Section Ii. of the Christian Epigraphic Museum of the Lateran. It Ends

with the distich:--

NON NOSTRIS NOCET OFFICIIS NEC CULPA LABACRI QUOD SIBIMET GENERAT LUBRICA VITA MALUM EST,--

"There is no harm in seeking strength and purity of body in baths; it is not water but our own bad actions that make us sin." These verses are not so good as their moral; but inscriptions like this prove that the abandonment of such useful institutions must be attributed not to the undue severity of Christian morality, but to the ruin of the aqueducts by which fountains and baths were fed. However, even in the darkest period of the Middle Ages we find the traditional "kantharos," or basin, in the centre of the quadri-porticoes or courts by which the basilicas were entered. Such is the vase in the court of S. Caecilia, represented on the next page, and that in front of S. Cosimato in Trastevere; and such is the famous calix marmoreus, which formerly stood near the church of SS. Apostoli, mentioned in the Bull of John III. (A. D. 570), by which the boundary line of that parish was determined. This historical monument, a prominent landmark in the topography of mediaeval Rome, was removed to the Baths of Diocletian at the beginning of last year.

In many of our churches visitors may have noticed one or more round black stones, weighing from ten to a hundred pounds, which, according to tradition, were tied to the necks of martyrs when they were thrown into wells, lakes, or rivers. To the student these stones tell a different tale. They prove that the classic institution of the ponderaria (sets of weights and measures) migrated from temples to churches, after the closing of the former, A. D. 393.

As the amphora was the standard measure of capacity for wine, the metreta for oil, the modius for grain, so the libra was the standard measure of weight. To insure honesty in trade they were examined periodically by order of the aediles; those found iniquae (short) were broken, and their owners sentenced to banishment in remote islands. In A. D. 167, Junius Rusticus, prefect of the city, ordered a general inspection to be made in Rome and in the provinces; weights and measures found to be legal were marked or stamped with the legend "[Verified] by the authority of Q. Junius Rusticus, prefect of the city." These weights of Rusticus are discovered in hundreds in Roman excavations.

The original standards were kept in the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, and used only on extraordinary occasions. Official duplicates were deposited in other temples, like those of Castor and Pollux, Mars Ultor, Ops, and others, and kept at the disposal of the public, whence their name of pondera publica. Barracks and market-places were also furnished with them. The most important discovery connected with this branch of Roman administration was made at Tivoli in 1883, when three mensae ponderariae, almost perfect, were found in the portico or peribolos of the Temple of Hercules, adjoining the cathedral of S. Lorenzo. This wing of the portico is divided into compartments by means of projecting pilasters, and each recess is occupied by a marble table resting on "trapezophoroi" richly ornamented with symbols of Hercules and Bacchus, like the club and the thyrsus. Along the edge of two of the tables runs the inscription, "Made at the expense of Marcus Varenus Diphilus, president of the college of Hercules," while the third was erected at the expense of his wife Varena. The tables are perforated by holes of conical shape, varying in diameter from 200 to 380 millimetres. Brass measures of capacity were fastened into each hole, for use by buyers and sellers. They were used in a very ingenious way, both as dry and liquid measures. The person who had bought, for instance, half a modius of beans, or twenty-four sextarii of wine, and wanted to ascertain whether he had been cheated in his bargain, would fill the receptacle to the proper line, then open the valve or spicket below, and transfer the tested contents again to his sack or flask.

The institution was accepted by the Church, and ponderaria were set up in the principal basilicas. The best set which has come down to us is that of S. Maria in Trastevere, but there is hardly a church without a "stone" weighing from five or ten to a hundred pounds. The popular superstition by which these practical objects were transformed into relics of martyrdoms is very old. Topographers and pilgrims of the seventh century speak of a stone exhibited in the chapel of SS. Abundius and Irenaeus, under the portico of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura, "which, in their ignorance, pilgrims touch and lift." They mention also another weight, exhibited in the church of S. Stephen, near S. Paul's, which they believed to be one of the stones with which the martyr was killed.

In 1864 a schola (a memorial and banqueting hall) was discovered in the burial grounds adjoining the praetorian camp, which had been used by members of a corporation called the sodalium serrensium, that is, of the citizens of Serrae, a city of Samothrake, I believe. Among the objects pertaining to the hall and its customers were two measures for wine, a sextarium, and a hemina, marked with the monogram of Christ and the name of the donor. They are now exhibited in the sala dei bronzi of the Capitoline museum.

The hall of the citizens of Serrae, discovered in 1864, belongs to a class of monuments very common in the suburbs of Rome. They were called cellae, memoriae, exedrae, and scholae, and were used by relatives and friends of the persons buried under or near them, in the performance of expiatory ceremonies or for commemorative banquets, for which purpose all the necessaries, from the table-service to the festal garments, were kept on the spot, in cabinets entrusted to the care of a watchman. This practice--save the expiatory offerings--was adopted by the Christians. The agapai, or love-feasts, before degenerating into those excesses and superstitions so strongly denounced by the Fathers of the Church, were celebrated over or near the tombs of martyrs and confessors, the treasury of the local congregation supplying food and drink, as well as the banqueting robes. In the inventory of the property confiscated during the persecution of Diocletian, in a house at Cirta (Constantine, Algeria), which was used by the faithful as a church, we find registered, chalices of gold and silver, lamps and candelabras, eighty-two female tunics, sixteen male tunics, thirteen pairs of men's boots, forty-seven pairs of women's shoes, and so on. A remarkable discovery, illustrating the subject, has been lately made in the Catacombs of Priscilla; that of a graffito containing this sentence: "February 5, 375, we, Florentinus, Fortunatus, and Felix, came here AD CALICE (for the cup)." To understand the meaning of this sentence, we must compare it with others engraved on pagan tombs. In one, No. 25,861 of the "Corpus," the deceased says to the passer-by: "Come on, bring with you a flask of wine, a glass, and all that is needed for a libation!" In another, No. 19,007, the same invitation is worded: "Oh, friends (convivae), drink now to my memory, and wish that the earth may be light on me." We are told by S. Augustine that when his mother, Monica, visited Milan in 384, the practice of eating and drinking in honor of the martyrs had been stopped by S. Ambrose, although it was still flourishing in other regions, where crowds of pilgrims were still going from tomb to tomb with baskets of provisions and flasks of wine, drinking heavily at each station. Paulinus of Nola and Augustine himself strongly stigmatized the abuse. The faithful were advised either to distribute their provisions to the poor, who crowded the entrances to the crypts, or to leave them on the tombs, that the local clergy might give them to the needy. There is no doubt that the record ad calicem venimus, scratched by Florentinus, Fortunatus, and Felix on the walls of the Cemetery of Priscilla, refers to these deplorable libations.

Many drinking-cups used on these occasions have been found in Rome, in my time. They are generally works of the fourth century of our era, cut in glass by unskillful hands, and they show the portrait-heads of SS. Peter and Paul, in preference to other subjects of the kind. This fact is due not only to the special veneration which the Romans professed for the founders of their church, but also to the habit of celebrating their anniversary, June 29, with public or domestic agapai. S. Peter's day was to the Romans of the fourth century what Christmas is to us, as regards joviality and sumptuous banquets. On one of these occasions S. Jerome received from his friend Eustochio fruit and sweets in the shape of doves. In acknowledging the kind remembrance, S. Jerome recommends sobriety on that day more than on any other: "We must celebrate the birthday of Peter rather with exaltation of spirit, than with abundance of food. It is absurd to glorify with the satisfaction of our appetites the memory of men who pleased God by mortifying theirs." The poorer classes of citizens were fed under the porticoes of the Vatican basilica. The gatherings degenerated into the display of such excesses of drunkenness that Augustine could not resist writing to the Romans: "First you persecuted the martyrs with stones and other instruments of torture and death; and now you persecute their memory with your intoxicating cups."

The institution of public granaries (horrea publica) for the maintenance of the lower classes was also accepted and favored by Christian Rome. On page 250 of my "Ancient Rome," I have spoken of the warehouses for the storage of wheat, built by Sulpicius Galba on the plains of Testaccio, near the Porta S. Paolo, named for him horrea galbana, even after their purchase by the state. These public granaries originated at the time of Caius Gracchus and his grain laws. Their scheme was developed, in course of time, by Clodius, Pompey, Seianus, and the emperors, to such an extent that, in 312 A. D., there were registered in Rome alone two hundred and ninety granaries. They may be divided into three classes: In the first, and by far the most important, a plentiful supply of breadstuffs was kept at the expense of the state, to meet emergencies of scarcity or famine, and the wants of a population one third of which was fed gratuitously by the sovereign. The second was intended especially for the storage of paper (horrea chartaria), candles (horrea candelaria), spices (horrea piperataria), and other such commodities. The third class consisted of buildings in which the citizens might deposit their goods, money, plate, securities, and other valuables for which they had no place of safety in their own houses. There were also private horrea, built on speculation, to be let as strong-rooms like our modern vaults, storage-warehouses, and "pantechnicons."

The building of the new quarter of the Testaccio, the region of horrea par excellence, has given us the chance of studying the institution in its minutest details. I shall mention only one discovery. We found, in 1885, the official advertisement for leasing a horrea, under the empire of Hadrian. It is thus worded:--

"To be let from to-day, and hereafter annually (beginning on December 13): These warehouses, belonging to the Emperor Hadrian, together with their granaries, wine-cellars, strong-boxes, and repositories.

"The care and protection of the official watchmen is included in the lease.

"Regulations: I. Any one who rents rooms, vaults, or strong-boxes in this establishment is expected to pay the rent and vacate the place before December 13.

"II. Whoever disobeys regulation No. I., and omits to arrange with the horrearius (or keeper-in-chief) for the renewal of his lease, shall be considered as liable for another year, the rent to be determined by the average price paid by others for the same room, vault, or strong-box. This regulation to be enforced in case the horrearius has not had an opportunity to rent the said room, vault, or strong-box to other people.

"III. Sub-letting is not allowed. The administration will withdraw the watch and the guarantee from rooms, vaults, or strong-boxes which have been sub-let in violation of the existing rules.

"IV. Merchandise or valuables stored in these warehouses are held by the administration as security for payment of rental.

"V. The tenant will not be reimbursed by the administration for improvements, additions, and other such work which he has undertaken on his own account.

"VI. The tenant must give an assignment of his goods to the keeper-in-chief, who shall not be held responsible for the safe-keeping of merchandise or valuables which have not been duly declared. The tenant must claim a receipt for the said assignment and for the payment of his rental."

The granaries of the Church were intended only for the storage of corn. The landed estates which the Church owned in Africa and Sicily were administered by deputies, whose special duty it was to ship the produce of the harvest to Rome. During the first siege of Totila, in 546, Pope Vigilius, then on his way to Constantinople, despatched from the coast of Sicily a fleet of grain-laden vessels, under the care of Valentine, bishop of Silva Candida. The attempt to relieve the city of the famine proved useless, and the vessels were seized by the besiegers on their landing at Porto. In 589 an inundation of the Tiber, described by Gregoire de Tours, carried away several thousand bushels of grain, which had been stored in the horrea ecclesiae, and the granaries themselves were totally destroyed.

The "Liber Pontificalis," vol. i. p. 315, describes the calamities which befell the city of Rome in the year 605; King Agilulf trying to enter the city by violence; heavy frosts killing the vines; rats destroying the harvest, etc. However, as soon as the barbarians were induced to retire by an offer of twelve thousand solidi, Pope Sabinianus, who was then the head of the Church, iussit aperiri horrea ecclesiae (threw open the granaries), and offered their contents at auction, at a valuation of one solidus for thirty modii.

The grain was not intended to be sold, but to be distributed among the needy; the act of Sabinianus was, therefore, strongly censured, as being in strong contrast to the generosity of Gregory the Great. A legend on this subject is related by Paulus Diaconus in 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 ecclesiae 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, 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 Fraenkel 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, La dove lo suo amor sempre soggiorna." 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:

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 primaeva pro caesaribus et magistratibus romanis preces fundente. Bonn, 1881.--Bittner: De Graecorum et Romanorum deque Judaeorum et christianorum sacris jejuniis. Posen, 1846.--Weiss: Die roemischen Kaiser in ihrem Verhaeltnisse 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 memoires relatifs a l'histoire ecclesiastique.--Doellinger: 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.

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 Archaeology, 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.

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.

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

A consul suffectus was one elected as a substitute in case of the death or retirement of one of the regular consuls.

Lampridius, in Sev. Alex., c. 43.

In chapter v., p. 122, of Ancient Rome, I have attributed these graffiti to the second half of the first century; but after a careful examination of the structure of the wall, on the plaster of which they are scratched, I am convinced that they must have been written towards the end of the second century.

Orelli, 4024, Digest L., iv. 18, 7.

See Ulpian: De officio Procons., i. 3.

Lampridius, Heliog., 3.

See Greppo: Memoire sur les laraires de l'empereur Alexandre Severe.

The name of the villa was Cassiacum; its memory has lasted to the present age. See the memoir of Luigi Biraghi, S. Agostino a Cassago di Brianza. Milano, 1854.

See Bullettino di archeologia cristiana, 1865, p. 50.

It contains the words PETRO LILLVTI PAVLO. They are surely genuine and ancient. I examined them in company with Mommsen, Jordan, and de Rossi, and they attributed them to the beginning of the third century of our era. The best suggestion regarding their origin is that they belong to a person, probably Christian, who used the name Petrus as gentilitium, and Paulus as cognomen, and who was the son of Lillutus, however barbaric this last name may sound.

See de Rossi: Bullettino di archeologia cristiana, 1863, p. 49.--Rohault de Fleury: L'arc de triomphe de Constantin, in the Revue archeologique, Sept. 1863, p. 250.--W. Henzen: Bullettino dell' Instituto, 1863, p. 183.

See Bibliography, p. 1. The title of the book may be translated thus: On the pagan and profane objects transferred to churches for their use and adornment.

The two busts of S. Peter and S. Paul, described in Cancellieri's book, Memorie storiche delle sacre teste dei santi apostoli Pietro e Paolo, Roma, Ferretti, 1852 (second edition), were stolen by the French revolutionists in 1799.

See Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, part VI., No. 351.

In the Byzantine period this church and the adjoining monastery were called casa Barbara patricia. They are now comprised within the cloisters of S. Antonio all' Esquilino, on the left side of S. Maria Maggiore.

These incrustations, and the basilica to which they belong, have been illustrated by Ciampini: Vetera monumenta, vol. i. plates xxii.-xxiv.--D'Agincourt: Histoire de l'art, Peinture, pl. xiii. 3.--Minutoli: Ueber die Anfertigung und die Nutzanwendung der faerbigen Glaeser bei den Alten, pl. iv.--De Rossi: La basilica di Giunio Basso, in the Bullettino di archeologia cristiana, 1871, p. 46.

See Andrea Amoroso: Le basiliche cristiane di Parenzo. Parenzo, Coana, 1891.--Mommsen: Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. v. part i. nos. 365-367.

See Lovatelli: I labirinti e il loro simbolismo nell' eta di mezzo, in the Nuova Antologia, 16 Agosto, 1890.--Arne: Carrelages emailles du moyen age.--Eugene Muentz: Etudes iconographiques et archeologiques sur le moyen age.

See Pietro Pericoli: Lo spedale di S. Maria della Consolazione. Imola Galeati, p. 64.

Published in two volumes with the title: Indicazione delle immagini di Maria, collocate sulle mura esterne di Roma. Ferretti, 1853.

The inscription, after all, was very mild in comparison with the violent formula imposed upon Alexander VII. It read: "In memory of the absolution given by Clement VIII. to Henry IV. of France and Navarre, September 17, 1595."

The amphora corresponds to 26.26 litres; the metreta to 39.39 litres; the modius to 8.75 litres. The pound, divided into twelve ounces, corresponds to 327.45 grammes, a little more than 111/2 English ounces.

See Antichi pesi inscritti del museo capitolino, in the Bullettino della commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 1884, p. 61, pls. vi., vii.

See de Rossi: Bullettino di archeologia cristiana, 1864, p. 57.

See Acta purgationis Caeciliani, post Optati opp. ed Dupin, p. 168.

Confess. vi. 2.

See Gaetano Marini: Iscrizioni doliari, p. 114, n. 279.--Giuseppe Gatti: La lex horreorum, in the Bullettino della commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, 1885, p. 110.

The place was called in tribus fatis, from the three statues of sibyls described by Pliny, H.N. xxxiv. See Goth. i. 25.

"Sank into the great flower, that is adorned With leaves so many, and thence reascended To where its love abideth evermore." Longfellow's Translation.