Pagan and Christian Rome

Sanctity of tombs guaranteed to all creeds alike.--The Christians' preference for underground cemeteries not due to fear at first.--Origin and cause of the first persecutions.--...

Ancient temples as galleries of art.--The adornment of statues with jewelry, etc.--Offerings and sacrifices by individuals.--Stores of ex-votos found in the _favissæ_ or vaults...

which will bring the grand total to thirty thousand. As hardly one tombstone out of ten has escaped destruction, we may assume as a certainty that Rome was surrounded by a belt...

the Lateran was painted by order of Nicholas III. (1277-1280). Since his time the basilica has been burned to the ground twice--in 1308 and 1360--and restored three times. Its l...

of Britain, was accused of "foreign superstition," tried by her husband, and acquitted. These words long since gave rise to a conjecture that Pomponia Græcina was a Christian, a...

Two roads issued from the bridge called _Vaticanus_, _Neronianus_, or _Triumphalis_, the remains of which are still seen at low water between S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini and the...

The death and burial of Augustus.--His will.--The Monumentum Ancyranum.--Description and history of his mausoleum.--Its connection with the Colonnas and Cola di Rienzo.--Other m...

The large number of churches in Rome.--The six classes of the earliest of these.--I. Private oratories.--The houses of Pudens and Prisca.--The evolution of the church from the p...

Constantine--Helena, wife of Julian, Constantina, wife of Gallus Cæsar, and Constantia, who had vowed herself to chastity, and to the management of a congregation of virgins whi...

Various modes of burial in Rome.--Inhumation and cremation.--Gradual predominance of the latter.--Columbaria.--Inscription describing the organization of one of these, on the Vi...

The early adoption of Christianity not confined to the poorer classes.--Instances of Roman nobles who were Christians.--The family of the Acilii Glabriones.--Manius Acilius the...

that some one would suddenly rise to revenge the innocent blood into which he had dipped his hands made him tremble every moment for his life; so much so that he caused the port...

PLAN OF THE GRAVES SURROUNDING THAT OF S. PETER DISCOVERED AT THE TIME OF PAUL V. (from a rare engraving by Benedetto Drei, head master mason to the Pope. The site of the tomb o...

Portraits of the early Popes.--Those of SS. Peter and Paul.--The tombs of the Popes.--Their interest for the student.--The tomb of Cornelius Martyr.--Inscriptions and other monu...