subsequent period, were erected over it in honour of the three saints
who suffered martyrdom with St. Cæcilia. Recent explorations have
brought to light, in a separate part of this Catacomb, curious
paintings and inscriptions which have been referred to the mysteries
of Mithras--an Oriental worship of the Sun--introduced into Rome about
a century before Christ, and which was celebrated in caves. When
Christianity became popular, and was threatening the overthrow of
polytheism, an attempt was made to counteract its influence in the
reign of Alexander Severus, who himself came from the East, by
organising this worship. The two systems of religion became,
therefore, mixed up together for a while; and hence it is not uncommon
to find in pagan sepulchres symbols and arrangements of a Christian
character, and in Christian Catacombs Mithraic features. The funeral
monuments of those who were converted to Christianity in the earliest
ages of the Church indicated the transition between the two religions.
We find upon their tombs pagan symbols, which ceased to be identified
with pagan worship, and became mere conventional ornaments. We have
other evidences along the Appian Way of the eclectic revival of
paganism at this time. When alluding to the classic stream of the
Almo, I spoke of the associations of the worship of Cybele. This
naturalistic cult was introduced from Phrygia, and its orgiastic rites
and nameless infamies had a horrible fascination for an age of
decaying faith. And not far from the mounds of the Horatii and
Curiatii there is a monument, probably of the age of Trajan, with a
bas-relief portrait, dedicated to the memory of one _Usia Prima_, a
priestess of Isis; this worship, with its painful initiations and
splendid ritual, being imported from Egypt in the second century. But
although this Neo-paganism appealed more to the passions of men than
the sunny humanistic worship of older times, and for a time inspired
the most frenzied enthusiasm, it failed utterly to resuscitate the