chapter xxix

. of the Life of Gregory. He says that Gregory appeared thrice to Sabinianus, in a vision, entreating him to be more generous; and having failed to move him by friendly advice, he struck him dead. The price of one _solidus_ for thirty _modii_ is almost exorbitant; grain cost exactly one half this at the time of Theodoric.

The institution has outlived all the vicissitudes of the Middle Ages. Gregory XIII., in 1566, Paul V., in 1609, Clement XI., in 1705, re-opened the _horrea ecclesiæ_ in the ruined halls of the Baths of Diocletian; and Clement XIII. added a wing to them, for the storage of oil. These buildings are still in existence around the Piazza di Termini, although devoted to other purposes.

It would be impossible to follow in all its manifestations the material and moral transformation of Rome from the third to the sixth centuries, without going beyond the limits of a single chapter.

The customs and practices of the classical age were so deeply rooted among the citizens that even now, after a lapse of sixteen centuries, they are noticeable to a great extent. When we read, for instance, of Popes elected by the people assembled at the Rostra,[32] such as Stephen III., in 768, we must regard the circumstance as caused by a remembrance of past ages. Under the pontificate of Innocent II. (1130), of Eugenius III. (1145-1150), and of Lucius III. (1181-1185) the senators, or municipal magistrates, used to sit and administer justice in S. Martina and S. Adriano, that is, in the classic Roman Curia. Many other details will be incidentally described in the following chapters. I close the present one by referring to a graceful custom, borrowed likewise from the classic world,--the use of roses in church or funeral ceremonies and in social life.

The ancients celebrated, in the month of May, a feast called _rosaria_, in which sepulchres were profusely decorated with the favorite flower of the season. Roses were also used on occasions of public rejoicing. A Greek inscription, discovered by Fränkel at Pergamon, mentions, among the honors shown to the emperor Hadrian, the _Rhodismos_, which is interpreted as a scattering of roses. Traces of the custom are found in more recent times. In the Illyrian peninsula, and on the banks of the Danube, the country people, still feeling the influence of Roman civilization, celebrated feasts of flowers in spring and summer, under the name of _rousalia_. In the sixth century, when the Slavs were vacillating between the influence of the past and the present, the celebration of the Pentecost was mixed up with that of the half-pagan, half-barbarous _rousalia_. Southern Russians believe in supernatural female beings, called _Rusalky_, who bring prosperity to the fields and forests, which they have inhabited as flowers.

The early Christians decorated the sepulchres of martyrs and confessors, on the anniversary of their interment, with roses, violets, amaranths, and evergreens; and they celebrated the _rosationes_ on the name-days of churches and sanctuaries. Wreaths and crowns of roses are often engraved on tombstones, hanging from the bills of mystic doves. The symbol refers more to the joys of the just in the future life than to the fleeting pleasures of the earth. The Acts of Perpetua relate a legend on this subject; that Saturus had a vision in the dungeon in which he was awaiting his martyrdom, in which he saw himself transported with Perpetua to a heavenly garden, fragrant with roses, and turning to his fair companion, he exclaimed: "Here we are in possession of that which our Lord promised!"

Roses and other flowers are painted on the walls of historical cubiculi. In a fresco of the crypts of Lucina, in the Catacombs of Callixtus, are painted birds, symbolizing souls who have been separated from their bodies, and are playing in fields of roses around the Tree of Life. As the word _Paradeisos_ signifies a garden, so its mystic representation always takes the form of a delightful field of flowers and fruit. Dante gives to the seat of the blessed the shape of a fair rose, inside of which a crowd of angels with golden wings descend and return to the Lord:--

"Nel gran fior discendeva, che s'adorna Di tante foglie: e quindi risaliva, Là dove lo suo amor sempre soggiorna."[33] _Paradiso_, xxxi. 10-12.

Possibly it is from this allegory of paradise that the rite of the "golden rose" which the Pope blesses on Quadragesima Sunday is derived. The ceremony is very ancient, although the first mention of it appears only in the life of Leo IX. (1049-1055); and I may mention, as a curious coincidence, that the kings and queens of Navarre, their sons, and the dukes and peers of the realm, were bound to offer roses to the Parliament at the return of spring.

Roses played such an important part in church ceremonies that we find a _fundus rosarius_ given as a present by Constantine to Pope Mark. The _rosaria_ outlived the suppression of pagan superstitions, and by and by assumed its Christian form in the feast of Pentecost, which falls in the month of May. In that day roses were thrown from the roofs of churches on the worshipers below. The Pentecost is still called by the Italians _Pasqua rosa_.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The relations between the Empire, the Christians, and the Jews have been discussed by really numberless writers, beginning with the Fathers of the Church. I have consulted, among the moderns: Mangold: _De ecclesia primæva pro cæsaribus et magistratibus romanis preces fundente._ Bonn, 1881.--Bittner: _De Græcorum et Romanorum deque Judæorum et christianorum sacris jejuniis._ Posen, 1846.--Weiss: _Die römischen Kaiser in ihrem Verhältnisse zu Juden und Christen._ Wien, 1882.--Mourant Brock: _Rome, Pagan and Papal._ London, Hodder & Co. 1883.--Backhouse and Taylor: _History of the primitive Church._ (Italian edition.) Rome, Loescher, 1890.--Greppo: _Trois mémoires relatifs à l'histoire ecclésiastique._--Döllinger: _Christenthum und Kirche._--Champagny (Comte de): _Les Antonins_, vol. i.--Gaston Boissier: _La fin du paganisme_, etc., 2 vols. Paris, Hachette, 1891.--Giovanni Marangoni: _Delle cose gentilesche trasportate ad uso delle chiese._ Roma, Pagliarini, 1744.--Mosheim: _De rebus Christianis ante Constantinum._--Carlo Fea: _Dissertazione sulle rovine di Roma_, in Winckelmann's _Storia delle arti._ Roma, Pagliarini, 1783, vol. iii.--Louis Duchesne: _Le liber pontificalis._ Paris, Thorin, 1886-1892.--G. B. de Rossi: _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana._ Roma, Salviucci, 1863-1891.

[2] See de Rossi: _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, 1888-1889, p. 15; 1890, p. 97.--Edmond Le Blant: _Comptes rendus de l'Acad. des Inscript._, 1888, p. 113.--Arthur Frothingham: _American Journal of Archæology_, June, 1888, p. 214.--R. Lanciani: _Gli horti Aciliorum sul Pincio_, in the _Bullettino della commissione archeologica_, 1891, p. 132; _Underground Christian Rome_, in the _Atlantic Monthly_, July, 1891.

[3] See Ersilia Lovatelli: _Il Monte Pincio_, in the _Miscellanea archeologica_, p. 211.--Rodolfo Lanciani: _Su gli orti degli Acili sul Pincio_, in the _Bullettino di corrispondenza archeologica_, 1868, p. 132.

[4] A description of the beautiful villa of Herodes, adjoining the Catacombs of Prætextatus, will be found in chapter vi . pp. 287 sqq.

[5] A _consul suffectus_ was one elected as a substitute in case of the death or retirement of one of the regular consuls.

[6] Lampridius, in _Sev. Alex._, c. 43.

[7] In