It is remarkable that so few allusions to martyrdom occur in the Catacombs. In the whole range of the inscriptions, as before observed, only five, some of which may be spurious, commemorate martyrs, or less than one in two thousand. The pictorial representations of this event are less frequent still. In the cemetery of St. Priscilla was discovered a terra cotta bas relief of the martyrdom of St. Sebastian, but evidently of late date: the soldiers are armed with cross-bows, and are clad apparently in mediæval plate armour. This subject has at all times been a favourite theme of Italian art, and this relief may have been left at the shrine of the saints by some pious pilgrim of 373 the Middle Ages. In the Catacomb of Callixtus is a painting of two Christians standing before the tribunal of a Roman magistrate. This is probably of the early centuries, but how different from the gross and bloody martyr-pictures in the church of _S. Steffano in Rotondo_ in Rome. On one of the gilt glasses, executed long after the days of persecution, is a group supposed to represent Isaiah sawn asunder, and in one of the Catacombs is a scene thought to indicate the martyrdom of Hippolytus. The pictures of Daniel and the three Hebrews indicate rather the triumph than the trial of God’s saints. The martyrs left no outward memorial of their sufferings, nor was any needed, for their intrepid spirit animated the whole Christian community. D’Agincourt says he found in thirty years’ exploration only one picture, and that of late and barbarian design, portraying martyrdom.[630] Those who themselves stood in jeopardy every hour did not magnify the merit of the faithful confession of Christ, whom they considered alone deserving of the title of “Faithful and True Witness.” No sacred litany entreated St. Stephen, St. Lawrence, St. Vincent, and all holy martyrs, to pray for them; nor is any such inscription found in the whole range of the epigraphy of the Catacombs.[631] In the following rude representation, from a slab in the Lapidarian Gallery, Romish imagination has discovered the outline of a furnace, or of a caldron of boiling oil in which Victorina was immersed. A 374 comparison with other similar figures indicates that it is intended for a corn measure filled with grain, the sign of the trade of an ancient meal merchant. [Illustration: “Victorina in peace and in Christ.” Fig. 111.--A Reputed Symbol of Martyrdom.]