Fascination with the dead?

Friday, October 28th

While Neil was working and Alex and Eleni were having their Halloween party at school, I was gallivanting around Rome in the Catacombs with my Art history class. Ever since I learned about these tunnels in highschool, I've always dreamed of visiting them. Finally, twenty-five years later, here I am.

Like many history students, I was incorrectly informed about their purpose. The romantic story that the catacombs were secretive and Christians hid there to avoid persecution is alluring, but incorrect. Their location was on a major highway of the time, the Appian Way (the first part was built in 312 BC) and it would have been hard to hide anything along the major route in and out of Rome. Also, by law, you had to bury your dead outside the city and there were several pagan graves here, too.

Despite the dispelled legend, it doesn't take away any of the imagination thinking here: there are 60 different catacomb areas in Rome and in this particular segment, St. Sebastian's, there are seven miles worth of empty tombs mixed with the graves of 80,000 bodies that are still here! Many of the empty tombs that we passed were empty as their remains had been buried elsewhere out of respect or their remains has been stolen and passed off as relics of saints.

Pause.

It did cross my mind, as I descended into the catacombs, how much my enthusiasm this year has been tied into visiting final resting places of the dead. I'm not sure I should read anything into it except that there are so many clues about history here, but does make me pause a bit.

The current St. Sebastian's Church is from the 17th century, but beneath it lies remnants from the 1st century BC. In one area, you can see 4 centuries in one glance: 1. 1st century BC - an old Roman quarry (the word catacombs actually comes from this particular spot - cata is by and combus is quarry), 2. 1st century AD Pagan burial rooms (see below),

3. 3-5th century AD Christian burial spots, and 4. The base of the 4th century Church that was built here (this photo here looks down on the photo above).

The photo above is right next to the space that archeologists believe St. Peter and St. Paul's bones were hidden for some years. There are thousands of pieces of graffiti left requesting the Saints' help. Among these pieces, you can see the signs of the fish (acronym for Jesus Christ, Son of God the Savior and looking somewhat like IXOYS) and the sign of Christos (an X and P together). It's extremely hard to see things here and the catacombs are not for the claustrophobic; there were traffic jams within the small spaces as tour groups were swarming from all directions. Not so different as their counterpart roads above in Rome.

You can just see a group of family graves here.
I was fortunate in being with my Art history teacher who had some connections and the key to get into an old Roman villa from the time of Augustus! We had to be careful as we walked around due to the archaeologists' tools lying about. We saw beautiful old rooms, but I only took a photo of this small space decorated in green and red.
Above, the Church houses the remains of St. Sebastian. Like so many churches in Italy, it's a treasure trove of artwork. Pope John Paul II and Mother Theresa visited here and there are some unexpectedly huge paintings of them, as well.

But mostly, there are several pieces dedicated to Saint Sebastian. Arrows abound. It's all in the theme of his martyrdom of death by arrows (or, was that his death? The story that artists do not depict is that after this Roman soldier was found out, tied to the stake, shot with arrows, and taken for dead, he was nursed back to health and he tried to convince Emperor Diocletian to convert to Christianity, but that idea was rejected and instead Sebastian was clubbed to death). His remains lie behind this sculpture.

So, after a huge dose of death, we walked along the Appian Way to another dose of death. This time we visited the tomb of a pagan woman who lived during the Augustus years, noblewoman Cecilia Metalla. Not much is known of Cecilia, except for Lord Byron's doting wonderings about her and this "stern round tower" in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Her tomb lies as a remnant of what once lined the Appian Way (that and the 6,000 slaves who revolted with Spartacus and were crucified along the same road thanks to her father-in-law, Crassus).
Her tomb is empty now. It was used as part of a fortified castle that demanded toll be paid along the Appian Way during the 14th century. Inside, you can see a latrine (the top hollowed out bit was on the third floor and you can see where it went to on the bottom floor).
There are all sorts of artifacts lying about...
...and pigeons flying about!
Under the castle, you can see what is left of the quarry where they got the stones for the Appian Way. I took this photo more for the cat house and bowl of water for cat on the lower left.
Home to Viterbo where my children were all about Halloween. Perhaps it is just the time of year to be fascinated: Halloween, the Day of the Dead, All Saint's Day and the whole month of November is dedicated to visiting your ancestors' graves in Italy.