[145] De Rossi gives several dated inscriptions of the reign of Diocletian, (Nos. 16 to 28,) thus absolutely identifying the age of those portions of the Catacombs. [146] In Hawthorne’s “Marble Faun” there is a fantastic legend of “The Spectre of the Catacombs,” the ghost of an apostate betrayer of the Christians, which still haunts the scene of its hateful perfidy. [147] See plan of this _arenarium_ and stairway in chap. v, fig. 26. [148] In A. D. 359 Liberius, bishop of Rome, lay hid for a year in the Catacomb of St. Agnes, till the death of the Arian Constantius; and in A. D. 418 Boniface I. in the Catacomb of St. Felicitas, during the usurpation of the antipope Eulalius. [149] The similar excavations of Quesnel, in France, were long inhabited by both human beings and cattle. [150] Latebrosa et lucifugax natio.--_Minuc. Felix._ [151] Compare the following spirited lines of Bernis: “La terre avait gémi sous le fer des tyrans; Elle cachait encore des martyrs expirans, Qui dans les noirs détours des grottes reculées Dérobaient aux bourreaux leurs têtes mutilées.” _Poëme de la Religion Vengée_, chap. viii. [152] See especially Dodwell’s learned but unsatisfactory Essay, _De Paucitate Martyrum_, and Gibbon’s laboured extenuation of the severity of the persecutors. [153] Ingens multitudo.--_Ann._, xv. [154] Jam desolata templa.--_Epis._, 97, lib. x. [155] Exuberante copia virtutis et fidei numerari non possunt martyres Christi.--_Lib. de Exhort. Martyr._, c. xi. [156] Euseb., _Hist. Eccles._, viii, 9. [157] _Ibid._, viii, 11. [158] Universum populum cum ipso pariter conventiculo concremavit. Lactan., _Instit. Divin._, v, 11: Gregatim amburebantur.--_Ibid._ [159] Page 78. [160] Sexaginta illic defossas mole sub una Reliquias memini me didicisse hominum.--_Peristeph._, xi.