time
of Pope Nicholas I. (858-867) who is said to have restored the crypt of
Mark on the Via Ardeatina, and of Felix, Abdon, and Sennen on the Via
Portuensis. At this time also the visits of pilgrims, to whose
itineraries, or guidebooks, we are indebted for so much knowledge of
the topography of suburban cemeteries, come to an end. The best
itineraries are those of Einsiedeln, Salzburg, Wurzburg, and William
of Malmesbury; and the list of the oils from the lamps burning before
the tombs of martyrs, which were collected by John, abbot of Monza, at
the request of queen Theodolinda. The pilgrims left many records of
their visits scratched on the walls of the sanctuaries; and to these
_graffiti_ also we are indebted for much information, since they
contain formulas of devotion addressed to the saint of the place. They
are very interesting in their simplicity of thought and diction, as
are generally the memoirs of early pilgrims and pilgrimages. I shall
mention one, discovered not many years ago in the cemetery of
Mustiola at Chiusi. It is a plain tombstone, inscribed with the
words:--

HIC . POSITUS . EST . PEREGRINUS . CICONIAS . CUIUS .
NOMEN . DEUS . SCIT

"Here is buried a pilgrim from Thrace, whose name is known only to
God." The tale is simple and touching. A pilgrim on his way to Rome,
or back to his country, was overtaken by death at Chiusi, before he
could make himself known to those who had come to his help. They could
only suppose he had come from Thrace, the country of the Cicones,
possibly from the language he spoke, or from the costume he wore.

On May 31, 1578, a workman, while digging a sandpit in the vineyard of
Bartolomeo Sanchez at the second milestone of the Via Salaria, came
upon a Christian cemetery containing frescoes, sarcophagi, and
inscriptions. This unexpected discovery created a great
sensation,[153] and the report was circulated that an underground city
had been found. The leading men of the age hastened to the spot; among
them Baronius, who speaks of these wondrous crypts three or four times
in his annals.[154] It seems that the network of galleries, crossing
one another at various angles, the skylights, the wells, the symmetry
of the cubiculi and arcosolia, the number of loculi with which the
sides of the galleries were honeycombed, affected the imagination of
visitors even more than the pictures, the sarcophagi, and the
epitaphs. The subjects of the frescoes were so varied