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[Illustration: CHRISTIAN MILITARY CEMETERY OF CONCORDIA SAGITTARIA]

"When the Goths pitched their camps under the walls of Rome, they
declared an impious war against the Saints:

"And destroyed in their sacrilegious attack the tombs dedicated
to the memory of martyrs:

"Whose epitaphs, composed by Pope Damasus, have been
destroyed.

"Pope Virgilius, having witnessed the destruction, has repaired
the tombs, the inscriptions, and the underground sanctuaries
after the retreat of the Goths."

The repairs must have been made in haste, between March, 537, the date
of the flight of Vitiges, and the following November, the date of the
journey of Virgilius to Constantinople, from which he never returned.
Traces of this Pope's restorations have been found in other catacombs.
In those of Callixtus the fragments of a tablet, dedicated by Damasus
to S. Eusebius, have been found, dispersed over a large area, and also
a copy set up by Virgilius in the place of the original. In those of
Hippolytus, on the Via Tiburtina, an inscription was discovered in
1881, which stated that the "sacred caverns" had been restored
_praesule Virgilio_. The example of Virgilius and his successors in the
See of Rome was followed by private individuals. The tomb of
Crysanthus and Daria on the Via Salaria was restored, after the
retreat of the barbarians, _pauperis ex censu_, that is to say, with
the modest means of a devotee.

Nibby has attributed the origin of cemeteries within the walls to the
invasion of Vitiges, burial within the city limits having been
strictly forbidden by the laws of Rome. But the law seems to have been
practically disregarded even before the Gothic wars. Christians were
buried in the Praetorian camp, and in the gardens of Maecenas, during
the reign of Theodoric (493-526). I have mentioned this particular
because it marks another step towards the abandonment of suburban
cemeteries. The country around Rome having become insecure and
deserted, it was deemed necessary to place within the protection of
the city walls the bodies of martyrs who had been buried at a great
distance from the gates. The first translation took place in 648: the
second in 682, when the bodies of Primus and Felicianus were removed
from Nomentum, and those of Viatrix, Faustinus and Simplicius from the
_Lucus Arvalium_ (Monte delle Piche, by la Magliana). The last blow to
the catacombs was given by Pascha