PART I
I
SINCE the date of what may be termed the rediscovery of
the Catacombs in the vineyard on the Via Salaria in
1578[1] the work of excavation and research in the streets
of the City of the Dead which lies beneath the suburbs of
Rome has been slowly and somewhat fitfully carried on,
exciting generally but little public interest, and until the last
fifty years, roughly speaking, has been most mischievous and
destructive.
It is probable that more destruction and havoc have been wrought by the well-meaning but ill-directed efforts of the explorer than were occasioned by the raids of the barbarians in the sixth and two following centuries and by the slow wear and sap of time.
Among these, Bosio, A.D. 1593-1629, the pioneer of the Catacomb explorers, occupies one of the few honourable places; his method of working was in many respects scientific. He was no mere explorer, working haphazard, but he guided his labours by carefully sifting all the information he could procure of the past history of the vast subterranean necropolis. But, after all, the materials of this history which
- ↑ It was in the year of grace 1578 that some workmen digging out sand in a vineyard about a mile from Rome on the Via Salaria came upon the gallery of a subterranean cemetery, with dim paintings and many ancient inscriptions upon the walls. This striking discovery excited much curiosity at the time, and the world of Rome, recalling to mind the long-forgotten story of the Catacombs, became suddenly conscious that beneath its suburbs lay a vast unexplored City of the Dead.
