he old religion, had a bishop named Vitus, who died in 381, and
was succeeded by Protogenes. According to Theodoretus, he succeeded in
"cultivating that wild field which had been covered with idolatrous
thorns." Aurelius Theophilus was probably a contemporary of these
events, as the inscription on his tombstone belongs undoubtedly to the
end of the fourth century. There are also a few inscriptions scratched
on plaster, by pilgrims who visited the three historical crypts of
Marcellinus and Peter, Gorgonius, and Tiburtius. To save devout
visitors the trouble and danger of crossing the labyrinths, each of
these crypts was made accessible directly from the ground above by
means of a staircase. The _graffiti_ are found mostly on the sides or
at the foot of these staircases, or else on the door-posts of the
crypts themselves.

The historical and religious associations of this catacomb are summed
up and illustrated in a beautiful picture representing the Saviour
with S. Paul on his right and S. Peter on his left: and, on a line
below, the four martyrs who were buried in the cemetery, Gorgonius,
Peter, Marcellinus, and Tiburtius, pointing with their right hands to
the Divine Lamb on the mountain. The heads of the two apostles are
particularly fine, and the shape of their beards most characteristic.
This well-known fresco, preserved in cubiculum no. 25 of Bosio's plan,
was discovered in 1851 by de Rossi, in a curious manner. Having
obtained from padre Marchi permission to carry the excavations towards
the cubiculum, and finding that the work proceeded too slowly for his
impatience, he crept on his hands and feet for fifty yards along the
narrow gap between the ceiling of the galleries and the earth with
which they were filled, and reached the cubiculum nearly suffocated.
Here, by means of a skylight which was not obstructed by rubbish, he
found that the place was used as a deposit for carrion, as the
half-putrefied carcass of a bull was lying under the famous fresco.

Many cubiculi were painted by one artist, whose power of invention was
rather restricted. He has but two subjects: the story of Jonah, and
the Symbolic Supper. Of this last there are four representations, all
reproduced from the same pattern, of which I give an example. A family
consisting of father, mother, and children, are sitting around a
table, upon which the [Greek: ichthus] or fish is served; the banquet
is presided over by two mystic figures, Irene or Peac