Pagan and Christian Rome Part 23

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 ma.s.s 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 ma.s.s was sung in the church of the Aracli, 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 wors.h.i.+pped, and celebrated the birthday of Rome, and the G.o.ddesses 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 Laetus wors.h.i.+pped Romulus and kept the birthday of Rome; the beginning of a campaign against religion (_initium abolendae fidei_)."

The Roman academy found the means of keeping faithful to its traditions, and to the spirit of its inst.i.tutions, 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 _Paliliae_. 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 cla.s.sical studies; or from hatred and contempt of Christian faith: _initium abolendae fidei_.

THE END.

FOOTNOTES:

[141] Princ.i.p.al authorities:--Philip de Winghe: _Cod. biblioth.

Bruxell_. 17872.--Panvinius: _De Cmeteriis Urbis Romae_. 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 Christianae Urbis Romae._ 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-siege et les Juifs: le Ghetto a Rome._ Paris, Didot, 1891.--A. Bertolotti: _Les Juifs a Rome._ Revue des etudes juives, 1881, fasc. 4.--Raffaele Garrucci: _Cimiterio degli antichi Ebrei._ Roma, 1862.--Pietro Manfrin: _Gli Ebrei sotto la domin.a.z.ione romana._ Roma, 1888-1890.--Ettore Natali: _Il Ghetto di Roma._ Roma, 1887.--Perreau: _Education et culture des Israelites en Italie au moyen age._ Corfou, 1885.

[144] This "poster," painted in red letters, which is now in the Museo n.a.z.ionale, 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 Judee_, p. 31, of the first edition.

[146] See Suetonius, _Domitian_, chap. 92; Dion Ca.s.sius, lxvii. 13.

[147] See Pliny, _Epistolae_, 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] ... pa.s.sim corpora condens Plurima sanctorum subter haec mnia 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 caemeteriis urbis Romae_, 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] _Historiae_, 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 _Melanges de l'Ecole francaise_, 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. x.x.xix-xli.

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

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

[166] This is also ill.u.s.trated by Martigny: _Dictionnaire_, 2d ed. p.

586.--Kraus: _Realencyclopadie_, 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.--d.u.c.h.esne: _Bullettino critique_, Decembre, 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:--Andre Perate: _Note sur le groupe de Paneas_, in _Melanges de l'Ecole francaise de Rome_, 1885, p. 302.--Raoul-Rochette: _Discours sur les types imitatifs qui const.i.tuent l'art du Christianisme_, 1834.--Bayet: _Recherches pour servir a l'histoire de la peinture en Orient_, p. 29.--Orazio Marucchi: _Di un busto del Salvatore_, etc., in the _Melanges_, 1888, p. 403.--Eusebius: H. E. VII., 185, edition Teubner, p. 315.--Grimouard de St. Laurent: _Guide de l'art Chretien_, 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 Gemalde 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 societa romana di storia patria_, 1889, p. 219.

[174] _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, 1890, p. 81.--See also: de Nollae: _Melanges de l'Ecole francaise 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 LaeTI ET SOCIETATIS ESCVVILINAI. After the reform of the statutes, another sign, less cla.s.sic 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.