120 Dias Sodoma Epub Download
Ellen Woolcock
It is a remarkable fact that the record of some of theseevents should be found, not in church annals, calendars,or itineraries, but in passages in the writings of paganannalists and historians. Thus, in ecclesiastical documentsno mention is made of the conversion of the two Domitill,or Flavius Clemens, or Petronilla, all of whom were relativesof the Flavian emperors; and of the Acilii Glabriones,the noblest among the noble, as Herodianus calls them(2, 3). Their fortunes and death are described only by theRoman historians and biographers of the time of Domitian.It seems that when the official feriale, or calendar, wasresumed, after the end of the persecutions, preference wasgiven to names of those confessors and martyrs whosedeeds were still fresh in the memory of the living, and ofnecessity little attention was paid to those of the first andsecond centuries, whose acts either had not been writtendown, or had been lost during the persecutions.
As the crypt of the Acilii Glabriones on the Via Salaria4has become one of the chief places of attraction, since itsre-discovery in 1888, I cannot begin this volume under betterauspices than by giving an account of this importantevent.[2]
In exploring that portion of the Catacombs of Priscillawhich lies under the Monte delle Gioie, near the entrancefrom the Via Salaria, de Rossi observed that the labyrinthof the galleries converged towards an original crypt, shapedlike a Greek Γ (Gamma), and decorated with frescoes.The desire of finding the name and the history of the firstoccupants of this noble tomb, whose memory seems to havebeen so dear to the faithful, led the explorers to carefullysift the earth which filled the place; and their pains wererewarded by the discovery of a fragment of a marble coffin,inscribed with the letters: ACILIO GLABRIONI FILIO.
Did this fragment really belongto the Γ crypt, or had it been thrownthere by mere chance? And incase of its belonging to the crypt,was it an isolated record, or did itbelong to a group of graves of theAcilii Glabriones? The queries were fully answered bylater discoveries; four inscriptions, naming Manius Acilius ... andhis wife Priscilla, Acilius Rufinus, Acilius Quintianus,and Claudius Acilius Valerius were found among thedbris, so that there is no doubt as to the ownership of thecrypt, and of the chapel which opens at the end of the longerarm of the Γ.
5The Manii Acilii Glabriones attained celebrity in thesixth century of Rome, when Acilius Glabrio, consul in563 (b. c. 191), conquered the Macedonians at the battleof Thermopylai. We have in Rome two records of hiscareer: the Temple of Piety, erected by him on the westside of the Forum Olitorium, now transformed into thechurch of S. Nicola in Carcere; and the pedestal of theequestrian statue, of gilt bronze, offered to him by his son,the first of its kind ever seen in Italy, which was discoveredby Valadier in 1808, at the foot of the steps of the temple,and buried again. Towards the end of the republic wefind them established on the Pincian Hill, where they hadbuilt a palace and laid out gardens which extended at leastfrom the convent of the Trinit dei Monti to the VillaBorghese.[3] The family had grown so rapidly to honor,splendor, and wealth, that Pertinax, in the memorable sittingof the Senate in which he was elected emperor, proclaimedthem the noblest race in the world.
The expression molitores rerum novarum has a politicalmeaning in the case of Cerealis and Orfitus, both staunchpagans, and a religious and political one in the case of6Glabrio, a convert to the Christian faith, called nova superstitioby Suetonius and Tacitus. Other details of Glabrio'sfate are given by Dion Cassius, Juvenal, and Fronto. Weare told by these authors that during his consulship, a. d.91, and before his banishment, he was compelled by Domitianto fight against a lion and two bears in the amphitheatreadjoining the emperor's villa at Albanum. Theevent created such an impression in Rome, and its memorylasted so long that, half a century later, we find it given byFronto as a subject for a rhetorical composition to his pupilMarcus Aurelius. The amphitheatre is still in existence,and was excavated in 1887. Like the one at Tusculum, itis partly hollowed out of the rocky side of the mountain,partly built of stone and rubble work. It well deserves avisit from the student and the tourist, on account of itshistorical associations, and of the admirable view which itsruins command of the vine-clad slopes of Albano and CastelSavello, the wooded plains of Ardea and Lavinium, thecoast of the Tyrrhenian, and the islands of Pontia andPandataria.
Xiphilinus states that, in the year 95, some members ofthe imperial family were condemned by Domitian on thecharge of atheism, together with other leading personageswho had embraced "the customs and persuasion of theJews," that is, the Christian faith. Manius Acilius Glabrio,the ex-consul, was implicated in the same trial, and condemnedon the same indictment with the others. Amongthese the historian mentions Clemens and Domitilla, whowere manifestly Christians. One particular of the case,related by Juvenal, confirms the account of Xiphilinus.He says that in order to mitigate the wrath of the emperorand avoid a catastrophe, Acilius Glabrio, after fighting thewild beasts at Albanum, assumed an air of stupidity. In7this alleged stupidity it is easy to recognize the prejudiceso common among the pagans, to whom the Christians' retirementfrom the joys of the world, their contempt of publichonors, and their modest behavior appeared as contemptissimainertia, most despicable laziness. This is the veryphrase used by Suetonius in speaking of Flavius Clemens,who was murdered by Domitian ex tenuissima suspicione,on a very slight suspicion of his faith.
Glabrio was put to death in his place of exile, the nameof which is not known. His end helped, no doubt, thepropagation of the gospel among his relatives and descendants,as well as among the servants and freedmen of thehouse, as shown by the noble sarcophagi and the humblerloculi found in such numbers in the crypt of the Catacombsof Priscilla. The small oratory at the southern endof the crypt seems to have been consecrated exclusively tothe memory of its first occupant, the ex-consul. The dateand the circumstances connected with the translation of8his relics from the place of banishment to Rome are notknown.
Both the chapel and the crypt were found in a state ofdevastation hardly credible, as though the plunderers hadtaken pleasure in satisfying their vandalic instincts to theutmost. Each of the sarcophagi was broken into a hundredpieces; the mosaics of the walls and ceiling had beenwrenched from their sockets, cube by cube, the marble incrustationstorn off, the altar dismantled, the bones dispersed.
When did this wholesale destruction take place? Intimes much nearer ours than the reader may imagine. Ihave been able to ascertain the date, with the help of ananecdote related by Pietro Sante Bartoli in 144 of hisarchological memoirs: "Excavations were made underInnocent X. (1634-1655), and Clement IX. (1667-1670),in the Monte delle Gioie, on the Via Salaria, with the hopeof discovering a certain hidden treasure. The hope wasfrustrated; but, deep in the bowels of the mound, somecrypts were found, encrusted with white stucco, and remarkablefor their neatness and preservation. I have heardfrom trustworthy men that the place is haunted by spirits,as is proved by what happened to them not many monthsago. While assembled on the Monte delle Gioie for a picnic,the conversation turned upon the ghosts who hauntedthe crypt below, when suddenly the carriage which hadbrought them there, pushed by invisible hands, began toroll down the slope of the hill, and was ultimately precipitatedinto the river Anio at its base. Several oxen had to beused to haul the vehicle out of the stream. This happenedto Tabarrino, butcher at S. Eustachio, and to his brothersliving in the Via Due Macelli, whose faces still bear marksof the great terror experienced that day."
9There is no doubt that the anecdote refers to the tombof the Acilii Glabriones, which is cut under the Monte delleGioie, and is the only one in the Catacombs of Priscilla remarkablefor a coating of white stucco. Its destruction,therefore, took place under Clement IX., and was the workof treasure-hunters. And the very nature of clandestineexcavations, which are the work of malicious, ignorant, andsuspicious persons, explains the reason why no mention ofthe discovery was made to contemporary archologists, andthe pleasure of re-discovering the secret of the Acilii Glabrioneswas reserved for us.
Other evidence of the conquests made by the gospelamong the patricians is given by an inscription discoveredin March, 1866, in the Catacombs of Prtextatus, near themonument of Quirinus the martyr. It is a memorial raisedto the memory of his departed wife by Postumius Quietus,consul a. d. 272. Here also was found the name ofUrania, daughter of Herodes Atticus, by his second wife,10Vibullia Alcia,[4] while on the other side of the road, nearS. Sebastiano, a mausoleum has been found, on the architraveof which the name URANIOR[UM] is engraved.
In chapter vii. I shall have occasion to refer to manyChristian relatives of the emperors Vespasian and Domitian.Eusebius, in speaking of these Flavians, and particularly ofDomitilla the younger, niece of Domitian, quotes the authorityof the historian Bruttius. He evidently means BruttiusPrsens, the illustrious friend of Pliny the younger,and the grandfather of Crispina, the empress of Commodus.In 1854, near the entrance to the crypt of the Flavians, atTorre Marancia (Via Ardeatina), a fragment of a sarcophaguswas found, with the name of Bruttius Crispinus.If, therefore, the history of Domitilla's martyrdom waswritten by the grandfather of Bruttia Crispina, the empress,it seems probable that the two families were united not onlyby the close proximity of their villas and tombs, and byfriendship, but especially by community of religion.
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