor in the tomb of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter with the following inscription above it: Diogenes fossor in pace depositus octabo calendas octobris. In addition to their funeral purpose, the catacombs served as meeting places for Christians for prayer and worship. In general, it should be noted that even in the pre-Christian world, cemeteries were considered sacred places and enjoyed special respect. For Christians, the cemetery received even higher religious significance from the fact that between the graves of fellow believers and relatives, the precious remains of martyrs were kept here, who, in the words of witnesses to the martyrdom of St. Polycarp of Smyrna, they were valued more than gold and precious stones. Veneration of the memory of the martyrs, annual meetings for prayer on the day of their death or natalitia martyrum were the grain of the Christian cult of saints, and therefore the places that kept these remains were primarily chosen over others for liturgical celebrations. This is where our thrones begin with the particles of St. placed in them. relics and the name of the hole (sepulchrum) where the relics are placed in the west; hence the commemoration of the dead and the very structure of some parts of the ancient liturgy. In the Apostolic Decrees (VI:30), the following instruction is given: “gather in the tombs (ἐν κοιμητηρίοις) to read the sacred books and sing psalms for the deceased martyrs and for all the saints from the ages and for your brothers who have fallen asleep in the Lord. And offer the substitute (ἀντίτυπον) Eucharist of the royal body of Christ in your churches and tombs, and when you bring out the deceased, then see them off with psalmody, if they believe in the Lord.” 14 The oldest surviving calendar, the so-called Roman, bears the title: Depositio martyrum and lists quite a few names of martyrs whose bodies were kept in the catacombs, for example: Fabiani in Callisti, i.e. coemeterio, Sebastiani in Catacumbas, lanuarii in Pretextati, Saturnini in Thrasonis. There is no doubt that on the days of remembrance noted here, divine services were celebrated in those places where the remains of the martyr were located, and this itself indicates that liturgy and prayers were performed in the catacombs. “What bitter times,” says one inscription from the tomb of Callistus, cited by Baronius: “we cannot perform the sacraments in safety and even pray in our caves!” But, recognizing the liturgical purpose of the catacombs as an indisputable fact, one should not see in them any extensive and well-furnished premises for performing the liturgy. Their funerary purpose was in the foreground, and the liturgical purpose was satisfied only to the extent that it was compatible with the first. To see this more clearly, it is necessary to become more familiar with the location and structure of the catacombs, with their architectural features. In general, the structure of the catacombs is the same wherever we observe them; but in particulars many features are noticeable, which depended either on the properties of the soil in which they were dug, or on local burial customs. Roman catacombs, dug at a depth of 8 to 25 meters, sometimes consist of one floor, sometimes of two, three or even four - and the lower floors communicate with the upper and with the surface of the earth through staircases carved in tuff, in some places lined with marble slabs. These stairs, sometimes narrow and steep, sometimes sloping and wide, lead either directly into underground passages or forward into small rooms with places for sitting sometimes carved into the walls. Starting at the base of the stairs or the just-marked front ones, these passages or galleries cut the underground space in all possible directions, stretching along a straight or broken line for a considerable distance, and every now and then intersect at right or obtuse angles with other galleries; these in turn intersect with new paths that spread out to each side, like a complex network of nerves in the body. Catacomb galleries are long narrow corridors carved into the tuff quite regularly, as opposed to areparia, dug not according to plan, but in the direction of the deposits of the extracted material. Some of these galleries can be walked freely by two people abreast, while others can be difficult to navigate alone. In some tombs the galleries are low, barely exceeding human height; in others they reach several fathoms. In the flat or arched ceilings of the corridors, the so-called luminaria are occasionally punched - quadrangular or round holes, which through pipes communicating with the surface of the earth, weakly illuminate the underground paths and somewhat refresh their suffocating atmosphere. The walls of the corridors in several rows, located horizontally one above the other, like shelves in a closet, are covered with oblong quadrangular recesses. This is a loci, loculi - a place of various sizes where they placed one, two, three and even four bodies of the dead 15, tightly sealing the hole with a tiled or marble slab, on which an epitaph was written, accompanying it with symbolic or historical images. Along the length of the galleries, in their walls, there are gaps - a kind of doors that lead to rooms, scattered here and there in a network of corridors and known as cubicles and crypts. In ancient Christian tombstones there is no strict distinction between the names cubicula and crypta and both expressions are used indifferently; but in the language of new researchers, it is customary to distinguish cubicula from crypts and mean the former as separate, smaller rooms. Cubicles are nothing more than family crypts, intended for the burial of members of one family, in most cases. And to this day there are inscriptions inside the cubicules in which you can read the names of their owners; for example: cubiculum Domitiani, cubiculum Gaudentii, Argentarii and others. Being, like crypts, varied in shape: square, polygonal, round, etc., the cubicles are cut along the walls, like galleries, by numerous loculi. There are some of them in which there are up to seventy or more locules of different sizes, located in ten or more rows. The anterior, main and most prominent part of the cubicula is the monumentum arcuatum or arcosolium. What kind of accessory is this? This is a vault-shaped niche, similar to the mouth of a Russian oven, carved into the wall of a cubicle, containing either a marble sarcophagus with the remains of the deceased, or more often a more or less significant depression made vertically towards the floor and serving as a tomb for buried bodies. This is where the very name of this arched niche with a coffin comes from: monumentum arcuatum or arcosolium, that is, a monument under an arch. The word solium meant to the Romans an urn where the ashes from a burnt body and even a sarcophagus were kept; Christians used this name to designate semicircular recesses in the wall, where bodies were generally placed, but especially the one that contained the relics of the martyr. His remains, placed in this recess, were covered with a slab at a certain distance from the floor, and the arched part of the niche remained completely open. The horizontal slab covering the tomb of the martyr was called mensa and served as a throne on which the sacrament of the Eucharist was celebrated. The following passage from the poet Prudentius refers to this throne: “This altar,” the latter notes, speaking about the construction of the throne on the tomb of St. Hippolyta, the dispenser of the sacrament and at the same time the faithful guardian of her martyr, preserves his remains in the tomb until the expected coming of the Eternal Judge and feeds the inhabitants of the Tiber with holy food.” 16 The structure of the crypts was somewhat more complicated, by which new catacomb researchers mean the connection in one whole of two, three or even more underground rooms. Surpassing the cubicula in size, and often in interior decoration, especially the abundance of architectural ornaments and frescoes covering their ceilings and walls, crypts primarily served as places where Roman Christians gathered for prayer and worship. They are now often called chapels and even basilicas, as premises to some extent adapted to the purposes of public worship and built at the expense of the church community, and not private individuals. The most famous of the catacomb crypts is the church in the tomb of St. Agnes, discovered in 1842 by Father Marki and attributed by scientists to the time of its origin no later than the beginning of the 3rd century. Representing, in general, an oblong quadrangle (46 feet long and about 8 wide), it consists of five square cubes connected to each other in a straight line. An ordinary catacomb gallery cuts this longitudinal section almost at a right angle into two unequal halves: one into two cubes, the other into three. Starting from the custom of the ancient church to separate men from women during worship, Marks and others believe that the smaller part, in which nothing remained except fragments of marble slabs, served as a room for women, and the larger part, in three halls, was intended for men and an altar. The latter occupied an entire cubicula and was separated from the other two, probably by gratings, the line of which is marked by semi-columns made of tuff, knocked out at the entrance to this third front cubicula and apparently serving as both a support for the gratings and a boundary line between the place for the laity and the altar. In the front side of the latter there is a small semicircular niche, and in it a bishop's seat carved from stone, like an armchair with arms, on the sides of which there are rough stone benches for presbyters. The throne has not survived, but it should be placed in the middle of the altar, in front of the bishop’s seat. To the side of the described church there are two more cubicles, connected to it and to each other by a common corridor. They either had one funeral purpose, or served as a place for catechumens, and perhaps satisfied other needs of Christian worship. It is needless to say how important for the history of Christian church architecture is the study of catacomb churches - this architectural prototype of Christian liturgical buildings. But, unfortunately, this interesting side of the matter is only partially explained in the current state of the catacombs, and it is far from possible to derive a holistic idea of ​​the structure and location of the catacomb church from the structure of the crypts. Some of these signs have been destroyed by time, and those that have survived give an idea only of the main and essential features of the internal structure of the underground church, leaving aside its details. Further, it is not always possible to trust the testimony found here. The instability of the monumental data presented by catacomb architecture depends on two conditions: on the instability of chronological dates in determining the time of origin and final structure of this or that catacomb crypt and, secondly, on the subjective view of researchers and the elasticity, so to speak, of the explanations they make. Chronological data about the structure of one or another crypt and even an entire cemetery are often based on the guesses of scientists; much that is considered to belong to deep Christian antiquity actually appeared later. The catacombs expanded and were developed gradually, and researchers often lack criteria for accurate chronological conclusions. And without this criterion there can be no talk of a real prototype or fundamental principle of church architecture. The elasticity of the explanation of certain catacomb forms lies in the fact that researchers explain the surviving features of catacomb architecture by analogy with the now established forms; From this, many receive an unusual purpose and incorrect lighting. So, for example, many scientists have found and are finding in the catacomb churches separate rooms for men and women, a vestibule for the catechumens, a compartment for the altar, but on grounds that are not stable enough, solid and more a priori. The only positive thing that can be stated is that in the catacomb churches the undoubted features of the ancient altar structure have been preserved, and in this regard, crypts can indeed serve as the primary type of Christian altar. We have already said how the throne was arranged in the catacombs in the form of an arcosolium; but besides this form, another is found here - this is a quadrangular throne, supported by four legs or columns in the corners. The front part of the crypt often extends into a semicircular projection, occupied by the coffin of a martyr or the seat of a bishop; this absidal form of the altar was later adopted in basilicas and Byzantine churches and is still used in both the east and the west. Episcopal sees were preserved in remarkable preservation and in considerable numbers in the catacombs - the primary examples of the present mountainous place from where bishops preached and taught the people. These departments were not separate elevated seats, but in most cases were carved into the front wall of the crypt in the form of a low chair with blank walls. On the sides of the main pulpit and slightly below it there were seats for the presbyters - a kind of co-altar. They look like a low stone bench around the circumference of the apse or along the walls of the altar. The latter, together with the arcosolium, was sometimes separated or, better to say, protected from the pressure of those present by a carved lattice, traces of which are still preserved in the tombs of Priscilla, Callistus and some others. The altar floor was sometimes arranged slightly higher than the platform of the rest of the church. These are the main, and it seems to us, undoubtedly, ancient forms of catacomb architecture, which became typical for church architecture and were maintained in the internal plan of subsequent Christian churches; This is the sense in which the remark of many archaeologists that in the underground churches, in the catacombs, there is a prototype of further church architecture can be considered true. 17 Commentar. in Ezechielem I, XII, cap XI; Migne, Patrolog. sei. lat. t. XXV col. 375. P. I. Tsvetkov: Aurelius Prudentius, appendix, pp. 191–192. The future explorer of the catacombs, Anthony Bozius, was no more than three years old at that time. This brilliant antiquarian, nicknamed the Columbus of underground Rome, was a native of Malta and spent his early youth in Rome at the Coliegio Romano. The discoveries made on the site of an ancient Christian cemetery deeply interested the inquisitive young man. From the age of 18, he devoted himself to the study of the sacred dungeons and continued his work for 36 years with extraordinary persistence. Armed with the solid knowledge that the literature of that time could provide him with, mainly the works of the fathers, the lives of saints, Mariprology and the notes of pilgrims, he descended into the Roman dungeons and, at the direction of these leaders, at the risk of his own life, step by step mastered the thread of the historical labyrinth. Bosio himself tells about himself how one day, accompanied by several companions, he got so carried away and went so far that he lost his way to the exit and almost became a victim of his carelessness. The supply of provisions and candles taken for the road was used up and the situation became so dangerous that, according to Bosio’s own words, his poor body was destined to find its final rest among the graves and remains of the martyrs. Fortunately for science, this did not happen, and the keen researcher has since become much more careful. Despite the novelty of the subject, Bosio's works were extremely fruitful. He wrote down on paper and noted everything that was remarkable along the way; he copied inscriptions, took photographs from paintings, drew plans, and sometimes with such fidelity that even later scientists, who were in more favorable conditions for research, were surprised. Bosio did not manage to publish the results of his work during his lifetime († 1629). His portfolio and notes were published in Italian in 1632 by Father Severano, thanks to Bosio's friends and patrons, especially thanks to the philanthropist of the time, Cardinal Barberini, who took a great part in this scholarly work. But it was not this publication that was destined to gain fame and introduce the learned world to the Roman catacombs, but another - published in Latin too twenty years after the death of Bosio, in 1651 in Rome, edited by Paolo Aringhi. Roma sabterianea novissima was received in the West with the greatest respect, especially since it appeared at a time when there was heated controversy between Catholics and Protestants over the question of worship. In this remarkable work, which has not lost its fundamental significance for our days, a factual answer was given to the questions posed by time, and therefore Bosio’s research had a very lively, direct relationship to the church difficulties of that time. – The business that Bosio started so happily had its successors; but all of them, both in energy and in scientific training, stood incomparably lower than Bosio, so that in the course of almost two centuries that followed him, as much was not accomplished as was the lot of the named scientist. Only recently has work in this direction advanced far, thanks to the research of Father Marcha and especially his famous student, now so famous in archaeological science, the late Giovanni Battista de Rossi († September 20, 1894). He adopted the method (topographical) and techniques of Bosio's research, took written sources on Christian Rome as the basis for his work, and thanks to these guiding data, he illuminated with bright light the secrets of underground Rome and brought to the light of God the monuments of ancient Christian art and life. Of his numerous works, the most remarkable are: Imagines selectae Deiparae Virginis (Selected Images of the Virgin Mary), three volumes of Underground Christian Rome (Roma soterranea cristiana), published in 1864–1877 at the expense of Pope Pius IX; Inschiptiones christianae urbis Romae - a collection of inscriptions of Christian Rome up to the 7th century and Bulletino di archeologia cristiana - a periodical in which the late "prince of archaeologists" reported the results of his research in the field of the catacombs from 1863 to the day of his death. On the works of de Rossi, see the article by Baron de Witte in the Revue de Í Art chrétien for 1894, book. 6 and 1895, book. 1 and 2; in Russian articles by A.A. Dmitrievsky: “On the occasion of the festivities in Rome in honor of J. V. De-Rossi” (Tr. K. D. A. 1892., No. 6) and I. Tsvetaev: “Celebration of Christian archeology in Rome on April 20 and 25, 1892.” M. 1893. As for the name catacumbae, it does not belong to the Greco-Roman world, but was formed already in the Christian era and was first used as a local term. The earliest news where the word catacumbae is found is one ancient chronicle, in which the expression ad Catacumbas determines the location of the tomb of St. Sevastyan. In the course of time, when the original topography of Roman cemeteries was forgotten, this name began to be indifferently applied to all the underground tombs in the vicinity of Rome and elsewhere. The philological meaning of this word is explained differently. Some derive it from κατά - at and κίμβος - recess, cave; others - from κατά and tumba - τύμβος - mound, grave; the third (from Mark and Rossi) from cubo, cumbo – I’m lying. However, the meaning of all these productions is the same, since they start from the thought of the grave and burial vault. More on this in Schultze, Die Catacomben, s. 39–40: Du Cange, Glossarium Latinitatis sub voce catacumbae, vol. II, pag. 232. The most ancient tombs of J.B. Rossi include the following: Domitilla in via ardeatina, Lucina in via appia, Pretextata - in the same place, Priscilla in via salaria, Agnes in via nomentana. Despite extensive research, currently no more than half of the Roman tombs are known, information about which is found in ancient writers, and only the cemeteries of Callistus and Agnes have been fully excavated. Pelliccia, De christianae ecclisiae politia t. III, Dessertatio de Coemeterio §§ 1, 2, pagg. 302–309 and others. Schultze, Die Katakomben, ss. 29, 42. Klassovsky, Pompeii and the antiquities discovered therein, pp. 123–124. St. Petersburg. 1856. Euseb. Hist. ecclesiast., I, VII, cap. XI and XIII; Russian trans., vol. I, pp. 413, 420. When it comes to columbaria or tombs, this allotment was not land, but was measured by the number of ollarum, that is, funerary urns or pots that could fit in a certain space, that fell to the owner. The Roman columbariums consisted of a more or less spacious room above or below ground. This room along its walls was cut with horizontal niches or recesses into which urns containing the ashes and charred bones of the deceased were inserted. The capacity of the recesses corresponded to the size of the urns, so that the latter completely went into these niches, the mouth of which was forced with a slab and covered with cement. Usually, each urn contained the ashes of one person, but it also happened that, according to the will of the deceased, they placed the ashes and bones of two persons - spouses or friends - in the same one. Larger niches, which contained not a couple of urns, as usual, but a larger number of them, were called aediculae. Members of the funeral colleges, judging by the amount of contribution, owned more or less of these urns: two, six, there is even an indication of seven and a half. Epist. ad Pammch. de obitu uxoris: Coteri mariti super tamu'os conjugum spargunt vidas, rosas, lilia floresque purpureos et dolorem pectoris his officiis consolantur. Pammachius noster sanctam favillam ossaque veneranda eleemosinae balsamis rigat. Schultze. Die Katakomben, s. 29. Russian translation, pp. 209–210. Such loculi were called: locus bisomus, trisomus, quadrisomus. Allard, Rome souterraine, p. 40–41. N.I. Tsvetkov. Aurelius Prudentius. App. page 192. In addition to special archaeological works, for example von Fricken: “Roman catacombs and monuments of primitive Christian art,” there are articles on this issue in Russian: G. R. “On the Christian catacombs in Rome” (Prav. Obzr., 1860, June); priest Matveevsky “Catacombs”, with drawings (Strannik, 1861, II, 49 et seq.); “Roman catacombs and monuments of primitive Christian writing and art according to the latest research” (Ibid., 1886, Feb. - Apr.); Mr. Krasovsky: “Catacombs” (Dukhovn. Vesti., 1864, June, vol. VIII, p. 226 et seq.); I. E. Troitsky: “Roman Catacombs” (Christ. Read., 1864, I, 292 et seq.); “Roman catacombs after Rossi’s research in them” (Ibid., 1882, II, p. 523 et seq.); N. F. Krasnoseltseva: “On ancient Christian architecture. Underground churches" (Right. Sobes., 1874, III, p. 277 et seq.); his: “Ancient Christian tombs in Rome and the significance of the discoveries made in them” (Ibid., 1883, III); G. L. “Roman catacombs and monuments of primitive Christian art” (Reader. General. Love spirit. Enlightenment., 1878, III, p. 37 et seq.); I. Tsvetaeva: “Roman Catacombs” (Russian Review, 1896, May, pp. 153–173). You might be interested in: