facing the entrance was the place of greatest honour, where in many
instances the remains of a martyr were deposited, whose tomb, according
to primitive usage, served as an altar for the celebration of the
eucharist. This was sometimes, as in the Papal crypt of St Calixtus
(fig. 10), protected from irreverence by lattice work (_transennae_) of
marble. The cubiculum was originally designed for the reception of a
very limited number of dead. But the natural desire to be buried near
one's relatives caused new tombs to be cut in the walls, above and
around and behind the original tombs, the walls being thus completely
honeycombed with _loculi_, sometimes as many as seventy, utterly
regardless of the paintings originally depicted on the walls. Another
motive for multiplying the number of graves operated when the cubiculum
contained the remains of any noted saint or martyr. The Christian
antiquary has cause continually to lament the destruction of works of
art due to this craving. One of the most perfect examples of early
Christian pictorial decoration, the so-called "Dispute with the
Doctors," in the catacomb of Calixtus, the "antique style of beauty" of
which is noticed by Kugler, has thus suffered irreparable mutilation,
the whole of the lower part of the picture having been destroyed by the
excavation of a fresh grave-recess (Bottari, vol. ii. tav. 15). The
plates of De Rossi, Ferret, and, indeed, all illustrations of the
catacombs, exhibit frequent examples of the same destructive
superstition. The illustrations (figs. 11 and 12), taken from De Rossi's
great work, representing two of the cubicula in the cemetery of St
Calixtus, show the general arrangement of the loculi and the character
of the frescoes which ornament the walls and roof. These paintings, it
will be seen, are simply decorative, of the same style as the
wall-paintings of the baths, and those of Pompeii.

[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Table-tomb.]

[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Arcosolia. (From Bosio.)]

[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Restoration of the Papal Crypt, Cemetery of St
Calixtus. (From de Rossi.)]

[Illustration: FIG. 11.--Cubiculum in Cemetery of St Calixtus. (From de
Rossi.)]

[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Cubiculum in the Cemetery of St Calixtus. (From
de Rossi.)]

[Illustration: FIG. 13.--Plan of a supposed Church, Catacomb of Sant'
Agnese. (From Marchi.)]

Each _cubiculum_ was usually the burying-place of some one family, all
the members of which were int