,
their contents stolen, their inscriptions broken and scattered far and
wide, and the bones themselves taken out of their graves. The
perpetrators of the outrage had taken care to leave their names
written in charcoal or with the smoke of tallow candles; they were men
employed by Boldetti in his explorations of the catacombs, between
1713 and 1717. Some of the tombstones were removed by him to S. Maria
in Trastevere, and inserted in the floor of the nave. Benedict XIV.
took away the best, and placed them in the Vatican Library. They have
now migrated again to the Museo Epigrafico of the Lateran Palace.
Those left in the floor of S. Maria in Trastevere were removed to the
vestibule of the church in 1865.

In 1714, some beautiful paintings of the first century were discovered
in the crypt of the Flavian family (Domitilla) at Torre Marancia. They
were examined by well-known archaeologists and churchmen, whose names
are scratched or written on the walls: Boldetti, Marangoni, Bottari,
Leonardo da Porto Maurizio, and G. B. de Rossi (the last two since
canonized by the Church), and by hundreds of priests, nuns,
missionaries, and pilgrims. No mention is made of this beautiful
discovery in contemporary books; but an attempt was made to steal the
frescoes, which resulted, as usual, in their total destruction.[155]
The catacombs owe their sad fate to the riches which they contained.
In times of persecution, when the _fossores_ were pressed by too much
work and memorial tablets could not be secured in time, it was
customary for the survivors to mark the graves of the dear ones either
with a symbol, a word, or a date scratched in the fresh cement; or
with some object of identification, such as glass cups, medallions,
cameos, intaglios, objects cut in rock crystal, coral, etc. If the
work of exploration has been carried on actively in the last three
centuries, it is on account of the rich harvest which searching
parties were sure to reap whenever they chanced to come across a
catacomb or part of a catacomb, yet unexplored, with these signs of
recognition untouched.

The best works of the glyptic art, the rarest gems, coins, and
medallions of European cabinets have come to light in this way. Pietro
Sante Bartoli, who chronicled the discoveries made in Rome in the
second half of the seventeenth century, speaks several times of
treasure-trove in catacombs:[156]

"In a Christian cemetery discovered outside the Porta Portese, in the