al-plots above ground, on the Via Ardeatina.
Much more important was the permission given by Domitilla for the
excavation of a catacomb in the service of the Church, which had just
been established in Rome by the apostles. The catacomb consisted
originally of two sections; one for the use of those members of the
imperial Flavian family who had been converted to the gospel, and one
for common use. I have already given a brief account of the first (see
p. 10). The entrance to the crypts was built in a conspicuous place,
under the safeguard of the law which guaranteed the inviolability of
private tombs. The place can still be visited. On each side of the
entrance are apartments for the celebration of anniversary banquets,
the [Greek: agapai] or love-feasts of the early Church. Those on the
left are decorated in the so-called Pompeian style, with birds and
festoons on a red ground. Here is the well, the drinking-fountain, the
washing-trough, and the wardrobe. On the opposite side is the
_schola_, or banqueting-room, with benches on three sides. There is no
doubt that the builders and owners of these crypts were Christians;
because the graves within were arranged for the interment of bodies,
not for cremation; that is, for sarcophagi and coffins, not for
cinerary urns; and, as I stated at the beginning of the previous
chapter, the pagans of the first century, and of the first half of the
second, were never interred. The Domitilla after whom the catacombs
were named was a niece of Vespasian, _Divi Vespasiani neptis_. The
reader will remember that in chapter i. I quoted Xiphilinus as saying
that in the year 95 some members of the imperial family were condemned
by Domitian on the charge of atheism, together with other leading
personages, who had adopted "the customs and persuasion of the
Jews,"--an expression which means the Christian faith. Among those
condemned he mentions Clemens and Domitilla, whose genealogy is still
subject to some uncertainty.

A tombstone discovered in 1741, by Marangoni, in these very catacombs,
mentions two names, Flavius Sabinus and Flavia Titiana. They are
descendants, perhaps grandchildren, of Flavius Sabinus, the brother of
Vespasian. Sabinus was prefect of Rome during the persecution of Nero;
but Tacitus[159] describes him as a gentle man, who hated violence
(_mitem virum abhorrentem a sanguine et caedibus_). His second son,
Titus Flavius Clemens, consul A. D. 82, was executed in 95 on account
o