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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1849. Excerpt: ... IV Part. VISIT TO THE CATACOMBS OF ROME. The subterraneous passages thet surround Rome on all sides were originally made to extract from this volcanic soil the puzzolana on which the city is built and which at all periods formed one of the principal elements of its constructions. As the extent and splendour of Rome encreased, as the greatness and luxury of its edifices kept pace with its public fortunes, the extraction of the puzzolana, requiring great excavations, produced in the course of time extensive subterraneous passages in the direction of which it became necessary to introduce a certain regularity, to leave posts and props for the earth, to form openings or square places in order to facilitate circulation and work. These underground passages or catacombs opened within the ancient enclosure of Rome extend under the ancient Labican and Prenestina ways, and communicate by an infinite number of ramifications, on one side with the catacomb of S. Lorenzo, on the other with that of S. Agnes. That the christian catacombs were originally, in a great part at least, the work of the ancient Romans does not admit a doubt. Whether these quarries served or not as places of sepulture for the ancients or whether they were appropriated exclusively by the early christians as a resting place for their brothers or their martyrs, is a question referred to the learned work of Paoul Rochette from which we have borrowed the present lines. (1). It is in the catacombs of Rome that we find the most ancient and most authentic records of the early periods of Christianity. A visit to the catacombs which can be made only by torch light, at times by creeping on, the ground and opening with difficulty the way through falling earth rendering the return impossible, was attended som...
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