Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Crazy V Wilson. It's time for some
Speaker 1: catacombs talk. Yeah, listen. This is a little bit of
Speaker 1: wish fulfillment for me because I have not been to
Speaker 1: the catacombs in Rome, but I sure want to. It
Speaker 1: just has not ever happened when I've been there. Now
Speaker 1: it's a good excuse to go back. It's on my
Speaker 1: list for any future visits. But the story of the
Speaker 1: Roman Catacombs is one that's always been really interesting to
Speaker 1: me because it is so very different from the story
Speaker 1: we've told on the show before about the catacombs of Paris.
Speaker 1: Romes are much older, they were created for very different reasons.
Speaker 1: So we're going to talk about them today. I want
Speaker 1: to give you a heads up if you are a
Speaker 1: person that knows about them and loves them. We're not
Speaker 1: getting into the art. There's a lot of cool art
Speaker 1: in the Roman Catacombs that could be its own whole
Speaker 1: party train, and I would love for it to be.
Speaker 1: But today we're really talking about like more of the
Speaker 1: mechanics of how these came to be, why they came
Speaker 1: to be, et cetera. We're going to talk about the
Speaker 1: circumstances that led to their creation, their rediscovery after centuries
Speaker 1: of abandonment, and their status today. A description of the
Speaker 1: Roman Catacombs, published in eighteen fifty seven opens this way quote.
Speaker 1: The Roman Catacombs may be briefly described as labyrinths of
Speaker 1: subterranean galleries, crossing one another in every direction, and here
Speaker 1: and there opening into chambers more or less lofty and spacious,
Speaker 1: the whole hewn with the most exacting regularity out of
Speaker 1: the living rock, whose entire walls present a series of
Speaker 1: narrow shelves, one above the other, evidently excavated for the
Speaker 1: purpose of receiving the bodies of the dead, and afterward
Speaker 1: closed with facings of tile or marble, on which there
Speaker 1: were often inscribed the names of the persons buried within.
Speaker 1: So from that passage already some key differences between the
Speaker 1: catacombs of Rome and those of Paris, which we've talked
Speaker 1: about on the show. Before we reared that episode, I
Speaker 1: think in October of twenty twenty three, the Parisian Catacombs
Speaker 1: were a solution to a public health crisis that was
Speaker 1: caused by the city's cemeteries being woefully overfilled was causing
Speaker 1: a number of problems. So the dead were moved into
Speaker 1: limestone quarries under the outskirts of the city, turning those
Speaker 1: quarries into catacombs. This happened in the eighteenth century, but
Speaker 1: Rome was creating catacombs well before that, all the way
Speaker 1: back to the first century.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that writing that.
Speaker 1: Tracy just mentioned is uh, it's from the nineteenth century,
Speaker 1: and it's like during a time when people were getting
Speaker 1: really excited about the Roman catacombs. Again, the person that
Speaker 1: wrote that would end up working with one of the
Speaker 1: people that we are going to talk about late in
Speaker 1: the episode. So the catacombs are believed to have been
Speaker 1: created in the first or second century as a way
Speaker 1: for people to bury their dead according to a custom
Speaker 1: that was not allowed within the city of Rome. Rome
Speaker 1: at this time was pagan. The standard practice was to
Speaker 1: cremate the dead. We'll talk a little bit about shifting
Speaker 1: trends in how the dead were treated, but cremation was
Speaker 1: not a practice that was part of Jewish and Christian traditions.
Speaker 1: Burial of the dead in the city of Rome was
Speaker 1: forbidden by law at the time we'll talk more about
Speaker 1: that law. This is the very simple version to kind
Speaker 1: of get us into the intro. But to really look
Speaker 1: at the context of the Catacombs, we have to talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about Jewish and Christian religion in Rome
Speaker 1: and how people who identified as Jewish or Christian were
Speaker 1: treated and how they lived alongside other Romans. So the
Speaker 1: early centuries of Rome's Jewish population, which of course that
Speaker 1: goes back to before the development of Christianity, those early
Speaker 1: centuries are complicated. They feature cycles of conflict and relative peace.
Speaker 1: There are accounts of Jewish people living in Rome as
Speaker 1: far back as the second century BCE. Rome expelled its
Speaker 1: Jewish population on several occasions, including in one thirty nine
Speaker 1: BCE amid accusations that they were attempting to convert Romans,
Speaker 1: then again in nineteen CE for an assortment of accusations
Speaker 1: ranging from fraud to disorderly conduct, and then in the
Speaker 1: year forty nine when Claudius banished the Jewish population. That
Speaker 1: last one is described in the works of Suetonius as
Speaker 1: Claudius expelling them quote as the Jews were making constant
Speaker 1: disturbances at the instigation of Christus whether or not Christus
Speaker 1: was Gaesus Christ does a matter that biblical scholars continue
Speaker 1: to examine, and that's way outside the scope of this episode.
Speaker 1: But after each of these expulsions, there was always a
Speaker 1: reversal of the policy, and often that was quite soon
Speaker 1: after it had been issued. During the reigns of Julius
Speaker 1: Caesar and Augustus, so in the time from the middle
Speaker 1: of the first century BCE to the early first century CE,
Speaker 1: there was legislation put in place that protected the practice
Speaker 1: of the Jewish religion. So this was a period of
Speaker 1: just constantly shifting sands of at least somewhat acceptance and
Speaker 1: expulsion for Rome's Jewish population. Another text that gives us
Speaker 1: insight into the Jewish population of Rome in the first
Speaker 1: century is the account of Josephus, who was born in
Speaker 1: Jerusalem in thirty six or thirty seven CE and wrote
Speaker 1: autobiographical accounts of his life, which include the story of
Speaker 1: the Jewish revolt against Roman occupation of Judea in the
Speaker 1: year sixty six. That revolt is often referred to as
Speaker 1: the Great Revolt and also the First Jewish Roman War,
Speaker 1: and Josephus was a general in the revolt.
Speaker 2: This is also a.
Speaker 1: Massive historical moment with a lot of context that were
Speaker 1: not diving into here. But the germane aspect is that
Speaker 1: though there were early victories for the Jewish side, eventually
Speaker 1: they were defeated. Josephus describes the Romans destroying the Temple
Speaker 1: in Jerusalem in the year seventy and that this war
Speaker 1: displaced many Jews, including a large number that were captured
Speaker 1: and enslaved. So the important thing to note here is
Speaker 1: that at that point there were both free and enslaved
Speaker 1: Jewish people living in Rome. Christianity began in Judea in
Speaker 1: the first century and then quickly spread throughout the Roman Empire,
Speaker 1: reaching Rome by the middle of the first century, although
Speaker 1: in small numbers, and it was viewed with deep suspicion
Speaker 1: by the existing Roman population, which remained polytheistic at time.
Speaker 1: Rome's Jewish residents had gained kind of a grudging tolerance
Speaker 1: by the Romans because the Jewish religion was considered to
Speaker 1: be ancient, but Christianity was really an upstart, and its
Speaker 1: followers were considered to be very aggressive in their desire
Speaker 1: to convert other people, which Rome's eye is a big problem.
Speaker 1: The Great Fire of Rome which started on July eighteenth
Speaker 1: of the year sixty nine and lasted for six days,
Speaker 1: was blamed on Christians. By the end of the first century,
Speaker 1: it was a crime to be Christian in Rome, and
Speaker 1: that crime was punishable by death. Over the following centuries, Christians,
Speaker 1: as the Jews before them, faced this roller coaster of
Speaker 1: persecution and kind of a fragile acceptance in the city.
Speaker 1: Coming up, we're going to circle back to how all
Speaker 1: of this resulted in Catacomb's being created to bury the dead.
Speaker 1: But first we are going to take a quick sponsor break.
Speaker 1: Both Jewish and Christian practices regarding burials specified that the
Speaker 1: body was to be kept intact, but as we mentioned,
Speaker 1: this was in conflict with Roman law, at least in
Speaker 1: terms of anything that could be done within the city.
Speaker 1: That law was part of what were known as the
Speaker 1: Twelve Tables. These are regarded as the beginning of Rome's
Speaker 1: legal system, and the Twelve Tables were composed by a
Speaker 1: commission of ten men in four fifty one and four
Speaker 1: fifty BCE. Once they were ratified, they were engraved onto
Speaker 1: twelve bronze tables and displayed in the forum. Those bronzes
Speaker 1: are unfortunately lost to time, and we don't have all
Speaker 1: of the text of the Twelve Tables today. What we
Speaker 1: have our fragments that were found in written references to them,
Speaker 1: so instances where they were quoted while someone was often
Speaker 1: discussing something else. What we know of the laws regarding
Speaker 1: burials include the edict that states quote a dead person
Speaker 1: shall not be buried or burned in the city. Additionally,
Speaker 1: there are some other rules about limiting the degree of
Speaker 1: public mourning, not having more than one funeral for a
Speaker 1: given person, not wasting resources by burying gold, spices, incense, etc.
Speaker 1: With remains, and where funeral pyres and burning mounds could
Speaker 1: be erected in relation to other buildings. So for religions
Speaker 1: that called for the burial of an intact body, this
Speaker 1: meant that that burial was going to have to happen
Speaker 1: outside the city, which is how the catacombs came to be.
Speaker 1: Jewish residents of the city are believed to have been
Speaker 1: the first to use catacombs to lay their dead to rest.
Speaker 1: An important aspect of Rome's catacombs is how important they
Speaker 1: are to Jewish history. According to Leonard Victor Rutger's writing
Speaker 1: and Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine quote. The Jewish catacombs of Ancient Rome
Speaker 1: form the largest coherent body of archaeological material from late
Speaker 1: Antiquity pertaining to Jewish life outside Israel. Though there had
Speaker 1: been written information about the Jewish community of ancient Rome,
Speaker 1: the catacombs offer a unique opportunity to compare physical evidence
Speaker 1: with those accounts to gain a clearer picture of that
Speaker 1: community and its rituals. One thing that Rutger's points out
Speaker 1: in this writing is that there's no way to know
Speaker 1: if there were any quote Jewish Christians i e. Jews
Speaker 1: that accepted Jesus Christ as the Son of God and
Speaker 1: raised from the dead and at the same time continued
Speaker 1: to observe mosaic law buried in the Jewish catacombs. Identifying
Speaker 1: which catacombs had been used for Jewish burial was done
Speaker 1: based on the funerary inscriptions on the tombs there, which
Speaker 1: had Greek and Latin writing, in combination with the identification
Speaker 1: of Jewish motifs in the surrounding wall art and sometimes
Speaker 1: small motifs that were carved into those stones that close
Speaker 1: the catacombs. Those catacombs were also identified by just the
Speaker 1: lack of Christian or Pagan symbology within them. But this
Speaker 1: also gives an incomplete picture because there are catacomb sites
Speaker 1: in the area around Rome that are unreachable or that
Speaker 1: have been destroyed or have carved in, so the written
Speaker 1: record and the archaeological record don't entirely match up. The
Speaker 1: written record establishes a Jewish community in Rome as early
Speaker 1: as the first century BCE, or perhaps even earlier, so
Speaker 1: it has long been assumed that the Jewish catacombs were
Speaker 1: in use sometimes shortly thereafter, but the archaeological record only
Speaker 1: has evidence of them that begins in the early third century.
Speaker 1: The Rutger's paper analyzes things like brickwork, painting styles, bricks, stamps,
Speaker 1: et cetera to be able to conclude with confidence that
Speaker 1: Jewish catacombs weren't actively used for sure in the third
Speaker 1: to fifth centuries, but that the beginning and end of
Speaker 1: their use cannot be conclusively identified on the time line.
Speaker 1: He also makes the case that the practice of burial
Speaker 1: being adopted instead of cremation was probably taking place simultaneously
Speaker 1: among the Jewish population, Christians, and even some Pagans. We
Speaker 1: do know that Christians also adopted the use of catacombs.
Speaker 1: This started, according to the Vatican, under the direction of
Speaker 1: Pope Zafarin, who was pope from one ninety nine to
Speaker 1: two seventeen. He wanted to have an underground cemetery prepared
Speaker 1: so that pontiffs could be laid to rest there.
Speaker 2: The process of.
Speaker 1: Burials there was a lot like what we described in
Speaker 1: the opening passage that we read earlier. So bodies were
Speaker 1: wrapped in cloth and then put into the hollowed out
Speaker 1: shelves of rock, and then a stone was placed in
Speaker 1: the front of that hollow to close it, with the
Speaker 1: name of the person interred there, and often a symbol
Speaker 1: of the Christian religion. Also, to be clear, there were
Speaker 1: still tombs for the dead created for Rome's pagan population,
Speaker 1: both for cremated and non cremated bodies. Cremation had become
Speaker 1: the most popular method of handling corpses in the fifth
Speaker 1: century BCE, but there were still people practicing full body
Speaker 1: burials throughout the time periods that were talking about. They
Speaker 1: still had to be interred outside the city, but families
Speaker 1: of wealth and even a lot of the middle class
Speaker 1: had private mausoleums built on land outside the walls of Rome.
Speaker 1: That land was extremely expensive, so there were also shared
Speaker 1: burial spaces that families with less money could buy into
Speaker 1: to inter their dead, both intact and cremated, without having
Speaker 1: to own land and build a private mausoleum. Jewish and
Speaker 1: Christian communities, though needed to bury all of their dead
Speaker 1: because of their religious beliefs, there was no option to
Speaker 1: switch to cremation to try to mitigate overcrowding and lack
Speaker 1: of land resources in a growing metropolis. Mausoleums were simply
Speaker 1: not realistic, which is why large shared underground spaces were create,
Speaker 1: And this was also not a new idea in the region.
Speaker 1: The Etruscan civilization, which flourished from the eighth to the
Speaker 1: third century BCE, had elaborate underground facilities. There are no
Speaker 1: Etruscan underground burial sites in or immediately adjacent to Rome,
Speaker 1: at least not that anybody has found.
Speaker 2: But two of these, the Bandit.
Speaker 1: Tacha Necropolis and Cervettori and Mantarazzi Necropolis in Tarquinia, are
Speaker 1: both less than an hour's drive away today.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: One thing that I found while looking at a lot
Speaker 1: of scholarship about this is that there are even some
Speaker 1: papers and some examinations that kind of make the leap
Speaker 1: to thinking that possibly the Jewish population made use of
Speaker 1: existing catacombs that had been Etruscan in origin, but we
Speaker 1: don't really have a good way to know that, at
Speaker 1: least not yet. Jewish and Christian bear as well as
Speaker 1: some pagan ones, continued in the catacombs exclusively into the
Speaker 1: early fourth century. At the beginning of the fourth century,
Speaker 1: in the year three oh three, Emperor Diocletian initiated an
Speaker 1: intense persecution of Christians. This is always described as the
Speaker 1: worst persecution of all of them in Rome and resulted
Speaker 1: in the torture and deaths of a lot of people.
Speaker 1: This went on for eight years, during which, despite that danger,
Speaker 1: the numbers of Christians in the city continued to rise. Finally,
Speaker 1: in three eleven, Emperor Galerius, who had ascended to the
Speaker 1: role of emperor in three oh five and who was
Speaker 1: by the way deeply against Christianity, surprisingly issued an edict
Speaker 1: of tolerance that was the Edict of Certica to end
Speaker 1: that long persecution. By the time Galerius was emperor, he
Speaker 1: was one of two under a system established by Diocletian
Speaker 1: in two ninety three known as the tetrarchy. The the
Speaker 1: Roman Empire was jointly ruled by two emperors, one to
Speaker 1: manage the East and one to manage the West, and
Speaker 1: each of them had their own designated successors who worked
Speaker 1: under them. This was intended to create stability for the empire,
Speaker 1: but unsurprisingly there were often problems. The time of Constantine
Speaker 1: the First, who ruled the west starting in July of
Speaker 1: three oh six, and Licinius, who became an emperor in
Speaker 1: November three oh eight, was one in which there was
Speaker 1: a lot of conflict between the two emperors. So much
Speaker 1: conflict there are just reams and reams of papers written
Speaker 1: about this conflict. But one thing that they did agree
Speaker 1: on was the Edict of Milan in three thirteen. This
Speaker 1: was an alliance in which they agreed to grant freedom
Speaker 1: of religion to everyone, but they specifically called out Christians.
Speaker 1: A translation of the first section of this edict reads quote,
Speaker 1: when I Constantine Augustus as well as I Licinius Augustus,
Speaker 1: had fortunately met near Mediolanum, Milan, and we're considering everything
Speaker 1: that pertained to the public welfare and security. We thought that,
Speaker 1: among other things which we saw would be for the
Speaker 1: good of many. Those regulations pertaining to the reverence of
Speaker 1: the divinity ought certainly to be made first, so that
Speaker 1: we might grant to the Christians and to all others
Speaker 1: full authority to observe that religion which each preferred, whence
Speaker 1: any divinity whatsoever in the seat of the heavens may
Speaker 1: be propitious and kindly disposed to us and all who
Speaker 1: are placed under our rule. And thus, by this wholesome
Speaker 1: council and most upright provision, we thought to arrange that
Speaker 1: no one whatsoever should be denied the opportunity to give
Speaker 1: his heart to the observance of the Christian religion, or
Speaker 1: of that religion which he should think best for himself,
Speaker 1: so that the Supreme Deity to whose worship we freely
Speaker 1: yield our hearts, may show in all things his usual
Speaker 1: favor and benevolence. Therefore, your worship should know that it
Speaker 1: has pleased us to remove all conditions whatsoever which were
Speaker 1: in the rescripts formerly given to you officially concerning the Christians,
Speaker 1: And now any one of these who wishes to observe
Speaker 1: the Christian religion may do so freely and openly, without
Speaker 1: any disturbance or molestation. We thought it fit to commend
Speaker 1: these things most fully to your care, that you may
Speaker 1: know that we have given to those Christians free and
Speaker 1: unrestricted opportunity of religious worship. When you see that this
Speaker 1: has been granted to them by us, your worship, will
Speaker 1: know that we have also conceded to other religions the
Speaker 1: right of open and free observance of their worship, for
Speaker 1: the sake of the peace of our times, that each
Speaker 1: one may have the free opportunity to worship as he pleases.
Speaker 1: This regulation is made that we may not seem to
Speaker 1: detract aught from any dignity or any religion. I kind
Speaker 1: of love that there's a little bit of a bet
Speaker 1: hedge in there of like whatever God is the one,
Speaker 1: be cool or cool with whoever you, whoever follows you.
Speaker 1: This edict also called for the return of all goods
Speaker 1: and wealth that had been seized to be given back
Speaker 1: to the Christians. So from that point on, Christians were
Speaker 1: able to establish churches and cemeteries, meaning they could conduct
Speaker 1: their burial rituals in the city proper. But even though
Speaker 1: burial was allowed in the city and a large number
Speaker 1: of churches were built and included cemeteries or even places
Speaker 1: within the buildings for the dead. The catacombs did not
Speaker 1: instantly fall out of use. They were actively part of
Speaker 1: Christian burials for more than one hundred more years, even
Speaker 1: after Christianity was declared the official religion of the Roman
Speaker 1: Empire by Emperor Theodosius with the Edict of Thessalonica in
Speaker 1: three point eighty. Over the next several centuries, as burials
Speaker 1: in the catacombs became less frequent, a different activity was
Speaker 1: on the rise in them, and that was looting. There
Speaker 1: were also religious services performed there on occasion, but looting
Speaker 1: became a real problem. Reading different accounts of the Catacomb's history,
Speaker 1: a lot of different groups have been blamed for that looting.
Speaker 1: Mostly it was holy relics that were being taken from
Speaker 1: burial sites. In reality, it was probably a lot of
Speaker 1: different people over time. There's no one perpetrator. It's sometimes
Speaker 1: said to have started with Christians removing relics since they
Speaker 1: no longer had to literally keep their sacred items underground,
Speaker 1: and other accounts point fingers at the various groups who
Speaker 1: have invaded Rome since the fourth century, including the Visigoths,
Speaker 1: the Vandals, the Byzantines, and the Lombards. This eventually led
Speaker 1: the Vaticans to initiate a move of the relics from
Speaker 1: the catacombs to churches around the city where they could
Speaker 1: be carefully watched and safeguarded. With the removal of the relics,
Speaker 1: the church also removed the reason that people had still
Speaker 1: been visiting the catacombs, and over time they were more
Speaker 1: or less abandoned and forgotten. Additionally, while they were out
Speaker 1: the city's original walls, as the city grew and expanded
Speaker 1: past those old boundaries, new neighborhoods were built on top
Speaker 1: of the catacolums, and people just sort of lost track
Speaker 1: of where they were until they were rediscovered by a
Speaker 1: man named Antonio Bosio. And we'll talk about him after
Speaker 1: we hear from the sponsors that keeps stuff you missed
Speaker 1: in history class going. Antonio Bosio was born in fifteen
Speaker 1: seventy five or fifteen seventy six in Malta. He is
Speaker 1: recorded by historian Bartolomeo dal Pozzo as having been the
Speaker 1: child of Baligionotto, a knight of the Order of Saint John,
Speaker 1: who had taken a vow of chastity that would have
Speaker 1: made his existence a little bit problematic, and that was
Speaker 1: compounded by the fact that his mother was either a
Speaker 1: servant or an enslaved woman. The way it's written in
Speaker 1: the old record, it's unclear what they mean when they
Speaker 1: refer to her. When Antonio was twelve, he was adopted
Speaker 1: and he was raised by his uncle, Jacomo Bosio, who
Speaker 1: lived in Rome, and over time any mentions of Antonio's
Speaker 1: parentage seemed to have been left out of his life story,
Speaker 1: so his uncle Jacomo became essentially his parent. Antonio Bosio
Speaker 1: was apparently a bit wild in his youth, but as
Speaker 1: he matured he became a serious scholar. He got a
Speaker 1: law degree and practiced for several years, but he was
Speaker 1: also a history buff and was specifically fascinated with early
Speaker 1: Christian history, so he started exploring any places that held
Speaker 1: traces of the religion's earliest days, and that led him
Speaker 1: to the underground cemeteries of the city. He explored them
Speaker 1: in a very meticulous and careful manner, cataloging as much
Speaker 1: as he could about everything that he saw there. He
Speaker 1: started working on a book detailing the catacombs that he
Speaker 1: had explored, but he died on September sixth, sixteen twenty
Speaker 1: nine before it was ready to go to print.
Speaker 2: It was basically complete, but it needed editing.
Speaker 1: Bozio willed everything that he had to the Order of Malta,
Speaker 1: and the grand Master of the Order at the time,
Speaker 1: Antoine de Paul, was convinced that the manuscript should go
Speaker 1: to press. Roma Sotrana Underground Rome was published in the
Speaker 1: sixteen thirties and it is often cited with creating the
Speaker 1: bedrock methodology and ideology of modern archaeology. His interpretations of
Speaker 1: what he had seen and explored were incorrect in some instances.
Speaker 1: He thought the catacombs had been hiding places where Christians
Speaker 1: hold up during times of persecution, was not what they
Speaker 1: were used for, but he captivated readers with his descriptions
Speaker 1: of these underground cities. He had also commissioned artists to
Speaker 1: create imagery of many of the things he had described
Speaker 1: to be included in the book, and he had studied
Speaker 1: early Christianity and was able to historical contextualize a lot
Speaker 1: of the areas that he explored. This writing was also
Speaker 1: a boon to the Catholic Church and the decades after
Speaker 1: Martin Luther's kickoff of the Protestant Reformation in fifteen seventeen,
Speaker 1: support for the papacy had fallen off very steeply, but
Speaker 1: Bozzio's writings about martyrs laid to rest in subterranean Roman
Speaker 1: cities sparked a new interest in Catholicism and in religious
Speaker 1: relics that might also be there. Some of these, including
Speaker 1: skeletons of martyrs, many of them clad in armor, became
Speaker 1: important symbols of the Catholic Church's fight against the Protestants.
Speaker 1: A lot of these, so called corfy santi or catacomb saints,
Speaker 1: were sent to Catholic churches around Europe to try to
Speaker 1: bolster interest in and devotion to the Church. I know
Speaker 1: he said earlier that the relics were taken out of
Speaker 1: the catacombs by the church, but they did not purge everything,
Speaker 1: because at that point some catacombs were completely lost. If
Speaker 1: you're wondering how he even found these or knew about them,
Speaker 1: in truth, Antonio Bosio was not the first person to
Speaker 1: have come upon the catacombs after they had been abandoned.
Speaker 1: According to another book, which is also titled Romo Sotarana,
Speaker 1: which was published in eighteen sixty nine based on the
Speaker 1: work of Giovanni Battista d Rossi, laborers digging in a
Speaker 1: vineyard had found a subterranean cemetery at the end of
Speaker 1: fifteen seventy eight, when Antonio Bosio was just a toddler.
Speaker 1: The discovery quote at once attracted universal attention, and persons
Speaker 1: of all classes flocked to see it. More than a
Speaker 1: century before that, a vineyard on the other side of
Speaker 1: the city had yielded a similar discovery. But apparently the
Speaker 1: scholars of the day, according to this book quote, never
Speaker 1: have felt sufficient interest to excite them, to investigate their history,
Speaker 1: or to publish anything at all about them. Derosi is
Speaker 1: the next person who represented another huge step forward in
Speaker 1: terms of our understanding of the Roman Catacombs. While public
Speaker 1: fascination with the catacombs had been sparked with the publication
Speaker 1: of Bosio's work, that interest kind of faded off outside
Speaker 1: of religious and academic circles. It took a couple more
Speaker 1: centuries for another dedicated archaeologist to expand that work. Giovanni
Speaker 1: Battista de Rossi was born in Rome on February twenty third,
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty two. His father was military officer Camilla Luigi
Speaker 1: de Rossi, and his mother was Marianna Marqueza Brutti. Giovanni
Speaker 1: was raised Catholic and went to a Jesuit school before
Speaker 1: moving on to study law at Sapienza University of Rome.
Speaker 1: But from the time he was a child, do Rosi,
Speaker 1: like Bosio, had been fascinated with antiquity. He actually read
Speaker 1: Bosio's book for the first time when he was eleven.
Speaker 1: He had gotten it as a birthday gift from his father,
Speaker 1: and when he was still a teenager, he managed to
Speaker 1: convince a priest to go into the catacombs with him.
Speaker 1: This was apparently considered to be somewhat dangerous because they
Speaker 1: had not really been maintained, and that priest, Jesuit father
Speaker 1: Joseppe Marki, became a long term collaborator with Derosi. After
Speaker 1: completing school, Derosie got a job at the Vatican Library
Speaker 1: as a scriptor. That was a job that encompassed a
Speaker 1: lot of library tasks, including cataloging, and he worked there
Speaker 1: as his primary job for the rest of his life.
Speaker 1: But in his off hours he followed his passion for
Speaker 1: Christian archaeology, something that made good use of his occupation
Speaker 1: since he had access to a wealth of rare and
Speaker 1: important manuscripts. Derosi became incredibly knowledgeable about the Catacombs as
Speaker 1: well as other important Christian religious sites, and he was
Speaker 1: able to develop a network of associates who shared his passion.
Speaker 1: He traveled around Europe as well as throughout Italy in
Speaker 1: his quest to learn all that he could about religious antiquities,
Speaker 1: and through his friends he often received rare materials from
Speaker 1: around the world to study. His repute earned him a
Speaker 1: great deal of admiration in the Vatican, and he is
Speaker 1: said to have been very well liked by Pope's Pious
Speaker 1: the ninth and Leo the thirteenth, and he explored the
Speaker 1: Catacombs at great length, including discovering the Catacombs of Callixtus,
Speaker 1: that's the catacomb that was created by Pope Zephyrenius to
Speaker 1: be a resting place for pontiffs. He often went on
Speaker 1: his expeditions in underground Rome with his brother Michel Stefano
Speaker 1: by his side. Michelle was a scholar in his own right,
Speaker 1: but his work focused on natural science. He wrote papers
Speaker 1: that analyzed the Catacombs from the point of view of
Speaker 1: a geologist, examining the earth that was excavated to create them. Derosi,
Speaker 1: like Bosio, sought to contextualize Christian archaeological finds by studying
Speaker 1: the literature of the times they came from. But unlike Bosio,
Speaker 1: he had access to almost anything he could have wished
Speaker 1: for in studying that context. Remember he's sitting in the
Speaker 1: Vatican library all day every day. He wrote a lot
Speaker 1: about the early history of the religion, how its hierarchy developed,
Speaker 1: how theological writing had developed and evolved over time, and
Speaker 1: an array of other topics.
Speaker 2: The book that we quoted.
Speaker 1: From earlier was an English translation which fellow academics from
Speaker 1: his circle compiled from his work with his permission. While
Speaker 1: he was still alive, at the age of seventy, he
Speaker 1: had a stroke and he never fully recovered from it.
Speaker 1: He died on September twentieth, eighteen ninety four, at Castel Gandolfo,
Speaker 1: which is a town south of Rome, in an apartment
Speaker 1: that was provided to him by Pope Leo the thirteenth
Speaker 1: in the papal palace there. Outside of his writing, because
Speaker 1: of de Rosie's good standing with the Vatican, he was
Speaker 1: able to catalyze the creation of a new division within
Speaker 1: the Catholic Church that would carry on his work. When
Speaker 1: Pius the ninth was on the Holy See. Derosi made
Speaker 1: the case to the Pope that it would be in
Speaker 1: the best interest of the Vatican to ensure that important
Speaker 1: archaeolie logical finds could be studied and protected, and in
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty two the Commission for Sacred Archaeology was formed.
Speaker 1: It still operates today and it's in charge of the
Speaker 1: maintenance and preservation of the Christian Catacombs of Rome, and
Speaker 1: it keeps an eye on quote cemeteries and ancient Christian
Speaker 1: buildings of Rome and its suburbs, for the systematic and
Speaker 1: scientific excavation and exploration of the same cemeteries, and for
Speaker 1: the preservation and upkeep of what was found or brought
Speaker 1: to light again by the excavations. But even as de
Speaker 1: Rosi's work on the Catacombs was becoming more widely known,
Speaker 1: it seemed like the way the information was disseminated in
Speaker 1: circles outside of religious scholarship could be a little odd,
Speaker 1: and it was often romanticized. In the first half of
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty eight, the London periodical The Architect, a weekly
Speaker 1: illustrated journal of art, civil engineering, and building, ran a
Speaker 1: write up describing a recent lecture given by a professor
Speaker 1: Stokes of Dublin. I could not figure out more information
Speaker 1: on who Professor Stokes was. The Stokes that I could
Speaker 1: find that was around the same time was in a
Speaker 1: different field and a little too late, so I never
Speaker 1: identified him. But according to the architect, regarding the Roman catacombs,
Speaker 1: Stokes had discussed quote, his own idea before he studied
Speaker 1: the subject was that the city of Rome was built
Speaker 1: over them, that the catacombs had furnished the building material
Speaker 1: for the city thus erected, and that their early Christians,
Speaker 1: having discovered those excavations under their houses, made secret entrances
Speaker 1: into them, so that when any danger threatened them, or
Speaker 1: when they desired to worship in secret, they just retired
Speaker 1: into those vast and gloomy recesses. That was obviously wrong,
Speaker 1: but Stokes's lecture went on to say that quote. The
Speaker 1: catacombs of Rome, however, were of a quite different character,
Speaker 1: and he shared how he had discovered they were created
Speaker 1: outside of the city and in some cases in the
Speaker 1: hills surrounding the city. Stokes had learned that they were
Speaker 1: not places of worship as Christians had those before the
Speaker 1: catacombs were created, although there were sometimes services held there
Speaker 1: as we've mentioned this whole write up is kind of quaint,
Speaker 1: and it seems a little bit behind the times, sharing
Speaker 1: things that had been known for quite a while as
Speaker 1: though they were sort of mind blowing and utterly new.
Speaker 1: Thirty years before that lecture, in eighteen fifty eight, The
Speaker 1: Atlantic ran an article simply titled the Catacombs of Rome,
Speaker 1: which opened with Roma Saturnia, the underground Rome of the Dead,
Speaker 1: the buried city of graves. Sacred is the dust of
Speaker 1: its narrow streets. Blessed were those who, having died for
Speaker 1: their faith, were laid to rest in its chambers. Full
Speaker 1: as the upper city is of great and precious memories,
Speaker 1: it possesses none greater and more precious than those which
Speaker 1: belonged to the city underground. Republican Rome had no greater
Speaker 1: heroes than Christian Rome. This article name checks de Rossi
Speaker 1: and Marchie and the creation of the Commission of Sacred Archaeology,
Speaker 1: and it's also very much a combination of Romantic fascination
Speaker 1: and pro Christian ideology, and has some jumps in logic
Speaker 1: that convey inaccurate information, such as this explanation for the
Speaker 1: catacomb's creation quote. The Christians would naturally desire to separate
Speaker 1: themselves in burial from the heathen and to avoid everything
Speaker 1: having the semblance of pagan rites yick. Even though they
Speaker 1: have learned about the works of people who have studied
Speaker 1: and explained them, they just make up this thing of
Speaker 1: like Christians thought burying their dead next to pagans was icky,
Speaker 1: and it's like, well, that's not really why these happened,
Speaker 1: but okay. Today there are five catacombs that are currently
Speaker 1: open to the public. The Catacombs of San Sebastiano is
Speaker 1: named for a soldier who converted to Christianity and became
Speaker 1: a martyr. This particular catacomb stretches about twelve kilometers it's
Speaker 1: roughly seven and a half miles, so it's enormous, but
Speaker 1: it's not nearly as big.
Speaker 2: As some others.
Speaker 1: This is one of the most popular catacombs with tourists,
Speaker 1: though it's really been set up to be easily accessible.
Speaker 1: Many Christian martyrs are buried in the catacombs of San Calisto,
Speaker 1: that's even larger than San Sebastiano, at a massive twenty
Speaker 1: kilometers or twelve point four miles. It is where sixteen
Speaker 1: popes are laid to rest. Which makes it another popular
Speaker 1: place for visitors. The next catacomb is perhaps more important
Speaker 1: for its artwork that it contains, rather than the people
Speaker 1: lead to rest there. The catacombs of Priscilla are filled
Speaker 1: with frescoes, including one that is believed to contain the
Speaker 1: first representation of the Virgin Mary. The catacombs of Domatila
Speaker 1: run for seventeen kilometers that include an underground basilica, and
Speaker 1: the catacombs of Santa Agnesa are named for the martyr
Speaker 1: Saint Agnes who is buried there. This one has no
Speaker 1: art of significance, but contains a number of significant engravings.
Speaker 1: Of the six Jewish catacombs that are known to have
Speaker 1: existed in the area around Rome, there could be more.
Speaker 1: That's how many we noah For sure. Only two of
Speaker 1: them remain though, Villa Randanani and Villa Torlonia. In addition
Speaker 1: to the ones we've named here, there are more than
Speaker 1: fifty additional known catacombs that are not open to visitors.
Speaker 1: We don't really know the extent of the Roman catacombs,
Speaker 1: and this is in part because of issues we've mentioned
Speaker 1: earlier in the episode regarding things like Caven's. There was
Speaker 1: a quote I found while I was researching this, which
Speaker 1: was by a scholar named Estelle Shoat Bruttmann, who started
Speaker 1: this entire field of archaeological research, particularly into some of
Speaker 1: the Jewish catacombs. But in her writings she had included
Speaker 1: this one thing that felt almost relieving as I was
Speaker 1: researching this, because like you're putting together a puzzle where
Speaker 1: we don't have all the pieces, and the pieces we
Speaker 1: do have I don't always match up exactly right. But
Speaker 1: I read this and felt better.
Speaker 2: It's said, not all.
Speaker 1: The pieces of evidence for Christian and Jewish burials in
Speaker 1: this setting can fit into a seamless hole. So she,
Speaker 1: like other scholars, has been grappling with these problems for
Speaker 1: a long time. But that is our brief overview of
Speaker 1: my wish list place to go, which is.
Speaker 2: The catecopes over Do you also have some listener mail?
Speaker 1: I do. It is about a different place that I
Speaker 1: have been. This is from our listener, Aaron, who writes, Hello,
Speaker 1: Tracy and Holly. My son just wrapped up his ap
Speaker 1: dual enrollment humanities class at a Virginia Governor's School for
Speaker 1: GT students. As a part of this class, students had
Speaker 1: to conduct authentic, original research about a non Western culture
Speaker 1: to which they do not belong. They spent the entire
Speaker 1: school year delving deep into their chosen research topic, reviewing
Speaker 1: existing literature, scholarly articles, primary sources, etc. I wish we
Speaker 1: had done something like this when I was in high school.
Speaker 1: After writing their final paper, they presented their findings to
Speaker 1: the entire school. My ears perked up when I heard
Speaker 1: your episode on Emperor Meiji and the Meiji Shrine because
Speaker 1: my son's research was about the role of Shinto religious
Speaker 1: practices in the political transition at the end of the
Speaker 1: Tokugawa Shogunate. I'm the editor in chief for most of
Speaker 1: his school papers, so I had the pleasure of reading
Speaker 1: this incredibly in depth academic paper, despite having a master's
Speaker 1: degree in education with very little background knowledge about this
Speaker 1: part of Japanese history. Myself, I was feeling more than
Speaker 1: a little lost. At least I could help him edit
Speaker 1: for grammar and clarity. I was thrilled to listen to
Speaker 1: your episode to get a broader picture and more historical
Speaker 1: context for this topic, which put my son's research into
Speaker 1: perspective for me. I played a portion of the episode
Speaker 1: for him, and when we got to the part in
Speaker 1: which you explained Kami, my son exclaimed that sounded like
Speaker 1: they nearly quoted my paper. I couldn't help but agree,
Speaker 1: as that is exactly why I played that part of
Speaker 1: the podcast for him. Thank you for the years of
Speaker 1: highest quality infotainment. I have a PhD in SYMHC. And
Speaker 1: you have kept me company through household chores, long drives,
Speaker 1: and many many hours of sewing, both for pleasure and
Speaker 1: my second job. Attached is a bit of pet tax
Speaker 1: our pedigree Bengal cat raven Paw, who like her Raven
Speaker 1: Claw namesake, is incredibly clever. She knows many tricks including sit, come,
Speaker 1: give hugs, and give kisses, and she uses the pet
Speaker 1: talking buttons to request to play with her various toys.
Speaker 1: She's also super talkative, meowing in conversational turns with you,
Speaker 1: to the point that our family accidentally mews at each
Speaker 1: other because we are so used to mewing with the cat.
Speaker 1: My eleven year old has inadvertently mewed at me as
Speaker 1: a greeting more times than I can count. Thank you
Speaker 1: again for all you do Erin. I love all of this.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that that offered up like a supplement
Speaker 1: to the work that you had been reading of your
Speaker 1: sons and kind of you know, helped add a bit
Speaker 1: of context. I also love this meowing thing because my
Speaker 1: husband and I will spen entire days where I think
Speaker 1: all we do is reality because we too have had
Speaker 1: miaowi kiddies.
Speaker 2: We sing songs in meow. Meow is just a greeting
Speaker 2: at our house. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I have two cats that whoever owned them before I
Speaker 1: owned them taught them kisses. Yeah, they probably tried to
Speaker 1: teach Marva, but she just flipped them the bird because
Speaker 1: she didn't do what you want her to do.
Speaker 2: She does what Marva wants to do. But it's pretty
Speaker 2: good when you go.
Speaker 1: Kisses and they put their little face on yours is
Speaker 1: and sweeteness. So your kiddy is absolutely gorgeous and probably
Speaker 1: smarter than the rest of us put together. So beautiful.
Speaker 1: Oh that little face too much, too much in the
Speaker 1: best way. Thank you so much for writing to us
Speaker 1: and sharing that story and I it just delighted me
Speaker 1: to no end. And now I'm going to think about
Speaker 1: your cat for probably more than is reasonable. If you
Speaker 1: would like to write to us, you can do so
Speaker 1: at History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. You can also
Speaker 1: read all the show notes on mistinhistory dot com. Each
Speaker 1: episode has our list of research items that we use,
Speaker 1: so if you want to reference any of those, there
Speaker 1: they are. You can also subscribe to the podcast on
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: Stuffy mist in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.