Walks in RomeHare, Augustus J. C. (Augustus John Cuthbert)
History
Walks in Rome
Hare, Augustus J. C. (Augustus John Cuthbert)
Rome (Italy) -- Description and travel
In the road leading to S. Urbano is the entrance to the _Jewish
Catacomb_. It is entered by a chamber open to the sky, floored with
black and white mosaic, which is supposed to have formed part of a pagan
dwelling. The following chamber has remains of a well. Hence a low door
forms the entrance of a gallery out of which open six cubicula, one of
them containing a fine while marble sarcophagus, and decorated with a
painting of the seven-branched candlestick. A side passage leads to
other cubicula, and to an open space which seems to have been an actual
arenarium. A winding passage at the end of the larger gallery leads to
the graves in the floor divided into different cells for corpses, and
called _Cocim_ by Rabbinical writers. A cubiculum at the end of the
catacomb has paintings of figures--Plenty, with a cornucopia; Victory,
with a palm leaf, &c. The inscriptions found show that this cemetery was
exclusively Jewish. They refer to officers of the synagogue, rulers
(αρχοντες), and scribes (γραμματεις), &c. The inscriptions are in great
part in Greek letters, expressing Latin words.
Another small Jewish catacomb has been discovered behind the basilica of
St. Sebastian. Behind the Catacomb of St. Calixtus, on the right of the
Via Ardeatina, is the _Catacomb of SS. Nereo ed Achilleo_. Close to its
entrance is the farm of _Tor Marancia_, where are some ruins, believed
to be remains of the villa of Flavia Domitilla. This celebrated member
of the early Christian Church was daughter of the Flavia Domitilla who
was sister of the Emperor Domitian,--and wife of Titus Flavius Clemens,
son of the Titus Flavius Sabinus who was brother of the Emperor
Vespasian. Her two sons were, Vespasian Junior and Domitian Junior, who
were intended to succeed to the throne, and to whom Quinctilian was
appointed as tutor by the emperor. Dion Cassius narrates that "Domitian
put to death several persons, and amongst them Flavius Clemens the
consul, although he was his nephew, and although he had Flavia Domitilla
for his wife, who was also related to the emperor. They were both
accused of atheism, on which charge many others also had been
condemned, going after the manners and customs of the Jew; and some of
them were put to death, and others had their goods confiscated; but
Domitilla was only banished to Pandataria."[219] This Flavia Domitilla
is frequently confused with her niece of the same name,[220] whose
banishment is mentioned by Eusebius, when he says:--"The teaching of our
faith had by this time shone so far and wide, that even pagan historians
did not refuse to insert in their narratives some account of the
persecution and the martyrdoms that were suffered in it. Some, too, have
marked the time accurately, mentioning, amongst many others, in the
fifteenth year of Domitian (A.D. 97), Flavia Domitilla, the daughter of
a sister of Flavius Clemens, one of the Roman consuls of those days,
who, for her testimony for Christ, was punished by exile to the island
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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