The most numerous and extensive cat acombs are those in the immediate neighbor hood of Rome, at San Sebastiano, San Lorenzo, etc., the earliest of which of certain date be longs to the year 111 AM. They are composed of interminable subterraneous galleries, extend ing underneath the town itself as well as the neighboring country, and are said to contain not less than 6,000,000 tombs. The name of catacombs, according to Saint Gregory, was at first applied to designate exclusively the cave in which the bodies of Saint Peter and Saint Paul were buried, and it was only at a later period that it came to be given to all the sub terraneous passages which were used as public burying-places. It is now regarded as certain that in times of persecution the early Christians frequently took refuge in the catacombs, in order to celebrate there in secret the cere monies of their religion; but it is not less certain that the catacombs served also as places of burial to the early Christians, and that in spite of the contrary opinion which prevailed for two centuries, and even down to our day, the catacombs were not for the most part abandoned quarries, but were excavated by the Christians themselves. It is found that orig inally the cemeteries of Rome were made up of separate tombs, which rich Christians con structed for themselves and their brethren, and which they held as private property under the protection of the law. But in course of time this was changed. At the end of the 2d cen tury there existed certain cemeteries not the property of individuals but of the Church. Such was that which Pope Zephyrinus (202 19) entrusted to the superintendence of Calix tus, and which took its name from that bishop. Some years later, under Pope Fabian (236-51), there were already several such common bury ing-places belonging to the Christian congre gations, and their number went on increasing till the time of Constantine, when the cat acombs ceased to be used as burying-places. From the time of Constantine down to the 8th century they continued to be used as places of worship by the Christians, but during the siege of Rome by the Lombards they were in part destroyed, and soon became entirely in accessible, so that they were forgotten. The first excavations in them were made by Antonio Bosio between 1560 and 1500. The results of these excavations were published in his 'Roma Sotterranee (Rome 1632), which was translated into Latin by P. Aringhi (Rome 1657). Among the more modern works on the subject may be mentioned Rochette's des Catacombes de Rome' (Paris Perret's (Les Catacombes de Rome (Paris 1851-56) ; and (La Roma Sotterranea Cris tiana' by De Rossi (Rome 1864-77), contain ing the results of very careful investigations made by the author, who is justly regarded as the foremost student, in fact, father of this branch of archaeology.
The catacombs of Paris, situated on the left bank of the Seine are almost itself, equally cele brated. The name tself, which has been given to this labyrinth of caverns and galleries from its resemblance to the asylums and places of refuge of the persecuted Christians under Naples and Rome, informs us of the purpose to which it has been applied since 1786. These galleries were originally the quarries from which materials were excavated for construct ing the edifices of the capital. The weight of the super-incumbent houses rendered it neces sary to prop them; and when the cemeteries of the demolished churches and the burying grounds were cleared in 1786, the government resolved to deposit the bones in these quarries, which were consecrated for that purpose. The
first cemetery that was suppressed was the Cimetiere des Innocents, and the bones from It were deposited beneath what is now Petit Montrouge. The ossuary now extends much farther. The relics of 10 or more generations were here united in the repose of the grave. Many times as great as the living tide that rolls over this spot is its subterraneous pop ulation. By the light of wax tapers, a person may descend about 70 feet to a world of silence, over which the Parisian police keep watch as strictly as over the world of noise and con fusion above. He will then enter a gallery where only two can go abreast. A black streak on the stones of the walls points out the way, which, from the great number of by-passages, it would be difficult for the visitor to retrace without this aid or without guides.
Among the curiosities here is a plan of the harbor of Mahon, which an ingenious soldier faithfully copied from memory, in the material of the quarries. Entering the hall, one is ushered into the realms of death by the in scription which once stood over the entrance to the churchyard of Saint Sulpice: ultras means requiescunt beatam seem exspec hostess (*Beyond these bounds rest those awaiting the hope of bliss fulfilled'). Narrow passages between walls of skeletons; chambers in which monuments, altars, candelabra, con structed of human bones, with festoons of skulls and thigh-bones, interspersed occasionally with inscriptions, not always the most happily selected, from ancient and modern authors, ex cite the gloomy impression which is always pro duced, even in the most light-minded, by the sight of the dissolution of the human frame. Wearied of these horrible embellishments, the visitor enters a simple chapel, without bones, and containing an altar of granite. The inscrip tion D. M. II et III Septembr. MDCCXCII' recalls to memory the victims of the September massacres, whose remains are here united. On leaving these rooms, consecrated to death, where, however, the air is always preserved pure by means of air-holes, the visitor may pus to a geological cabinet, formed by Hericart de Thury, the director of the Carrieres sous Paris. Specimens of the minerals furnished by the regions traversed, and a collection of diseased bones, in a contiguous hall, scien tifically arranged, are the last curiosities which these excavations offer. More than 600 yards to the east of the road to Orleans the visitor finally returns to the light of day. Strangers may visit the catacombs in company with the government officials at the periodical visits. An account of these subterranean passages is that which was published by M. Dunkel in 1885.
The Etruscan tombs were not, strictly speak ing, catacombs, yet as subterranean places of sepulture they may appropriately be referred to. They were usually hewn out of cliffs on the sides of a hill and were variously arranged, sometimes tier above tier and sometimes on a level. There was a central chamber with smaller ones opening from it. In the latter there were stone benches to receive the bodies of the dead. See CATACOMBS, ROMAN.