[41] Execrantur rogos, et damnant ignium sepulturas.--Minuc. Felix, _Octav._, ii, 451. Tertullian declared it to be a symbol of the fires of hell. Possibly, also, the expense and publicity inseparable from the practice of cremation made it a matter of necessity for the early Christians to adopt the less costly and more private mode of subterranean interment. Merivale, indeed, asserts that the early Roman Christians burned their dead, (vi, 444,) and adduces in support of this strange theory only the pagan dedication D. M., found on some Christian tombs. As will be shown, (Book III, i,) these letters were part of a common epigraphic formula, and give no warrant for this startling statement. [42] Bishop Hall. [43] It would appear from this inscription that some of the family of Restitutus were still pagans, and were buried apart from the rest. The early Christians regarded it as unlawful to commingle the heathen and believers in common burial. St. Cyprian makes it a capital charge against the heretical Bishop of Asturia, that he “buried his children in profane sepulchres and in the midst of strangers.” See also Ruth i, 17. Compare Cic., _de Leg._, ii, 22, and _de Off._, lib. ii. [44] Apol. xxxix. The following inscription, recently discovered in the ruins of Cæsarea, a Roman town in Africa, attests the provision made by wealthy Christians for the burial of their poorer neighbours: AREAM AT [AD] SEPVLCHRA CVLTOR VERBI CONTVLIT ET CELLAM STRVXIT SVIS CVNCTIS SVMPTIBVS ECCLESIÆ SANCTÆ HANC RELIQVIT MEMORIAM, SALVETE FRATRES PVRO CORDE ET SIMPLICI EVELPIVS VOS SATOS SANCTO SPIRITV. ECCLESIA FRATRVM HVNC RESTITVIT TITVLVM.... A worshipper of the Word has given this area for sepulchres, and has built a vault at his own cost; he left this memorial to the Holy Church. Hail, brethren! with a pure and simple heart, Euelpius [salutes] you, born of the Holy Spirit. The congregation of the brethren replaced this inscription.... [45] 2 Tim. iv, 21. Suet., _Vit. Ner._, c. 28, 29; Tac., _Ann._, xv, 37. See also Dio., lxiii, 13. [46] E.g. Flavia Domitilla, the niece of Domitian, and her husband, Clemens. Their children had been adopted by the Emperor, and designated as his successors. So near came Christianity to grasping the sceptre of the Cæsars in the first century. Dio Cass., _Hist._, lxvii, 13. Suet. in _Domit._, xv. The niece of Domitilla, also of the same name, suffered exile for the faith, A. D. 97. She gave the land for the Catacomb which still bears her name. Marcia, Mammæa, the mother of Alex. Severus, the Emperor Philip, and Prisca and Valeria, the wife and daughter of the arch-persecutor Diocletian, either embraced or greatly favoured Christianity.