popes[1] by Callistus, and of course in part owing to the presence of this great historical centre, that the cemetery assumed its grandiose proportions.
The Cemetery of S. Soteris, a vast catacomb, communicates with the older portion of the Callistus crypt and corridors. Much is as yet unexplored here. S. Soteris—virgin and martyr—who has given her name to this great cemetery, was buried "in Cemeterio suo," A.D. 304. She suffered when the persecution of Diocletian was raging.
What we have termed the group, included generally under the term of the Callistus Catacomb, is the largest and most extensive of the catacombs which lie on the great roads which run through the suburbs and immediate neighbourhood of Rome.
The discovery of this important area of the ancient Christian City of the Dead was made in the year 1849, when De Rossi found in an old vineyard bordering on the Via Appia a fragment of an inscription bearing the letters "NELIUS Martyr." The Itineraries had recorded that Cornelius, Bishop of Rome and Martyr, had been buried in the "Callistus" Cemetery. In the course of subsequent searches the other portion of the broken tablet was found, which completed the inscription "Cornelius Martyr." The vineyard was purchased by Pope Pius IX, and very soon the searchers came upon the ruined chapel of the popes and the crypt of S. Cecilia.
The position of the historic Callistus Catacomb was thus established beyond doubt, and for some fifty years portions of the great cemetery have been slowly excavated by De Rossi and his companions; the results have been of the highest importance, and have contributed in no little degree to our knowledge of early Christianity—its faith—its hopes—its anticipations.
The Cemetery of Prætextatus is on the left hand of the Via Appia, almost parallel with the usual entrance to the vast network of the Catacomb of Callistus. It is, comparatively speaking, a cemetery of small dimensions, but of great antiquity. It must have been arranged quite early in the second
- ↑ The story of the tomb of S. Cecilia and her crypt is told in detail in the section immediately succeeding this general sketch of the catacombs, pp. 289-97.
