chapter i

., page 10, of "Ancient Rome," I mentioned Pomponio's Academy, and its visits to the crypts of Callixtus. Since the publication of my book, the subject has been investigated again and illustrated by Giacomo Lombroso[173] and de Rossi.[174] It appears that after the trial which the Academicians underwent at the time of Paul II., and their unexpected liberation from the Castle of S. Angelo, they decided to turn over a new leaf. From a fraternity which was pagan in manners and instincts, which had made itself conspicuous by the use of profane language, and by the celebration of profane meetings over the tombs of the martyrs, they became the "Societas literatorum S. Victoris et sociorum in Esquiliis," a literary society under the patronage of S. Victor and his companion saints, namely, Fortunatus and Genesius. Their _pontifex maximus_ became a president; their _sacerdos_ a priest, whose duty it was to say mass on certain anniversaries. The most important celebration fell, as before, on April 21, the birthday of Rome. We have a description by an eye-witness, Jacopo Volaterrano, of that which took place in 1483: "On the Esquiline,[175] near the house of Pomponius, the society of literary men has celebrated the birthday of Rome. Divine service was performed by Peter Demetrius of Lucca; Paul Marsus delivered the oration. The dinner was served in the hall adjoining the chapel of S. Salvatore de Cornutis," etc. In 1501, after the death of Pomponius, the anniversary meetings were held on the Capitol; the solemn mass was sung in the church of the Aracoeli, while the banquet took place in the Palazzo dei Conservatori. The convivial feast of 1501 was not a success. Burckhardt describes it as _satis feriale et sine bono vino_ (commonplace and with no good wine).

Was the conversion of the Academicians a sincere one? We believe it was not; they manifested under Sixtus V. the same feelings which had brought them to justice under Paul II.

In the calendars of the Church of Rome only one name is registered on April 21, that of Pope Victor. His alleged companions, Fortunatus and Genesius, were singled out of old, disused calendars of the church of Africa, unknown to the Latins. Why did the academicians select such enigmatic and obscure protectors? The reason is evident. Genesius was chosen because his name suggested an allusion to the _genesis_ (_natalis_) or birthday of Rome; Victor and Fortunatus, likewise, were considered names of good omen, with a suggestion of the Victory and Fortune who presided over the destinies of ancient Rome.

Under the protection of these alleged saints, Pomponius and his friends worshipped, and celebrated the birthday of Rome, and the goddesses connected with the city.[176]

This state of things did not wholly escape the attention of contemporary observers. One of them, Raffaele Volaterrano, expressly says: "Pomponius Lætus worshipped Romulus and kept the birthday of Rome; the beginning of a campaign against religion (_initium abolendæ fidei_)."

The Roman academy found the means of keeping faithful to its traditions, and to the spirit of its institutions, in spite of the reform of its statutes. Victor, Fortunatus, Genesius, in whose honor divine service was performed on April 20, did not represent to the initiated the saints of the Church, but the fortunes of ancient Rome, its founder, the _Paliliæ_. Still, we are not yet able to discover whether all this was done simply out of love and admiration for the ancient world, under the influence of the Renaissance of classical studies; or from hatred and contempt of Christian faith: _initium abolendæ fidei_.

THE END.

FOOTNOTES:

[141] Principal authorities:--Philip de Winghe: _Cod. biblioth. Bruxell_. 17872.--Panvinius: _De Coemeteriis Urbis Romæ_. Rome, 1568.--Antonio Bosio: _Roma sotterranea_; opera postuma. Roma, 1632-34.--Paolo Aringhi: _Roma subterranea novissima._ Roma, 1651 fol. Cologne, 1659 fol.--M. A. Boldetti: _Osservazioni sopra i cimiteri de' SS. martiri._ Roma, Salvioni, 1720.--Giovanni Bottari: _Sculture e pitture estratte dai cimiteri di Roma._ 3 vol. Roma, 1737-54.--Filippo Buonarroti: _Vasi antichi di vetro ornati di figure_, etc. Firenze, 1716, 4.--Raoul Rochette: _Le catacombe di Roma._ Milano, 1841.--Giuseppe Marchi: _Monumenti delle arti cristiane primitive._ Roma, Puccinelli, 1844.--Raffaele Garrucci: _Storia dell' arte cristiana._ Roma: 6 vol. fol.; _Vetri ornati di figure in oro, trovati nei cimiteri dei Cristiani._ Rome, Salviucci, 1858.--Louis Perret: _Les catacombes de Rome_, etc. 6 vol. fol. Paris, 1852-1856.--De Rossi: _Roma sotterranea cristiana._ 3 vol. fol. Roma, Salviucci, 1864; _Inscriptiones Christianæ Urbis Romæ._ 2 vol. fol. Rome, 1861-1887; _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana._ Roma, Salviucci, 1863-1891.--Northcote and Brownlow: _Roma sotterranea._ 2 volumes 8vo, 2d ed. London, Longmans, 1878.--Northcote: _Epitaphs of the Catacombs._ London, Longmans, 1878.--Henry Parker: _The Catacombs of Rome._ Oxford, Parker, 1877.

[142] See _Cod. Theodos._ ix. 17, 2.

[143] On the subject of the Jewish colony in Rome, see:--Emmanuel Rodocanachi: _Le saint-siège et les Juifs: le Ghetto a Rome._ Paris, Didot, 1891.--A. Bertolotti: _Les Juifs à Rome._ Revue des études juives, 1881, fasc. 4.--Raffaele Garrucci: _Cimiterio degli antichi Ebrei._ Roma, 1862.--Pietro Manfrin: _Gli Ebrei sotto la dominazione romana._ Roma, 1888-1890.--Ettore Natali: _Il Ghetto di Roma._ Roma, 1887.--Perreau: _Education et culture des Israelites en Italie au moyen âge._ Corfou, 1885.

[144] This "poster," painted in red letters, which is now in the Museo Nazionale, Naples, was published by Zangemeister in vol. iv., p. 13, n. 117, of the _Corpus inscriptionum latinarum._--Prof. Mommsen, in the _Rheinisches Museum_, xix. (1864), p. 456, contradicts the opinion of de Rossi as regards the religious persuasion of this Fabius Eupor (_Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, 1864, pp. 70, 92).

[145] See Champagny: _Rome et la Judée_, p. 31, of the first edition.

[146] See Suetonius, _Domitian_, chap. 92; Dion Cassius, lxvii. 13.

[147] See Pliny, _Epistolæ_, x. 67.

[148] See de Rossi: _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, 1868, p. 19.

[149] See _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, 1867, p. 76.

[150] See _Atti dell' Accademia dei Nuovi Lincei_, sessione 6 maggio, 1860.

[151] _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, 1863, p. 75.

[152] ... passim corpora condens Plurima sanctorum subter hæc moenia ponit.

[153] The attention of learned men had been directed towards Christian underground Rome just ten years before this event, by the publication of Panvinio's pamphlet _De cæmeteriis urbis Romæ_, 1566.

[154] _Ad ann. 575_; 130, 226.

[155] See _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, 1865, p. 36.

[156] See Fea: _Miscellanea_, vol. i., pp. 238, 245, etc.

[157] It is now in the Vatican Library. A good engraving is to be found in Buonarroti's _Osservazioni sui medaglioni_, p. 497.

[158] _Historiar._, iii. 65.

[159] _Historiæ_, iii. 65.

[160] The name Ampliatus belongs to servants and freedmen; it was never used by men of rank, whether pagans or Christians.

[161] Baronius _ad Martyr_. 31 October.

[162] See Renan's _St. Paul_, lxvii.

[163] Orazio Marucchi: _Di un ipogeo scoperto nel cimitero di S. Sebastiano._ Roma, 1879; _Un antico busto del Salvatore, etc._, in the _Mélanges de l'Ecole française_, 1888, p. 403.--Pietro d' Achille: _Il sepolcro di S. Pietro._ Roma, 1867.--Giovanni B. Lugari: _Le catacombe ossia il sepolcro apostolico dell' Appia._ Roma, 1888.--De Rossi: _Roma sotterranea cristiana_, vol. iii., p. 427; _Il sepolcro degli Uranii cristiani a S. Sebastiano_, in the _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, 1886, p. 24.--Pietro Marchi: _Monumenti primitivi delle arti cristiane_, p. 212, tav. xxxix-xli.

[164] _Inscriptiones Christianæ_, vol. ii. 32, 77.

[165] Represented in plate ix. of the _Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome_, 1888.

[166] This is also illustrated by Martigny: _Dictionnaire_, 2d ed. p. 586.--Kraus: _Realencyclopädie_, ii. p. 580.--Northcote and Brownlow: _Roma Sotterranea._ London, 1879. (ii. p. 29.)--Roller: _Catacombes_, planche i., xl. n. 2.--Garrucci: _Arte cristiana_, tav. 428, 5.--Duchesne: _Bullettino critique_, Décembre, 1882, p. 288.--De Rossi: _Bullettino comunale_, 1889, p. 131, tav. v., vi.

[167] See:--Giovanni Marangoni: _Istoria dell' oratorio appellato Sancta Sanctorum._ Roma, 1747.--Gaspare Bambi: _Memorie sacre della cappella di Sancta Sanctorum._ Roma, 1775.--Giuseppe Soresini: _Dell' immagine del SS. Salvatore ad Sancta Sanctorum._ Roma, 1675.--Benedetto Millini: _Oratorio di S. Lorenzo ad Sancta Sanctorum._ Roma, 1616.--Raffaele Garrucci: _Storia dell' arte cristiana_, vol. i. p. 408.--Rohault de Fleury: _Le Latran_.

[168] A pious but unfounded tradition identifies this picture of Edessa with the one preserved in Genoa, in the church of S. Bartolomeo degli Armeni.

[169] On the subject of the Paneas group see:--André Peraté: _Note sur le groupe de Paneas_, in _Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome_, 1885, p. 302.--Raoul-Rochette: _Discours sur les types imitatifs qui constituent l'art du Christianisme_, 1834.--Bayet: _Recherches pour servir à l'histoire de la peinture en Orient_, p. 29.--Orazio Marucchi: _Di un busto del Salvatore_, etc., in the _Mélanges_, 1888, p. 403.--Eusebius: H. E. VII., 185, edition Teubner, p. 315.--Grimouard de St. Laurent: _Guide de l'art Chrétien_, ii. p. 215.

[170] See:--Bossio: _Roma sotterranea_, p. 591, D.--Bruder: _Die heiligen Martyren Marcellinus und Petrus_. Mainz, 1878.--De Rossi: _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_. 1882, p. 111.--Wilpert: _Ein Cyclus christologischer Gemälde aus der Katacombe der heiligen Petrus und Marcellinus_. Freiburg, 1891.

[171] See Becker: _Gallus_, p. 4.

[172] See _Ancient Rome_, p. 10.

[173] Giacomo Lombroso: _Gli accademici nelle catacombe_, in the _Archivio della società romana di storia patria_, 1889, p. 219.

[174] _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, 1890, p. 81.--See also: de Nollae: _Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome_, 1866, p. 165.

[175] The house of Pomponius and the seat of the Academy was not on the Esquiline, but on the Quirinal, on the area of the Baths of Constantine, opposite the gate of the Colonna Gardens. The mistake in the name of the hill must be attributed to Pomponius himself, who had written on the door of the house:--POMPONI · LÆTI · ET · SOCIETATIS · ESCVVILINAI. After the reform of the statutes, another sign, less classic in style, was put up: SOCIETAS-LITERATORUM-S-VICTORIS-IN-ESQUILIIS.

[176] The Temple of Fortune in Rome was dedicated on this very day. See Mommsen, in the _Corpus inscriptionum latinarum_, vol. i. p. 392.

INSCRIPTION COMMEMORATING THE

LUDI SÆCULARES

CELEBRATED IN THE YEAR 17, B. C.

_TEXT AS EDITED BY MOMMSEN_

(_See