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The Topography of the Catacombs of S. Callixtus in the light of Recent Excavations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Extract

The excavations which have been in progress during the last ten years in the catacombs encircling Rome have added greatly to our knowledge of this vast area, and in some cases have compelled us to modify considerably our views concerning their topography. This has specially been the case in the cemetery of S. Callixtus, lying in the triangle formed by the Via Appia, Via Ardeatina, and Via Appio-Ardeatina at the apex of which stands the chapel of Quo Vadis (fig. 11).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © E. R. Barker 1911. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

page 107 note 1 The name S. Soteris given to this district and to the basilica at D has been abandoned by the universal consent of modern archaeologists. See Wilpert, Römische Quartalschrift, 1901. The position of the cemetery is discussed later.

page 107 note 2 For text see Rossi, De, Roma sotterranea, i, 180Google Scholar, or Scaglia, , Notiones archaeologiae christianae, i, 443Google Scholar: cf. Schneider, Nuovo bullettino di archeologia cristiana, 1909, 1910.

page 107 note 1 Liber Pontificalis, Ed. Duchesne, , i, 202Google Scholar; ii, 147.

page 107 note 2 Fonseca, De basilica S. Laurentii in Damaso, 59, Fano, 1745.

page 107 note 3 Roma sotterranea, i, 265; iii, 8: Bullettino di arch. crist. 1867: cf. Wilpert, Römische Quartalschrift, 1901, 32; Marucchi, Roma sotterranea, Domitilla, 54.

page 107 note 4 Röm. Quartalschrift, 1905: cf. Marchi, Monumenti dell' arte cristiana primitiva, 227.

page 111 note 1 Lib. Pont, i, 444, 447: cf. Rossi, De, Roma sotterranea, iii, 29Google Scholar, and Dufresne, Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis, 1887.

page 111 note 2 Passio S. Sebastiani, 28th Jan. in Acta SS. Jan. ii, 629; cf. Acta SS. 18th June, iv, 468. The martyrologies mention the Via Ardeatina as their resting place, referring to the basilica, built later in their honour.

page 111 note 3 The Itinerarium Salisburgense (625-638) is the mediae fullest.

page 111 note 4 Wilpert, Röm. Quartalschrift, 1901; Scaglia, , Notiones arch, christ. i, i, 27Google Scholar, note. Rossi, De (Roma sotterr. i, 259Google Scholar; Bull. di. arch. crist. 1877, 1879, 1880), and Marchi (Monum. dell' arte crist. prim. 227) placed these shrines on the west of the Via Ardeatina.

page 112 note 1 Wilpert, Le pitture delle catacombe Romane, p. 445, pl. 153. Reference is here made to the Italian edition of Wilpert's great work, Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms.

page 112 note 2 Passio SS. Perpetuae et Felicitatis, ed. Franchi, 100: cf. Aubé, Polyeucte dans l'histoire, 77.

page 112 note 3 For a full discussion as to the identification of the Crypt of the Columns and the Crypt of the Apostles as the burial places of SS. Marcus and Marcellianus, and of S. Damasus respectively, see Wilpert, Röm. Quart. 1908, 124; cf. 1901, 32; Nuovo bullettino di arch. crist. 1903, 43: La Cripta dei Papi e la cappella de S. Cecilia, 1910 [trans. from German]; Scaglia, I cemiteri dei SS. Marco et Marcelliano e di Papa Damaso, 1910; Osservazioni sopra i recenti studi intorno ai cemiteri di Marco e Marcelliano e di Papa Damaso in Rivista di Scienze Storiche, and Bonavenia in the same Review, 1909; Marucchi, Domitilla, 42; Esame de un opuscolo di G. Wilpert; Nuov. Bull. 1951; 192; 1908, 157; 1909, 221; and cf. 1903, 59; Delehaye, in Analecta Bollandiana, xxix. For illustrations see also Wilpert, Le pitture delle Catacombe Romane, plates 214-216. The plate reproduced in this Journal shows the grave at B 3 in fig. 12.

page 113 note 1 Wilpert, op. cit. pl. 216.

page 114 note 1 Wilpert has abandoned his original idea that the saints lay in the bisomus at B I (a theory strenuously combated by Marucchi).

page 114 note 2 Marucchi draws attention to a crypt near this basilica, discovered in 1896, but actually in Domitilla, which contains a fresco representing six saints receiving crowns from our Lord. (See Wilpert, op. cit. pl. 125). He thinks it may be in honour of these two martyrs and their many associates, even if they were not actually buried here; Nuovo Bulletino, 1905, 213. Three of the saints, however, are women, and though many women, according to the Acts, were converted on this occasion, only one, Zoe, suffered martyrdom. On these points, however, the Acts are practically valueless.

page 115 note 1 Wilpert, as we have seen, has changed his opinion as to the actual grave, and now believes it to have been at B 3.

page 115 note 2 Damasi Epigrammata, Ihm, 12, 7; cf. 78, 3, 4.

page 115 note 3 Wilpert, op. cit. 226, 230, pl. 177.

page 116 note 1 The exigencies of the verse only permit of a limited choice in the words supplied. Other slightly different readings have been suggested, without much change in the sense. Wilpert reads undecim annos in the second line.

page 116 note 2 Marucchi in Nuovo Bullettino, 1903, 59, 100. Wilpert in Röm. Quartalschrift, 1908: cf. De Rossi, Bullettino di arch. crist. 1888-1889, and Duchesne, , Lib. Pont. i, 215Google Scholar.

page 116 note 3 Marini found it “apud sacristiam pontificis” and attributes it to the “coemeterium S. Sebastiani,” which was sometimes imagined to be in the area occupied by S. Callixtus. The inscription runs: “locus trisomus victoris in cruta Damasi.”

page 117 note 1 Lib. Pont. i, 21.

page 119 note 1 Wilpert, Röm. Quartalschrift, 1908; and La Cripta dei Papi, 93; Marucchi, Nuovo Bullettino 1908, 1910; and Roma Sotterr. Nuovo Serie, Domitilla; Wittig, Röm. Quartahchrift, 1905 (agreeing with Marucchi); Duchesne, , Lib. Pont. i, 140, n. 4Google Scholar.

page 119 note 2 Roma Sotterr. iii, 469.

page 119 note 3 A subject frequently referred to by early Christian poets, cf. Wilpert, op. cit. and also Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire, 1906, 224.

page 120 note 1 Wilpert says he carries an oar: but the man appears to be facing the wrong way.

page 120 note 2 Roma Sotterr. ii, 32 and 50.

page 120 note 3 Duchesne, Lib. Pont. i, 139Google Scholar.

page 120 note 4 Philosophumena, ix, 12.

page 121 note 1 Cf. Martyrologium Romanum, 15th August, “Tarsicius … in cimiterio S. Callixti.”

page 121 note 2 There is some doubt as to the facts of the life of S. Tarsicius, but the date of his death seems fairly well established. Wilpert quotes from an unpublished work on the subject by Pio Franchi dei Cavalieri. I have not been able to obtain J. M. Lambert, Etude sur St. Tarsicius, 1890. Damasus. in his epitaph on Tarsicius (Ihm, 14) compares him to the proto-martyr and deacon S. Stephen. He makes no reference to Zephyrinus. It seems likely he would have done so if, at that period, they lay in the same grave.

page 122 note 1 Wilpert, Röm. Quartalschrift, 1908; La Cripta dei Papi, 15 and 105; Marucchi, Nuovo Bullettino, 1908.

page 122 note 2 See Grisar, Roma alla fine del mondo antico, 539-541; and other bibliography quoted on this basilica.

page 122 note 3 Lib. Pont. i, 385.

page 123 note 1 Previous to the new excavations Marucchi thought this might be the basilica of Damasus, see Nuovo Bullettino, 1905; Roma Sotterr. nuovo serie, Domitilla, 51, n.

page 123 note 2 Nuovo Bullettino, 1903, 100.

page 123 note 3 Wilpert's contention that the juxta of the itinerary cannot mean a position so near the papal crypt as that of basilica G seems contrary to the sense of the Latin.

page 124 note 1 Lib. Pont. i, 291.

page 124 note 2 Wilpert, La Cripta dei Papi, 1910, especially p. 50 with further bibliography and excellent illustrations and plans [The German version, Die Papstgräber, 1909, is the original work].

page 124 note 3 Roma Sotterr. ii, tav. xxxv, 2, p. 116; Bullettino, 1872, 48.

page 125 note 1 Wilpert op. cit. Marchi, Monnumenti dell' arte crist. prim. 258; Marucchi, Nuovo Bullettino, 1909, 35; De Rossi, Bullettino, 1870, 47; 1872, 76; Kanzler, Nuovo Bullettino, 1895.

page 126 note 1 See Wilpert, op. cit. for a coloured plate, and text, p. 60.

page 127 note 1 Wilpert, op. cit. 75.

page 127 note 2 Edmond Le Blant in Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, vol. 28, has some curious information on the anxiety of the christian martyrs as to the fate of their dead bodies.