Chapter 4. Saint Cecilia

Cecilia was born in Rome, of one of the most illustrious patrician families. The ancient and noble race of the Cecilii, one of the branches of Avhich adopted and rendered illustrious the surname of Metellus, gloried in their descent from Caia Cecilia Tanaquil, wife of Tarquin the elder, one of the most celebrated personages in the regal period. The Eomans, to prove their admiration for this matron, had erected in the capitol a statue to her honor."* Varro, as Pliny relates, certifies that even in his time the distaff and spindle of Caia Cecilia were carefully preserved in the temple of Sangus, and that, the

• Nieburh. Histoire Romaine. Tom. ii, pag. 99.

dress which this princess had woven for Servius Tullius* was kept in the temple of Fortune.

This traditional homage paid to a woman who did not forget in her political character the proprieties and occupations of her sex, is one of the characteristic features of ancient Rome, and we shall have occasion to remark to what an exalted degree the qualities and attributes of Caia Cecilia, enter into the type of the Roman wife. Even one of the Fathers of the Church, St. Jerome, eulogizes this mysterious personage, citing her as a model of conjugal modesty among the Gentiles. " The name of the prince to whom she was married," says the holy Doctor, " disappears beneath the shades of antiquity like that of other kings ; but the rare virtue which elevated this woman above others of her sex, is so deeply engraven in the memory of all ages that it can never be efiaced."f Thus the name of Cecilia which Tanaquil added to her Etruscan name, when called to reign over Rome, was respected by all generations in the Eternal City, at the time when it pleased the Almighty to offer a Christian Cecilia to the veneration, not only of the capital, but of the entire world. The illustrious race to which this holy virgin belonged, not only boasted of being

• Lanam in colo et fuso Tanaqnilis, quae eadem Caia Caecilia vocata est, in templo Sangi durasse, prodente se, autor est M. Varro : factamque ab ea togam regiam undulatam in aede Fortune qua Servius Tullius fuerat usus. Plin. Nat. Hist lib. viii. cap. lxxiv.

f Notior est marito suo Tanaquilla. Ilium inter mu It a Regum nomina jam abscondit antiquitas. Hano vara inter feminas virtus, altius sa>ciilorum omnium memorise, quam ut ezoidere possit, inlixit. Adversus Jovinianum. Lib. i. n° 49.

8*

allied to Caia Cecilia, but of numerous distinguished men who were its glory. Even in the time of the Republic, it had attained the highest pinnacle of grandeur. Without speaking of the dignities of the Dictatorship, Censorship, and Chief Pontificate, which members of the Cecilii family had successively enjoyed, and of which the annalists and the monuments of Rome still bear witness, its noble name is inscribed upon the Consular archives, eighteen times before the accession of Augustus to the Empire.* The coins struck in Rome by the Cecilii family, are still so numerous that a series of forty-four, all belonging to the Republican period, has been published.f The military triumphs awarded to the different members of this house were numerous and splendid, and added to the fame of the ancient Cecilii, the title of Macedonicus, Balearicus, Numidicus, Dalmaticus, Creticus, in memory of brilliant victories over the enemies of Rome. The Cecilii family were often entrusted with the consular fasces by the Emperors, and, during the years which more immediately preceded the memorable epoch that gave birth to the happy virgin who rendered it more illustrious than all the great generals of whom it was so proud, we find in the archives the names of Caecilius Silanus,J Cascilius Rufus,§ Coecilius Simplex,! Caecilius Classicus,e[ and Caecilius Balbinus,** as having been invested with the magistracy.ff

• Muratori. Inscriptiones. Tom. i.

f Riccio. LenionetedelleantichefamigliediRoina. Naples, 1843.

t A. U. (In the year of the City, [Rome,]), 759.

§ A. U. 7G9. j| A. U. 822. ir A. U. 854. ** A. U. 890.

ft Muratori. Ibid. L'art de verifier les dates.

Among the females of this illustrious race who are mentioned in history, we find the names of Cecilia, daughter of Metellus Balearicus, of whom Cicero relates several marvellous circumstances ;* Cecilia, daughter of Metellus Dalmaticus, first married to iEmilius Scaurus and afterwards to the Dictator L. Sylla; and Cecilia, daughter of Q. Metellus Creticus and wife of Crassus, to whose memory, was erected a large and magnificent tomb, which is still the principal monument of the Appian Way. This celebrated edifice is built upon the very ground under which extend the mysterious Crypts that served as a place of concealment for St. Urban, and under the shadow of which the remains of St. Cecilia reposed for six centuries.

Thus were Pagan and Christian Eome mingled , until the latter having conquered by its blood, the divine plan, according to which the city of the seven hills had become mistress of the world — solely to unite all nations under the same spiritual empire — was rendered manifest to all nations and to all ages. Hence that sublime reciprocal relation which, at every step, so forcibly impresses the traveller in Rome, constantly meeting, as he does, with souvenirs of the Ancient city ; her traditions and even her proper names applied, continued, and accomplished with astonishing plenitude under the Christian sway.

We cannot resist introducing our readers to a place under the walls of Rome, so intimately connected with incidents relating to St. Cecilia, and so visibly stamped with the elevated predestination of * De diviuatioue. cap. n et xlvi.

Christianity, that we cannot visit it without beina: struck by the mysterious connection between the two. This place is the Appian Way, the theatre of decisive events in behalf of the Eternal City. It was once adorned by the immense and costly sepulchral monuments of the Koman families. The ruins of these still cover the ground under which is the sacred labyrinth in whose shades legions of martyrs have slept.

Nothing can equal the grandeur and solemnity of this Way, which, during the reign of Alexander Severus, when the city was still enclosed on that side by the walls of Servius Tullius, commenced at the Capena gate and extended to the Campagna. It derives its name from Appius Claudius, who exercised the functions of Censor in the year of Rome, 442, and who raised it to the dignity of a Military Way. In 594, it was repaired by the consul, Marcus Cornelius Cetegus, and newly embellished by the application of the Viaria law of Caius Gracchus; under the empire it was successively improved by Vespasian, Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, Caracalla, Diocletian, and Maximin, as is attested by the inscriptions on the mile stones which have remained to our day.

Traversing the plain, which extends t6ward the south, the Appian Way is undulating like the ground. Sumptuous villas, temples of graceful or severe architecture, and here and there beautiful villages called pagi, embellished it throughout its course; but its principal ornament once consisted in the double row of tombs, traces of which may be found at the present day, for more than fourteen miles on either side of the way. The pavement, composed of solid blocks of lava, is magnificent and solid, like all the works of the royal people ; it is still indented for miles with the deep ruts formed by the wheels of the Eoraan chariots, two thousand years ago. The Appian Way, like all the ancient roads, was somewhat narrow, on either side of it were foot-paths, along which the sepulchres were built. The style of these funereal monuments, imposing ruins of which may still be seen, was very varied ; some were imitations of temples, built in an elegant and severe style ; othere were of a circular form, like a tower ; many, pyramidal, and a large number, quadrilateral. These sepulchres belonged either to individuals or to entire families ; some were intended for the patricians, others for their freedmen. The body of the deceased was frequently placed in a sarcophagus, but sometimes the loculus merely contained the ashes, according to the custom which was introduced towards the end of the Eepublic, of burning the corpse, a practice which became very general, except in some families who remained faithful to the ancient custom, which was afterwards re-established by Christianity. In addition to the tombs, the Appian Way likewise offered many mysterious columbaria, in which were a number of urns, placed one above the other, and containing the ashes of several generations. The gloom produced by this variety of sepulchres, contrasted strangely with the magnificence and luxury of the structures behind these avenues of death. The Pagans, fully sensible of the sublime lesson of tbe nothingness of human life, were actuated by a moral sentiment in selecting the public way, as the site of their tombs.* But the Christian religion was destined to complete this lesson by excavating under the very ground of the Appian, whole cities of sepulchres, which would not only remind man of his mortality, but elevate his soul by thoughts of immortality and triumph.

Such was the general aspect of this famous Road, which a poet of the first ages of the empire styled the ''Queen of Ways;"f and if my readers will accompany me through it for several miles, dating from the time of Alexander Severus, we will return to the Capena gate, formerly situated in the valley between the Aventine and Ccelian hills, not a mile this side of the present entrance. This latter opens in the enclosure of the walls constructed by Aureliam thirty years after the events which form the subject of our history.

Issuing from the Capena gate, over which passed one of the might v aqueducts of Rome,j: the traveller came in sight of the temples of Honor and Virtue, erected by Marcellus after the fall of Syracuse. § About a quarter of a mile from the gate, almost

• Varro speaks thus of the etymology of the word monumentum : '• Monument a q'u» in sepulchris : et ideo secundum viam, quo praetereuntes admoneant etsefuisse, et illos esse niortaleis." De lingua laiina. lib. Y. cap. vi.

f Qua limite noto Appia longarum teritur regma viarum. Stace. Sylv. lib. n. carm. n. J Juvenal. Sat. iii. Martial, lib. iii. Ep. xirii. § Tit. Liv. lib. xxv. cap. xi. lib. xxvii. cap. xxv. lib. xxix. cap. ix.

opposite the magnificent warm baths of Antoninus Caracalla, the Latin road separated from the Appian and turned towards the left. Near this spot were situated the gardens which still bore the name of the poet Terence.* Further on, commenced the interminable series of tombs. We learn from Cicero that the sepulchres of the Scipios, the Calatini, the Servilii and the Metelli, were situated outside the Capena gate, a short distance from the walls; f and the discovery made in the last century of the hypogeum of the Scipios confirms this precious information.^: As yet we have not discovered the tomb of the Metelli, but as we proceed we will find many funereal reminiscences of this family, who seem, as it were, established upon this Way, awaiting the arrival of the noble offspring, to whom was reserved the honor of rendering the name of the Cecilii popular until the end of time. Not far from these famous sepulchres and quite near the Capena gate, was situated the tomb of Horatia, the young Eoman maiden, who, during the monarchical period, was killed by her own brother for having wept over the death of her betrothed. Farther on, we find on this same Way, other monuments of the decisive victor}' which Eome gained over Alba. We learn from Eoman history that the tomb of Horatia was constructed of

• Sueton. Terentii. cap. v.

f An tu egressus porta Capena quum Calatini, Scipiorum, Serviliorum, Metcilorum Sepulcra vides, miseros putas illos? Tuscul. lib. i. cap. vii.

t The sepulchres of the Furii and the Manilii have been discovered nearly opposite the tomb of the Scipios.

cutstone,* which accounts for its having defied the ravages of time.

Another reminiscence of the early days of Rome, strikes the traveller's eyes before he reaches the tomb of the Scipios. The valley of Egeria which extends towards the left, was watered by the fountain of the Nymph who dictated the laws of Numa ; it also contained the temple of the Camoenae, and a sacred wood. But it had lost its antique character, and already Juvenal complained that pompous marble had usurped the place of the fresh grass, and concealed the rock from which the waters flowed. f The poet also discloses to us another fact which it is very important to mention, namely, that in his time the Egerian fountain, the temple of the Camoenae, and the grove itself were in the possession of the Jews. " The proscribed muses," he says, " have given place to beggars."^: For a long time, and particularly during the life of Juvenal, the Pagans confounded the Jews with the Christians. This gives us reason

• Cui soror virgo, quae desponsauni ex Curiatiis fuerat, obvia ante portani Capenam fuit. Horatiae sepulcrum, quo loco corruerat icta, constructum est saxo quadrato. Tit. Liv. lib. i. cap. xxvi.

\ In vallem Egeriae descendimus, et speluncas, Dissimiles veris. Quanto praestantius esset Numen aquae, viridi si margine clauderet undas Herba, nee ingenuum violarent marmora tophum ?

Juvenal. Satyr, iii. t Hoc sacri fontis nemus, et delubra locantur Judaeis, quorum cophinus, fcenunique supellex ; Omnis enim populo mercedem pendere jussa est Arbor, et ejectis mendicat Sylva Camaenis.

Juvenal. Ibidem.

to believe that this quarter was inhabited by the disciples of Christ. Nearly all the first Christians were plebeians; they had been chosen from among the children of Jacob by St. Peter himself, who, when the edict of Claudius banished the Jews from Eome, was forced to leave the Capital for a short time; the beggarly Jews, mentioned with such severity by the poet, may, therefore, have been a Christian colony.

This conjecture becomes almost a certainty, if we examine attentively the Appian Way at the very point where we have arrested our steps. Outside, it is covered with Pagan monuments ; whilst concealed from every eye, within the* bowels of the earth, commence the sombre galleries of the Christian catacombs. Wk have not yet reached the Aurelian enclosure, and already a new Appian Way bursts upon us where the heroes of Christ sleep in peace. On either side of this Queen of Ways, near the Capena gate, under the temples, baths, and villas of which imperial Eome is so proud, near the tombs of the Metelli and the Scipios, vast cemeteries extend where repose the generations of martyrs who preceded the reign of Aurelian. These subterraneous passages, which have been explored several times, and are still subjects of investigation, mark the spot where the Appian Way first assumes a Christian character ; we meet them in the very commencement of our pilgrimage. It would be difficult to account for their presence so near the walls of Eome, exposed to the view of the whole city, had the neighborhood been peopled solely by Pagans ; but the difficulty vanishes, if it be true that tho indigent Jews of whom Juvenal speaks, were, in fact, a Christian Community. They lived in this vicinity which, in the topographical inscriptions of Eome, bears the title of Vicus Camoenarum, and rented, not only the Egerian fountain, but also the temple of the Canioense and the Sacred Grove. They had every facility to open subterraneous vaults, to excavate galleries, to bury therein the bodies of their dead. After passing under the arch of Drusus, and traversing the ground upon which now stands the rampart built by Aurelian, we find, a few steps to the right, the first mile stone* of the Appian Way, the inscription bearing the name of Vespasian and Nerva. We next descend to the valley of the Almo, where the Way is watered by the famous brook, in which the priests of Cybele annually washed the statue of their goddess. To the right, upon a hill, rises the monument of Priscilla, wife of Abascantius. Statius, in his poem "Sylvs3," describes the conjugal tenderness of this Eoman lady and the inconsolable grief of her husband. " Opposite the city," he says, " at the entrance of the Appian Way, near the spot where Cybele ceases her lamentations, and forgets the brooks of Ida for the Almo of Italy ; there, O ! Priscilla ! thy virtuous spouse has laid thee on a precious couch, wrapped in the luxurious purple of Sidon. The devastating hand of time shall be powerless against thee, so precious are the perfumes exhaled by the sacred marble which contains thy honored remains."f

• This column lias been transported to the terrace of the Capitol.

f Est locus ante urbem, qua primum nascitur ingeng Appia ; quaque Italo gemitus Almone Cybela

Nevertheless, many centuries ago, the tomb of Priscilla was violated, and the monument which contained it. remained ignored upon the Appian Way, until recently, when the discovery of a mutilated marble showed that this sepulchre was the same which had proved powerless to protect the sarcophagus of Priscilla. We have here another instance of the renovation stamped by Christianity upon every thing Koman. At the very moment when the poet was celebrating the obsequies of this Priscilla, who is only eulogized by the learned, another Priscilla, of no less illustrious birth, was living in Eome and a Christian. Mother of the Senator Pudens, and grandmother of the virgins Praxedes and Pudentiana, this noble lady will live in the memory of the Church until the end of time. At her own expense, she caused the vast subterraneous galleries which bear her name to be excavated upon the Salarian Way ; hence when the ecclesiastical year brings us to the festival days of those who owe to her the burial ground, where their remains lie mingled with hers, the Church repeats her name with honor in the assembly of the faithful.*

Ponit, et Idseos jam non reminiscitur amnes. Hie te Sidonio vclatam molliter ostro Eximius conjux (nee enim fumantia busta Clamoremque rogi potuit perferre) beato Composuit, Priscilla, toro ; nil longior aetas Carpere, nil sevi poterunt vitiare labores Siccatam membris ; tantus venerabile marmor Spirat odor.

Stace. Silv. lib. v. Carm. i * The Liber Pontificalia mentions another Priscilla who, at the request of Pope Marcellus in the beginning of the 4th century,

. "We find one of the most touching reminiscences of the founder of Christian Kome, directly opposite the tomb which Statius has immortalized. It was here that St. Peter, after the defeat of Simon the magician, yielding to the earnest solicitations of the faithful, was fleeing, notwithstanding his ardent desire for martyrdom, from the city over which he was destined to reign by his blood, when he met our Saviour carrying his cross. "Lord, whither art thou going?'7 said the Apostle. " To Eome," replied the Eedeemer; "there to be crucified anew."* Warned by this celestial apparition, the Apostle at once retraced his steps ; he revealed the divine oracle to the faithful, and the cross of the disciple was soon elevated in Eome, as that of his Master had been in Jerusalem. The sovereignty of spiritual Eome was at once and forever proclaimed by the effusion of the fisherman's blood. The victory had commenced on the Appian "Way, and Catholic piety consecrated, by the erection of a sanctuary, the spot where the Apostle received the glorious command for the combat wherein he was to represent his divine Master.

The Way ascends here by rather a steep acclivity, assisted in the construction of a cemetery upon the same Salarian Way. This may refer to some enlargements made at this period in the cemetery of Priscilla. But, besides the authority of the ancient Acts which inform us that St. Priscilla, Mother of Pudens, caused a cemetery to be constructed upon this Way, the characteristic style of many of the paintings with which it is adorned, evidently points out that it was built before the 4th century.

• S. Ambros. Sermo contra Auxentium. n° 13. Hegesipp. lib. iii. S. Greg. Magn. in Psalm, iv. Poenitentiae.

and the tombs appear more and more crowded together ; but the disfigured rums found at the present day, give but a faint idea of their former state. Vast columbaria on the left, throw some light upon the ashes of those for whom they were destined. One dates back to the days of Augustus and Tiberius, and is sufficiently large to have contained the ashes of three thousand persons. On the same side, at a little distance, that of the slaves and freedmen of Livia Augusta,* still bears traces of former magnificence. But if the surface of the ground gives us little information respecting the illustrious dead with whom it is peopled, the depths of the earth, rendered accessible by the indefatigable exertions of the fossores of the primitive Church, present avenues of sepulchres, the glory of which increases with time. Following the acclivity of which we have just spoken, a pilgrim, in the time of Alexander Severus, acquainted with the mysterious entrances to this immense necropolis, would have suddenly found himself in a vast city, silently inhabited by the illustrious dead, who had laid down their lives for Christ — not small cemeteries, like those of the Capena gate, but the colossal work of the Christian Pontiffs of the third century. iO the right, the pilgrim would have beheld the crypts, excavated by order of Pope Zephyrinus, and continued by St. Callistus, whose name they boar ; to the left, the cemetery of Pretextatus, which dates back to the same epoch, and presents, like that of St. Callistus, several stories, one above the other,

• Nibby. Analisi storico-topografico-antiquariadella carta de* diutorui di Roma. torn. iii. pag. 53G.

4*

of innumerable funereal corridors, intersecting one another in every direction, and numerous chapels where the bodies of the most celebrated martyrs repose. Many of these subterranean sanctuaries are lined with precious marbles, which reflected the light of lamps and torches, during the celebration of the holy mysteries ; symbolical, and sometimes historical paintings, on the ceilings, walls, and under the arcade of the principal sepulchres, served as an instruction for the faithful, whilst by their emblematical character, they concealed from the eyes of the profane, the secret of the Christian dogmas.

These immense galleries continue for miles under the Appian Way, and in after years, the different quarters of the City of Martyrs, borrowed their names, from the more illustrious soldiers of Christ, buried near the entrance of their principal avenues. But, for the present, we will use the names of Callistus and Pretextatus, to designate, in a general manner, the two immense regions which extend the full length of the Way, from the acclivity we have described, to the valley, where, in the fourth century, the Basilica of St. Sebastian was built.

The persecutions of Decius and Dioclesian, sent innumerable recruits of martyrs to people these sombre dwellings ; even in the pontificate of St. Urban, St. Zephyrinus' body* rested in one of the crypts situated on the right of the Way, where St. Callistus prepared the glorious asylum in which the invincible successors of St. Peter were to sleep, and into which we

• See the successive "guide books" of the Catacombs, from the 7th to the 10th century. We shall often refer to them.

shall soon descend, to confide to the tomb, the pre- ' cious remains of the noble heroine to whom we con- ' secrate these pages. Saint Callistus was not buried in the retreat he had prepared for himself. Martyred in the trans-Tiberian region, near the church of St. Mary, the Christians, fearing they could not safely transport his body to the Appian Way, buried him in one of the crypts of the Aurelian. On the other side of the hill, behind the row of Pagan tombs which, extends to the right, in the valley formed by the depression of the soil, was a mysterious asylum, known, even in the third century, to the Christians of the entire world. For many years, the bodies of the holy Apostles, Sts. Peter and Paul, rested there. In the pontificate of St. Zephyrinus, they were still in their original tombs ; the former at the foot of the Vatican on the Triumphal Way, the latter, on the Ostian, as is certified by Gaius, a priest of Rome, in a conference which he held with the Montanist Proclus, in the early part of this century.* But St. Callistus, on account of the sacrilegious orgies of Heliogabalus, had felt obliged to remove the holy relics to a place unknown to the Pagatis. The Appian AVay was chosen to receive the first and greatest treasure of Christian Rome. Heliogabalus, in his sacrilegious madness, threatened to profane these sacred remains, which are, as it were, the title deeds of the power of the Roman Church over all others, since they bear witness that * Troplicea Apostolorum habeo, qua? ostendere possum. Si enim procedas via Triumphali, qutt ad Vaticanum ducit, aut Ostiensi, corum invenies Trophaea quibus ex utraque parte statutes Romana communitur Ecclesia. Euscb. llistoria Ecdcsiast. lib, ii. cap, xxv.

St. Peter bequeathed her his authority with his blood. The worthless cousin of Alexander Severus, had erected upon the Palatine, * near the palace of the Csesars, a temple destined to receive the infamous idol which bore his name. Being fully determined that no god but Heliogabalus should be adored in Rome, he not only resolved to transfer to this temple the statue of Cybele, the fire of Vesta, the Ancilia, the Palladium, those antique monuments of Eoman worship, to which the Gentiles believed the destinies of the Capital of the World to be attached, but he had likewise declared his intention of collecting there, • all the most sacred objects of Christian worship. We gather from a Pagan historian, these details so valuable in explaining the traditions of Christian Eome.* Saint Callistus, who was Pope at this time, and who

• Ubi primum (Heliogabalus) ingressus est urbem, omissis iis quae in provincia gerebantur, Heliogabalum in Palatino inonte juxta aedes imperatorias consecravit, eique templuni fecit, studens et Matris typum, et Vestae igneni, et Palladium, et Ancilia, et omnia romanis veneranda in illud transferre templum, et id agens ne quis Romae Deus, nisi Heliogabalus coleretur. Dicebat praeterea Judaeorum et Samaritanorum religiones, et Christianam devotionem illuc transferendam, ut omnium culturarum secretum Heliogabali sacerdotiumteneret. Lampridius. Augusta historia.

The historian also relates that Heliogabalus gave an exhibition of harnessed elephants on the Vatican plain ; and that not having sufficient space for so novel an entertainment, he ordered the sepulchres to be destroyed. The tomb of the prince of the Apostles being subterranean, could not indeed be overturned, but as all access to it might be rendered very impracticable for the faithful, St. Callistus probably found in this extravagant command, an additional motive for removing to a place of security, the remains of St. Peter, those precious relics which were then, and ever will be, the Palladium of Christian Rome.

has been immortalized by bis active interest in guarding the crypts of the Appian Way, wished to protect from dishonor, the remains of the holy Apostles, and therefore removed them from the place where they had hitherto been venerated by the faithful.* He caused a sepulchral chamber to be built, the descent into which was effected by means of a well, and there the first Vicar of Christ, and the Doctor of the Gentiles, reposed each in his own tomb for many years, after which they were restored to their primitive resting place. The place where they rested for that brief interval is called the catacombs,f a name afterwards applied more or less correctly to the Christian crypts and cemeteries throughout the different Ways. In leaving this sacred spot, and resuming the course of the Appian, we see before us, towards the left, a vast plain which extends in the direction of the Latin Way. About half a mile distant, upon a graceful hill, and overlooking a nymphoeum, which was once deemed to be the site of the grotto and fountain of Egeria, a prostyle temple now rears its portico of four fluted columns of Pentelican marble. This temple, built during the Eepublican period, and less remarkable than many others which adorned the Eoman Ways, merits nevertheless, a passing notice from the Christian traveller. At the present day, we are uncertain to what false divinity it was consecrated ; for a long time it was supposed to be the

• Panvini de Septem Urbis Ecclesiis. cap. iv. pag. 34. Moretti. Disputatio de trauslatione corporum SS. Petri et Tauli ad Cata* cumbas.

t Kalendariuin Bucherianum. Anastase. in Cornelio.

temple of the Camoen99, celebrated by the poets, and mentioned on the topographical monuments of Home, at the identical period when the name of Egeria was given to the fountain in the valley. This opinion is not well supported, and yet, without any better foundation, the edifice bears at present, the name of Bacchus. However this may be, we learn from tradition, that it served as a retreat for the pontiff, St. Urban. This touching reminiscence has been perpetuated by an oratory built under the temple, in the soft, sandy stone, and since consecrated as a church, under the name of St. Urban. The crypts of Pretextatus, branch out through the surrounding ground ; the pontiff was, consequently, perfectly secure in his place of concealment, which was at some distance from the public roads, and may, moreover, have belonged to the Christians, as did the temple of the Camcena), under the very walls of Rome.

A Pope, already a confessor, and soon to be a martyr, seeking refuge in a Pagan temple, is a striking feature of that secret and continual labor, by which Christianity sapped the foundation of the religion of the Gentiles. In connection with this fact, we may mention that the Vatican crypt, which received the bleeding body of the Prince of the Apostles, after his martyrdom, was excavated under a temple of Apollo,* near the Circus of Nero. All traces of the temple have disappeared forever ; but if the tomb of the Galilean fisherman, unceasingly venerated by the faithful, remains buried under its majestic shadow, the cross upon the cupola of Michael Angclo, towering to the * Anastase. in Petro.

very skies, proclaims that Christ, the conqueror of false gods, reigns no longer merely in the bowels of the earth.

Eeturning to the Appian Way, we find the third mile-stone, near which were placed the Christian beggars, charged with pointing out to the faithful, the retreat of St. Urban. To the left, the sepulchre of Cecilia Metella, rose in graceful majesty. Restii^g upon the summit of a hill, it overlooked the tombs, temples, and villas with which the plain was covered, and the aqueducts which bore the tribute of lakes and rivers to the city of the Ca3sars. This magnificent monument is now but a mass of ruins, yet it is still the most noble ornament of the Campagna. Supported upon a quadrilateral dais, and built of travertine, it has the appearance of an elegantly proportioned tower; the upper part is embellished with a frieze decorated with festoons separated by bulls' heads; the whole being crowned by a conical roof, also in travertine.* Neither man nor time has effaced the dedicatory inscription, placed under the frieze, and surmounted by several trophies. It bears the simple words :

CiECILIiE

Q. CRETICI. F.

METELLA CRASSI.

Here, then, reposed Cecilia Metella, the daughter of Quintus C;ecilius Metellus Creticus, who was consul

• Canina (I/Arohitettura Romana, text, 3 part page 217) maintains that the roof of Cecilia Metella' S tomb was of a conical form. A simple inspection of the interior vault of the monument, proves this conjecture to be well founded.

under Augustus, in the seventh year of the Christian era. Crassus, the husband of Cecilia, erected this tomb in her honor. This last scion of the house of Crassus, is only known by the monument he erected to his noble spouse. Cecilia herself, has no other history than that transcribed upon the "marble. Still, the Christian who recalls the name and virtues of Cecilia, the spouse of Christ, can scarcely pass with indifference, this tomb, admired even by the profane archeologist, for its severe magnificence. The predestined martyr, in going to the crypts to visit the tombs of her family, and to receive the instructions of St. Urban, must have more than once stopped to gaze at this sepulchre, which contained the remains of one of the females of her ancient and illustrious race ; but an humble tomb in the vault of the Appian Way, merited by sufferings endured for Christ, seemed to her far more desirable than the most splendid mausoleum which her opulent family could erect to her memory in that stately Way.

The monument of Cecilia Metella served as a fortress in the thirteenth century, and ever since has been disfigured by a crown of battlements. The large sarcophagus of marble, in which Crassus deposited the body of his wife, was carried away in the sixteenth century, and placed under the eortile of the Farnese palace, where it still remains.

Let us now return to the epoch of Alexander Severus, and after casting a last glance at the sepulchre of the Pagan Cecilia, let us ascend the hill, and admire one of the most sumptuous and luxurious villages which embellish the vicinity of the Eternal

City. It is called the Pagus Triopius, and owes its origin to Herod Atticus, a celebrated rhetorician, who was consul in the year 143 of the Christian era. This wealthy Athenian dedicated the village as a monument to the memory of his wife, Anna Eegilla, of the Julia family. In his inconsolable grief at the loss of his spouse, he not only dedicated all her favorite jewels to the Eleusinian divinities, Ceres and Proserpine, distributing them among the most venerated sanctuaries of these goddesses; but he also vowed to them that he would expend upon this region of the Appian Way, all the riches left by his lamented wife. A sacred grove, a temple in honor of the two Ceres, a sepulchral field dedicated to Minerva, and to Nemesis, are the solemn testimonials of the regrets of Herod Atticus, the founder of this Pagus, which he called Triopius, in honor of Ceres, whose sanctuary at Argos bore this name*

The different Greek inscriptions, representing the dedication of this field of mourning, have been preserved until the present day, and the two principal, in beautiful Pentelican marble, after having ornamented the Borghese Villa at Eome, for two centuries, were, in 1808, transported to Paris, where they have since remained. The quarries of this marble, so famous in the history of Greece, belonged to Herod Atticus, who nearly exhausted them in the construction of the Stadium Panathenaicum.f It was not long before numerous dwellings were erected around the monument of

• Visconti (Ennio Quirino). Iscrlzioni greche Triopee. Rome. 1794. page 5.

f Pausanias and Philostratus, cited by Ennio Visconti, page 8.

Anna Eegilla. The Pagus was called the abode of hospitality, — as we find upon one of the inscriptions, and during the reign of Alexander Severus, its population was considerable. A temple of Jupiter was erected upon the part which led to the Appian Way. Later we will revisit these places.

The Appian Way becomes more level after leaving the Pagus Triopius. In the distance rises Mt. Albanus with its nine cities, its loftiest summit crowned with the temple of Jupiter Latialis. The ancient Way, so long buried beneath its ruins, has reappeared, thanks to the munificence of the immortal Pius IX. Innumerable monuments have been brought to light, and we of the present day tread the pavement furrowed in olden times by the chariots of the conquerors of the world.

Near the fourth mile-stone, not far from Seneca's villa, a pyramid of barbarian construction attracts the eye; between Eome and Alba there are four others very similar. It is a popular tradition that these monuments were erected to the two Horatii and the three Curiatii* However this may be, Livy, the historian, asserts that these valiant champions were buried in this locality. " Their sepulchres," he says, " are erected on the spot where each one fell, the two Eomans in the same tomb, near Alba; the three Albans, nearer Eome, at a little distance from one another, according to the scene of combat, f

• Nibby. cited by Ennio Visconti, pages 543, 544.

t Sepulcra extant quo quisque loco cecidit : duo romana uno loco propius Albam ; tria albana Romam versus, sed distantia locis, et ut pugnatuui est. Tit, Liv. lib. i. cap. xxv.

Thus the traces of this memorable contest which decided the victory of the Eomans over the Albans, were not effaced from the Appian soil, and may, perhaps, be recognizable even in our days. But the Eome saved by the blood of the Horatii, lies buried under the ruins heaped up by the ravages of time, and of barbarians ; it is but a mutilated corpse of which the fragments are exhumed ; whilst the Rome, for which the martyrs of the Appian Way combated, raises its imperishable head and pursues its conquests to regions not even coveted by the boundless ambition of the Caesars.

It is time for us to return to the city where St. Urban and Alexander Severus are reigning, each in his own sphere. Gladly would we have followed the course of the Appian to the village Tres Tabernse, for it was there the Apostle Paul, the captive of Jesus Christ, led from the East to the feet of Caesar to whom he had appealed, was met by the Christians of Eome, who had gone out to receive him.* But we have explored sufficiently ; for already we have passed the places which will be mentioned in our story. Nevertheless before retracing our steps towards Rome, let us admire at the fifth mile-stone, the monument of Quintus Cascilius, the uncle of Cicero's celebrated friend, Pomponius Atticus.f This tomb, the ruins of which are still imposing, will recall to our minds the name and race of the Christian heroine whose holy footsteps we have traced on this Queen of Roman Ways, where every thing speaks of Cecilia, the glory of her ancestors, and the sublimit}?- of her virtues.

• Act. xxviii. 15.

f Cornelius Nepos. In T. Pomponio Attico. cap. xxii.