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session of it, provided a place of interment for his descendants. A few forms of inscription were recognised as regular bequests of this sort of property: among them are; "et posteris suis "-"hæredes hoc monumentum sequitur"-"liberis libertabussuis" as well as their initials e. p. s. h. h. m.s.-1. 1. q. s., and others. But with the Christians, who required larger space and a more secluded situation for the decomposition of an entire body, a different system was necessarily adopted. The Catacombs were placed under the management of a number of fossors, probably sand-diggers by trade, who, besides excavating graves and rendering the galleries more convenient, served also as guides. Their power of disposing of the graves is well exemplified in the following Christian inscription, which the author copied literatim from a small collection in the walls of the Capitol.

EMPTVM LOCUM A BARTEMISTVM

VISOMVM HOC EST ET PRETIVM
DATVM A FOSSORI HILARO ID EST

FOLN

FOSS ET LAVRENT

PRESENTIA SEVERI

A place bought by Bartemistus, that is to say, a bisomum; and the price was paid to the fossor Hilarus, the sum of fourteen hundred folles (amounting to 17. 2s. 7d.), in the presence of the fossors, Severus and Lawrence.

The folis, or follis, here specified, is a small Ro

man coin, of which mention is seldom made in history. Hotman* professes himself unable to decide upon its value, and merely states that it was a very thin lamina of metal, probably the lowest coin used. By Facciolati† it is defined as synonymous with the quadrans or teruntius; of which, according to Ainsworth, forty make a denarius, value sevenpence three farthings of our money. The numerals attached are not correctly written: the first of them is evidently meant either for the two ovals put for 1000, or the elongated of the same signification. Between these two the sculptor seems to have hesitated, and the reader may indulge in the same uncertainty, without af fecting the value of the figure. After 1000, the number of hundreds naturally follows: and the sign used most nearly corresponds to the , a variety of G, the abbreviation for 400. From this to the transition is easy, and the identity of the two is the more probable from there being no other known sign at all similar.

To estimate better the value of such a sum as 17. 2s. 7d. in those times, we may compare with this epitaph one contained in Wordsworth's Pompeian Inscriptions, in which the sum of H.S.LXV., sixty-five sesterces, or nine shillings and sixpence, is offered for the recovery of a lost wine vessel. The thirty pieces of silver received by Judas for his treachery amounted to 37. 10s. 8d.

* De re nummariâ Populi Romani. † Appendix to Lexicon.

Facciolati.

The author has not met with other inscrip

any

tion recording the price of a tomb: what makes this epitaph of Bartemistus the more valuable on the score of authenticity, is the circumstance that though the transaction is clearly stated, the sum is expressed in a very unusual manner, the follis being a Latin version of the Greek poλs*, probably introduced in the time of the later Cæsars.

The use of the preposition a before the dative case in the two preceding epitaphs is remarkable: it seems to mark an approximation to the Italian language, of which it is an established element.

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Jovinus bought himself a bisomum from Victorinus and Exuperus his colleague. In Christ. (Lap. Gall.)

To the two inscriptions last quoted the term epitaph can scarcely be applied; they are rather legal conveyances of a portion of the cemetery.

Some inscriptions appear to have been executed in part at the time of the purchase, and concluded after the burial of the occupant of the tomb. There is one of this character in the Lapidarian Gallery.

HIC REQIECET

SAMSO IN BISO
MVM ET VCTORV

SE VIVA VXOREIVS

Here rests Samso in a bisomum, and Victoria his wife, she

being alive.

* Hotman,

She

We may infer from this some such family history as the following: - Samso, the husband of Victoria, not having provided himself with a tomb, was left to the care of his widow for burial. then purchased a bisomum, and having interred her husband, set up a stone to record that there rested Samso; adding in a bisomum, thus reserving a place for herself. After her death the inscription was completed; the insertion of the words herself being alive, showing that as a respectable woman she had, during her lifetime, provided for her burial.

In the annexed, a Roman Christian is exhibited as selecting the site of his future sepulchre.

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Martyrius vixit

annos plus minus xci. elexit domum vivus, in pace. (Lap. Gallery.) In Christ. Martyrius

MRTU RUS UIXLTANUDN lived ninety-one years,

XCIELE XITD OMMUIUS INPACE

more or less. He chose a home during

his life-time. In peace.

The substitution of the numeral G for V is so common, that the age of Martyrius is uncertain. From his having lived to choose a tomb, the number of years is more probably ninety-one than sixteen the monogram has been reversed, through the inattention of the stone-cutter. The name Martyrius has no connection with martyrdom, it being merely a proper name, as well as that of Martyria:

MARTYRIA

IN PACE

Martyria in peace. (Lap. Gall.)

There existed formerly on the walls of the Catacombs many paintings, representing persons dressed in the manner of the lowest class of Romans, employed in excavating an overhanging rock, with a lamp suspended from the summit. One of these paintings, copied in the Roma Sotteranea, has the words Fossor Trofimus added. The one here given was found by Boldetti, in the cemetery of Callistus.

DIOGENES FOSSOR IN PACE DEPOSITVS
OCTABY KALENDAS. OCTOBRIS.

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The inscription signifies-"Diogenes the Fossor, buried in peace on the eighth kalends of October."

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