These areas, Christian as well as pagan, were under the guardianship of the Roman _Pontifices_, who, although pagans, were actually confirmed in their authority by the Christian Emperor Constans. In consequence of this protection the Christians were enabled to conduct their worship and celebrate their _agapæ_ in the oratories or other buildings erected over the Catacombs, the ruins of which are still to be seen at the Catacombs of St. Domitilla and Sts. Nereus and Achilles, and which to the popular apprehension would seem to correspond to the pagan structures for the celebration of funeral banquets. Even when oppressed and persecuted above ground, they found a sanctuary beneath its surface, and were permitted by the ignorance or indifference of their foes to worship God among the holy dead. So long as their sepulchral areas were uninvaded the Christians scrupulously abstained from extending their excavations beyond their respective limits, digging lower _piani_ instead, when insatiate death demanded room for still more graves. But when the ruthless persecutor pursued them even beneath the earth, they felt at liberty to transcend those limits and burrow in any direction for safety or escape. The Christian inscriptions often strongly deprecate the violation of 64 the graves to which they are attached, in like manner as we have seen in pagan epitaphs, and against this crime the Fathers intensely inveigh. Sometimes the petition assumes a most solemn character, as this: [ADIVRO] VOS PER C[H]RISTVM, NE MIHI AB ALIQVO VIOLENTIAM [_sic_] FIAT ET NE SEPVLCRVM MEVM VIOLETVR--“[I conjure] you by Christ that no violence be offered me by any one, and that my sepulchre may not be violated.” Still more awful in its adjuration is the following: CONIVRO VOS PER TREMENDVM DIEM IVDICII VT HANC SEPVLTVRAM NVLLI VIOLENT[57]--“I conjure you by the dreadful day of judgment that no one violate this sepulchre.” Sometimes a most terrible imprecation is expressed, as in the following: MALE · PEREAT · INSEPVLTVS IACEAT · NON · RESVRGAT CVM · IVDA · PARTEM · HABEAT SI · QVIS · SEPVLCHRVM · HVNC · VIOLAVERIT-- If any one shall violate this sepulchre, Let him perish miserably and remain unburied; Let him lie down and not rise again, Let him have his portion with Judas.[58] ....[EMI]GRAVIT AD XPM ....SEPVLCRVM VIOLARE ....SIT ALIENVS A REGNO DEI. ... Has departed to Christ. [If any one dare] to violate this sepulchre, let him ... and be far from the kingdom of God.[59]