In this little chamber no less than eleven Roman bishops of the third 177 century are recorded to have been buried, and others in its immediate vicinity, when persecution or other reasons prevented their being laid in its sacred inclosure. As we have already seen,[304] De Rossi has recovered in the rubbish of this chamber what he conceives to be the original epitaphs of five of these bishops, and presumptive evidence of the presence of others. St. Sixtus, indeed, is frequently mentioned in the _graffiti_ as he to whom especial reverence was here paid, and De Rossi found in this crypt fragments of his epitaph which we have previously given.[305] The following Damasine inscription was discovered by De Rossi among the _débris_ of this chamber in one hundred and twenty fragments, and with great skill and learning reconstructed and restored to the wall. HIC CONGESTA IACET QVAERIS SI TVRBA PIORVM CORPORA SANCTORVM RETINENT VENERANDA SEPVLCHRA SVBLIMES ANIMAS RAPVIT SIBI REGIA CAELI HIC COMITES XYSTI PORTANT QVI EX HOSTE TROPAEA HIC NVMERVS PROCERVM SERVAT QVI ALTARIA CHRISTI HIC POSITVS LONGA VIXIT QVI IN PACE SACERDOS HIC CONFESSORES SANCTI QVOS GRAECIA MISIT HIC IVVENES PVERIQVE SENES CASTIQVE NEPOTES QVIS MAGE VIRGINEVM PLACVIT RETINERE PVDOREM HIC FATEOR DAMASVS VOLVI MEA CONDERE MEMBRA SED CINERES TIMVI SANCTOS VEXARE PIORVM. “Here, if you would know, lie heaped together a whole crowd of holy ones. These honoured sepulchres inclose the bodies of the saints, Their noble souls the palace of Heaven has taken to itself. Here lie the companions of Xystus, who bear away the trophies from the enemy; Here a number of elders, who guard the altars of Christ; Here is buried the priest, who long lived in peace; Here the holy confessors whom Greece sent us; Here lie youths and boys, old men and their chaste offspring, 178 Who chose, as the better part, to keep their virgin chastity. Here I, Damasus, confess I wished to lay my limbs, But I feared to disturb the holy ashes of the saints.”[306] An ancient itinerary states that eighty, or, according to one account, eight hundred, martyrs are buried in this part of the Catacomb; and in the corner of this very crypt is a pit of remarkable depth, probably the _polyandria_, in which were “heaped together a whole crowd” of the victims of persecution. Besides these restorations of Damasus, there is evidence of successive decorations of this celebrated shrine down to the period of Leo III., at the end of the eighth century. So great have been the changes thus caused that De Rossi confesses that it is impossible to say what was the original character of the chamber.