f his Christian faith; and Flavia Domitilla, his daughter-in-law, was
banished for the same cause to the island Pandataria. There is a
record of the banishment of another Flavia Domitilla to the island of
Pontia; but her genealogy and relationship with the former have not
been yet clearly established. Some writers, however, have identified
her with the niece of Vespasian, mentioned in the inscription referred
to above, as owner of the villa of Torre Marancia and founder of the
catacombs. The small island, where she spent many years in solitary
confinement, is described by S. Jerome as one of the leading places of
pilgrimage in the fourth century of our era.

The "Acta Martyrum" state that Flavia Domitilla, niece of Flavius
Clemens, was buried at Terracina, with her attendants, Theodora and
Euphrosyne; and that her body-servants, or _cubicularii_, Nereus and
Achilleus, who were executed for the same reason, were laid to rest in
the crypts of the Villa Amaranthiana, half a mile from Rome, near the
tomb of Petronilla, the so-called daughter of S. Peter. In the early
itineraries the place is also indicated as the "cemetery of
Domitilla, Nereus, and Achilleus, near Santa Petronilla." Bosio
discovered it towards the end of the sixteenth century, and mistook it
for the Cemetery of Callixtus. The discoveries made in 1873 leave no
doubt as to its identification with the famous burial-place of the
Flavians; they brought to light, not a crypt of ordinary dimensions,
but a basilica equal in size to the one dedicated to S. Lorenzo by
Constantine.

[Illustration: Basilica of Nereus, Achilleus and Petronilla.]

The pavement of the basilica is sunk to the level of the second floor
of the catacombs, in order that the graves of Nereus, Achilleus, and
Petronilla could be enclosed in the altar, without being raised, or
touched at all. The body of the church is divided into nave and aisles
by two rows of columns, mostly of _cipollino_, some of which were
stolen in 1871 by the farmer; the others were found in 1876 lying on
the floor, in parallel lines from northeast to southwest, as if they
had been overthrown by an earthquake.

A fragment of one of the four columns which supported the ciborium
above the high altar has been found in the apse. This fragment
contains a bas-relief representing the execution of a martyr. The
young man is tied to a stake, which is surmounted by a cross-beam,
like a [Symbol: T], the true shape of the _patibulu