call the ancient law, mentioned by Cicero
(De Leg. ii. 24), which made it illegal to bury a body with gold,
except such as had been used in fastening the teeth.

THE CEMETERY AD DUAS LAUROS (of SS. Peter and Marcellinus).[170] To
the left of the second milestone of the Via Labicana there was an
imperial villa, named _ad Duas Lauros_ (the two laurels), where the
empress Helena was buried by Constantine, and Valentinian III. was
murdered when playing with other youths, in 455. Adjoining the tomb of
the empress, which was described in chapter iv., pp. 197 sq., were two
cemeteries,--one above ground, belonging to the "Equites Singulares,"
or body guards; the other, below. The latter was the largest of the
Via Labicana, and was known in early Church annals under the same name
as the imperial villa. In 1880-82 a third and deeper network of
galleries was excavated for the sake of extracting the pozzolana, the
beds of which support the tufa and the catacombs excavated in it. Some
damage was done to the tombs, but the Italian proverb _Non tutto il
male viene per nuocere_ proved true once more on this occasion. The
excavation of the catacombs, which is generally a difficult and
costly work, and sometimes impossible, when the owner of the ground
above them objects to this form of trespassing on his estate, here
became an easy matter, the earth being simply thrown into the sandpits
from the catacombs above. The discoveries made on this occasion, added
to the descriptions and drawings left by former explorers, give us a
thorough knowledge of these labyrinths. The impression which they make
at first is rather poor; but this is due chiefly to the ravages
committed by early explorers.

The inscriptions are few and not particularly interesting, excepting
one, which was discovered in 1873, and is written in excellent style:
"Aurelius Theophilus, a citizen of Carrhae, a man of pure mind and
great innocence, at the age of twenty-three has rendered his soul to
God, his body to the earth." His native city, the Haran, or Charan of
the Bible, where Abraham lived, is known in Church annals as one of
the strongholds of paganism in Mesopotamia. When Julian the Apostate
led the Roman armies against the Persians, in 362, he halted for some
time at Carrhae, to perform impious and cruel sacrifices in the
sanctuary of Luno. A description of the crime is given by Theodoretus
in Book III. ch. xxvi. At that time Carrhae, in spite of its devotion
to t