Sometimes, as in the example given in Fig. 59, the heathen formula of consecration to the “Divine Spirits”--D. M., for _Dis Manibus_--is 414 obliterated, and the sacred monogram gives the slab a Christian character. Occasionally, however, these letters appear in manifestly Christian inscriptions, in which case Fabretti and others have maintained that they were capable of the interpretation _Deo Magno_ or _Deo Maximo_--“To the Supreme God.” With still less probability M. Rochette renders them _Divis Martyribus_--“To the divine martyrs,” for which expression no countenance is to be found in the entire range of the Catacombs. Both interpretations are entirely gratuitous suppositions, for which Christian epigraphy furnishes absolutely no warrant. It is more probable that they were careless or conventional imitations of a common heathen formula, which was occasionally adopted by the Christians without thought, or perhaps in ignorance of its meaning, just as they also imitated the winged genii and other classic accessories of pagan art in the ornamentation of the Catacombs. Dr. McCaul has suggested that the Roman mortuary sculptors probably kept sepulchral slabs on sale, as is often done now, with the common formulæ already engraved, which were purchased without regard to their appropriateness, and that in filling up the inscription the Christians sometimes neglected to obliterate the letters of pagan significance. Possibly, also, some lingering remnants of heathen superstition may sometimes be indicated by their use. The letters BM., which frequently occur in these inscriptions, have been erroneously interpreted as standing for _Beatus_ or _Beata Martyr_, for which there is no authority whatever. They unquestionably indicate the ever-recurring phrase, both in pagan and Christian epigraphy, _Bene Merenti_--“To the well-deserving,” or _Bonæ Memoriæ_--“Of happy memory.” [666] It is eight hundred feet in extent, and contains about three thousand inscriptions. [667] Shakspeare’s _Sonnets_, No. XXX. [668] _Tableau des Catacombes_, p. x. [669] Cf. Juv., “Gaudent prænomine molles auriculæ.” These are very rare in Christian inscriptions. See _postea_. [670] Demolita et horrendum in modum vastata.--_Prolegomena_ to _Inscr. Christ._ He has often to complain that he is unable to read part of the inscription:--Reliqua legere haud potui. Marangoni tells us that thousands of epigraphs were taken from the Catacombs to the church of St. Maria in Trastevere; seven cartloads to St. Giovanni de Fiorentini; two cartloads to another church of St. Giovanni in Rome; yet there are at present only about twenty in the portico of the former and not _one_ in either of the two latter churches. See Heman’s _Sac. Art. in Italy_, pp. 58, 59.