Bryce & Damon in Europe
by Pertinax Carrus
Chapter 27: Rome Again, Part V
Under St. Peter’s
Father Long had obtained tickets for Bryce and Damon to take part in a tour of the excavations under St. Peter’s Basilica, called the scavi, beginning at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, July 19. The guidelines which accompanied the tickets advised holders to be present at least ten minutes before the scheduled time. Appropriate clothing was to be worn, and no cameras, backpacks, or other large containers were permitted. Some inconsiderate or purposely insulting persons in the past had attempted to carry off bits and pieces of the monuments found under the church, hence such restrictions were imposed. Visitors were also warned that it might be warmer than on the surface, as there was little circulation.
Naturally, the guys arrived on time and checked their cameras at the check-in area on the ground floor past the security entrance. Anything checked there would be safe, and the service was offered free. Entrance to the Excavation Office is outside the Bernini colonnades, to the left, on the Via Paolo VI. There they found Swiss Guards on duty, and showed them their tickets. They were then admitted to the gathering place. In order to prevent possible damage to the site, only about 250 persons per day are admitted in groups of about a dozen sorted by language, and under the supervision of a guide. As they made their way past the tombs of popes on the level called the grottos, down to the level of the early Roman cemetery, their guide, a young man named Guido gave them an overview of the situation. He reminded Damon strongly of Marco at Pompeii as he seemed to have a sense of humor.
“This area was outside the ancient city of Rome,” he said. “It was not permitted to bury anyone inside the city. How many of you have visited the catacombs along the Via Appia?”
About half the hands went up.
“Well, it was similar here, as tombs lined the road out of the city. However, along the Via Appia there were impressive tombs of wealthy and important people. This cemetery along the Via Cornelia was mostly for poor and lower middle class individuals and families. There never was anything even remotely like the tomb of Caecelia Metella on this road along the Vatican hillside. This was a relatively recent cemetery, too, with most of the sites dated thus far coming from the second and third centuries A.D., and only a few from earlier. Not far, just across the road, was the Circus of Caligula, a place for racing chariots constructed under Emperor Caligula, who was the Roman ruler from 37 to 41 A.D. His nephew Nero inherited the site, and it was here in the year 67 that he carried out with great cruelty the martyrdom of many Christians, including the Apostle St. Peter. The Roman writers Tacitus and Suetonius both mention his vendetta against the Christians, so there is no question on this point. Of course, these pagan writers do not mention St. Peter or others by name. It is the early Christian writers who make this connection.
“In the early fourth century, when the Christian Emperor Constantine determined to erect a church here, he had to carry out extensive alterations to the entire area. You might wonder why he did not build on the site of the Circus of Caligula, which was already more or less level, was the actual site of martyrdom, and would not involved the violation of many burial sites on the slopes of the Vatican. The answer seems to be that he wanted the altar of his church to rest over an already existing memorial to the Apostle St. Peter. To do this, he had to level everything on the upper slopes of the hill, and then build up everything on the lower slopes. Only the tombs in the center were left more or less intact, but filled in with rubble and soil to form a solid base for the new church. That involved a great deal of effort to site the church exactly where there was already a memorial to the Apostle St. Peter. The church of Constantine is not the present church above us, of course, but its predecessor, which was torn down in the early years of the sixteenth century. What we will see in the scavi are those middle range tombs, neither high on the hill nor low in the valley.”
By the time Guido had completed his introductory remarks, the group was well underground, beneath the great basilica. They found themselves in what appeared to be a street scene, with rows of miniature houses. Each structure fronted on the street, with brick facing and regular doors with travertine lintels and doorposts.
“Were all these Christians who were buried here?” one of the group asked.
“Oh, no. Most of the burials seem to be pagans, and in some cases it is difficult or impossible to tell. One indication is that Christians preferred inhumation. Earlier pagan burials were cremations, but over time inhumations also became common among non-Christians as well, so by the time the burials cease, that is no longer a reliable guide. But there are frequently decorations in the burial chambers which tell us something about the beliefs of the person who was buried there. There is one inscription which translates as, ‘I am ash, ash is earth, earth is divine; therefore I am not dead.’ That clearly was not a Christian. On the other hand, when we find an inscription which says ‘Rest in peace,’ it may very well mark a Christian burial, but not necessarily. We will see some very definitely Christian burials before we reach our destination, however,” Guido informed his listeners.
“Here, we have reached what the archaeologists term Tomb F, and which we know from inscriptions to have belonged to the Caetenni family. It is one of the largest, and also one of the most highly decorated. It was also one of the first to be excavated,” Guido said.
“When were the excavations begun?” Damon enquired.
“A very good question,” Guido said. “On 10 February 1939 Pope Pius XI died. It was intended that a memorial be erected to him under the high altar above us. But when workers set to work, it was discovered that the memorial designed for the Pope was too large. Rather than decrease the size of the monument, the decision was made to lower the floor of the grottos in what you might consider the basement of St. Peter’s, which we passed through on our way here. That led to the discovery of this even lower level with the tombs you see before you. Of course, it was sort of known that there was a cemetery here, as it had always been believed that the Apostle St. Peter was buried here, but to actually find these memorials was exciting. Excavations were carried out between 1939 and 1949 under the direction of a priest appointed by Pope Pius XII, Msgr. Ludwig Kaas, who was unfortunately not a trained archaeologist, but an administrator. We will come back to that later. Since then, there have been continuing explorations, now always under the direction of trained archaeologists, but we must always be careful not to endanger the basilica above, so some areas are kind of off limits.”
“Oh, how lovely,” a female member of the group exclaimed as they entered the tomb.
“Yes, you see the niches where sarcophagi are located, and the walls are stucco, containing depictions of flowers and fruit. Here, on the west wall, is a very nice pastoral scene. On the altar at the center are inscriptions giving the names of many members of the Caetenni family. But, as you asked about Christian burials, I draw your attention to this tomb, that of a young woman of the family named Aemilia Gorgonia. Her tomb contains rather different decorations. See, here is a woman drawing water from a well, such as is recounted in the Gospel account of the meeting of Our Lord with the Samaritan woman. And here are two doves with an olive branch, and the inscription dormit in pace – ‘she rests in peace.’ This most likely represents a Christian burial. The inscription, put up by her husband, eulogizes her beauty and goodness,” Guido expounded.
“Oh, how touching,” the woman responded.
“Now let us visit a much smaller tomb, but with some equally interesting images,” Guido encouraged them.
They moved along the street, past other interesting burial vaults, until they ducked down a kind of side street to tomb M, called the Tomb of the Julii. Guido drew the attention of his flock to the vaulted ceiling. Whereas the ceiling of the Tomb of the Caetennii had been knocked off in the process of leveling the site for the “old” St. Peter’s, this much smaller structure was almost completely intact. On the ceiling was an equivocal image of a god with light radiating from his head, in a chariot pulled by two horses. Is this the Sol Invictus of the later Roman emperors? It would seem so, although a bit early for that. And yet other images in the tomb were pretty definitely Christian. There is Jonah and the great fish, there is the Good Shepherd carrying a lamb, and there is what some believe to be St. Peter, but in any case a fisherman drawing in his nets. So, the equivocal figure on the ceiling has been called the Helios-Christos, and the vines around him have been related to the imagery of Jesus as the true vine found in John 15.
“That other tomb we saw seemed to have both Christians and non-Christians in the same family,” Damon pointed out. “Could this be the same thing?”
“It could easily be,” Guido agreed, “but it could also be an example of the syncretism often found in the third and fourth centuries.”
“What does that mean?” one of the other visitors asked.
“There were people who picked and chose, taking bits and pieces from a variety of religions and kind of manufacturing their own,” Guido said.
“How can anyone believe in a religion they themselves created?” the questioner asked.
“That I cannot tell you,” Guido diplomatically replied.
After leading his group further along the street, they turned down a side corridor and then went up a flight of stairs to an open space known to the excavators as Campo P. Guido explained that this area contained some very simple burials, some of which are definitely dated to the first century. On one wall there was a graffito which read, “Peter, pray to Jesus Christ for the holy men buried near your body.” An early account says that St. Linus, for example, the man who succeeded St. Peter as pope, was buried near him, and, of course, there were other Christians martyred at the same time as Peter. One side of Campo P is delineated by the so-called red wall, from its coloring. Attached to that wall is the monument called the Aediculum of St. Peter, the memorial referred to by the presbyter Gaius around the year 200. The wall and the aediculum have been dated to about 160 A.D. Both were erected on top of earlier graves, as is shown by the fact that several graves are partly under the wall.
“When the first excavations were carried out in the 1940s, the officials were puzzled by the fact that this lowest level of the aediculum is not in line with the upper portions,” Guido told the visitors, pointing to the stone slab he meant. “But later excavations showed that it was lined up with an earlier tomb, and in fact with several tombs, which predate the red wall. The central burial is now thought to be that of the Apostle St. Peter.”
“Hey, wait,” one of the group called. “I thought the Pope said you guys could not identify the tomb of St. Peter.”
“Not quite,” Guido responded. “In 1950, Pope Pius XII announced that it was impossible to tell whether the bones of the Apostle St. Peter were here, but it has always been believed that the tomb was here. But now we come to the unfortunate Msgr. Kaas, whom I mentioned earlier. He died in 1952, and a trained scientist, Dr. Margherita Guarducci, comes to play a role in the story. She discovered some bones carefully preserved in an out-of-the-way location, and questioned the foreman of the workmen who had been around for some time about them, as they were obviously very old, but had been in their current location only a short time. She discovered that these bones had been found in the grave under the aediculum, and Msgr. Kaas was convinced that they were the bones of the Apostle St. Peter. He feared, however, that they might not be given due respect by the excavators, and so personally carried them away after work had ceased for the day without consulting the archaeologists. Remember, he was not a trained archaeologist himself. No doubt he was well-intentioned, but in fact he destroyed the scientific chain of evidence. Only the testimony of the foreman places these bones in the place associated with the Apostle St. Peter.”
“That sounds kind of suspicious,” the previous speaker stated. “I mean, we need some bones, so bingo, we find some bones.”
“Your skepticism has been shared by more than a few, Sir,” Guido noted. “Dr. Guarducci was a very well respected scientist, and no one who knew her ever suggested anything underhanded, but there were questions about the connection of the bones to the burial site and their identification with the Apostle St. Peter. There are a few additional facts to consider. Tests showed that the bones belonged to a male about 70 years of age, which, of course, would fit the traditional age of the Apostle St. Peter if he were martyred in 67 A.D. Also, there was no skull found with the bones.”
“No skull! How macabre,” another of the group said.
“But there is a skull traditionally believed to be that of the Apostle St. Peter located in St. John Lateran. The records indicate that that skull was removed and hidden in the Lateran in 846 when Moslems from North Africa attacked the city. When they attacked, they evidently smashed and looted everything they could reach at St. Peter’s, which was outside the Aurelian Walls, and thus not protected. In the long run, we must conclude that there is no absolute proof that we have the bones of the Apostle St. Peter, but it seems pretty certain that we have his burial site,” Guido concluded.
The skeptical man did not seem happy with this concession, but some of the others seemed equally disturbed by the small amount of doubt which Guido’s statement allowed. As a result, when they concluded their tour several of the company did not tip their guide. Noticing this, Bryce gave him an unusually large tip, saying, “Thanks for being honest with us.”
Wandering, Shopping, Talking
The tour of the scavi or excavations beneath St. Peter’s lasted for about an hour and a half, so it was a little past 10:30 when Bryce and Damon emerged again into the Roman sunlight.
“What do you want to do next?” Bryce asked.
“What? You’re asking me? I thought you had everything planned out to the last minute,” Damon teased his boyfriend.
“Well, there’s a little flexibility in my schedule,” Bryce admitted with a grin. “This evening, we have dinner with Father Long again. By tomorrow I want to have hit the last of the pilgrimage churches, St. Mary Major, and that evening we’re scheduled to visit the Alexanderplatz to indulge someone’s taste in music. We need to pack sometime, because we’re getting up at some ungodly hour on Wednesday morning.”
“Ungodly, eh? Well, that’ll be a change,” Damon teased.
“Seriously, though, is there anything you would like to do while in Rome that we haven’t done yet?” Bryce insisted.
“Yeah,” Damon slowly replied.
“Well, spit it out. What is it?” Bryce demanded.
“You’re paying for everything, right?” Damon asked.
“Sure. Well, my dad is, but you don’t have to worry about finances, if that’s what you’re asking,” Bryce responded, filled with curiosity.
“I know I bitched and griped about you paying for everything,” Damon said, blushing furiously, “but I’ve always heard of Italian shoes being the best. Any chance?”
Bryce broke out laughing. “You’re even cuter than usual when you’re embarrassed,” he informed his boyfriend. “I should have thought of something like that. Every time I came with the family, we spent some time shopping. Well, mostly Mom and Nan did the shopping, but I did gather up some good stuff, and I know where to look. I guess I never thought of it because you were being such a stubborn mule about accepting things. I’m glad you finally caught on to the concept of community property.”
Still blushing, Damon gave his partner a shove, but was clearly pleased.
Bryce led them down the Via della Conciliazione to the banks of the Tiber, then along the river in front of the Castel Sant’ Angelo. There were a number of small booths and street vendors in that area, so before passing on to the more exclusive shops Bryce had in mind, they spent some time there, mostly just looking. Among the other vendors, Damon noticed a black man who had drawn an elaborate picture in chalk on the sidewalk. It was a beautiful and faithful reproduction of Raphael’s Bullfinch Madonna. Next to the drawing was an open cigar box, in which passers-by had tossed a few Euros. Damon was drawn to him for some reason.
“Do you speak English?” Damon asked.
“Yeah, Man,” the young man answered. “I’m from Ghana. A lot of us speak English there, even though we got rid of the British a long time ago. What do you want to know, Man.”
Damon smiled. “I’m from America. I’m here visiting Rome with my friend, who’s over there poking about in that book stall. I’ve never been to Africa, but some day I’d like to visit. What can you recommend?” he naively asked.
“Africa’s a big place, Man. I haven’t seem most of it myself. But if you ever get to Ghana, look me up. I don’t plan to stay here,” the man replied. “Everything is way too expensive. That’s why I’m trying to raise a few Euros with this exhibit.”
“Why are you in Rome, then?” Damon asked.
“I came to see my Cardinal,” the man quietly declared.
“Who’s that?” Damon asked.
“Man, you don’t know nothing. His Eminence Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, Man. He’s going to be the next pope.”
“You’re kidding. A pope from Africa?” Damon wondered.
“Makes sense, Man. We had enough Italians to last until the Second Coming, and the Poles and Germans had their turn. Catholicism is growing in what you guys call the third world. Europe is past it, Man. And we can’t have a pope from America.”
“Who’s the ‘you guys’ you’re talking about, and why not a pope from America?’ Damon wanted to know.
“You guys are Americans, that’s who. You’re the ones who say we’re the third world. We just know we’re where we always were. And we can’t have a pope from America because it won’t be right to have the two most powerful men in the world from the same country. If your president and the pope get too chummy, it makes the rest of us uneasy,” the street artist said.
All this came as quite a revelation to Damon. Africans, at least this African, thought of him as one with other Americans, not as one with other blacks. And he thought the American president and the pope were in some way equals, and the two most powerful men in the world. In only a few minutes, he gave Damon as much to think about as some of Bryce’s more challenging pronouncements. At that moment, Bryce joined them.
“Hey, Damon, who’s your friend?” he asked.
“Sorry, I didn’t get your name. I’m Damon Watson, and this is my friend Bryce Winslow,” Damon said to the African.
“My name is Innocent Kwode. I came to Rome because my Cardinal is here at this time, and I need to speak to him about my sister, who really needs help.”
“Do you think the Cardinal will help?” Damon asked.
“Oh, yes. He helps many people. And we are members of his congregation at home,” Innocent said.
“So, you’re Catholic?” Damon wanted to be sure he understood.
“Of course,” Innocent replied. “We make up about 11% of the population, over two million of us. Since we were under British rule for a long time, there are more Protestants than Catholics, but we’re growing. You mentioned visiting Africa. If you do contact me at this address,” he said, writing an e-mail address on a slip of paper.
Damon said to Innocent, “Excuse me for a moment,” and motioned for Bryce to step aside. “Okay, Money Man, I want to give Innocent more than I have on me. You okay with that?”
“Sure, Boyfriend,” Bryce readily agreed, and pulled out his wallet, but in such a way as to shield what he was doing from Innocent. He passed Damon a hundred Euro bill. “That enough?”
“I think so. Thanks,” Damon replied.
“This makes the second time this morning you actually asked for something. I love it,” Bryce grinned.
Damon made a face at his lover, then walked back to Innocent. “Innocent, Bryce and I have to be on our way, but I want to give you my contact information and something for making this beautiful picture. Here,” he said, handing the artist his own slip of paper and the money.
Innocent looked at the gift, then looked again. “You’re very generous, American. Thank you.”
“Good luck with your Cardinal,” Damon said.
Joining with Bryce, Damon was choking up. “It’s a damn conspiracy,” he cryptically announced.
“What is?” a perplexed Bryce asked.
“Never mind,” Damon replied, and gave his attention to the river on his right.
Bryce paused, looked at his partner, then shrugged his shoulders and caught up to Damon. They followed the curve of the river until they reached the familiar Ponte Cavour, then crossed over to the left bank.
They had passed the Ara Pacis and the Mausoleum of Augustus several times during their various treks, so this time, not being on their way to anything requiring haste, they decided to take them in. This was on the fringe of the area which, in ancient Rome, was called the Campus Martius, or Field of Mars. It was where the early Romans carried out military exercises. The Ara Pacis did not originally stand in its present location, but was moved there in 1937 as part of Mussolini’s attempt to identify his regime with the Roman past. But it is a significant monument to the times of Caesar Augustus, regardless of later associations. Erected to commemorate the peace brought to the Roman world as a result of the victories of Augustus, the Pax Romana, it marks the end of a century of civil strife and warfare dating back to the time to Marius and Sulla. With only minor lapses, the Pax Romana established by Augustus lasted for two and a half centuries, more or less, until the assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 A.D., which ushered in a new era of instability. Of course, many of the emperors were tyrants, and there were always problems, but on the whole the Mediterranean world saw a very long period of peace and stability following the victories of Caesar Augustus over his rivals.
“So, if I read you correctly, you’re saying the Romans made a significant contribution. It wasn’t all warfare and bloody gladiatorial combats,” Damon interpreted his boyfriend’s comments on the Ara Pacis.
“Right. There are very few peoples or individuals who are entirely positive or negative. If you’re looking for Utopia, or the Garden of Eden, you won’t find it in the history books. That’s in the fiction section of the library. I can admire Roman law, the Roman penchant for organization, Roman engineering feats, and the like without thinking that things were perfect when Rome was at her height, say under the five good emperors in the second century. And, Damon, you know how much I admire the Greek insistence on balance, proportion, avoiding extremes. But they weren’t perfect either. For example, they made their most significant contributions when they lived in small city-states, but when they tried to organize larger political units, they adopted the Persian practice of having the ruler be declared a god. Both societies went in for slavery in a big way, too, and both had pretty demeaning concepts of the place of women. The Greeks in particular were also real xenophobes, despising anyone who was not Greek. And as far as the Romans are concerned, they did have a cruel streak which never entirely went underground. Do you remember the phrase ‘a Carthaginian peace’ from your history class?”
“Yeah. Dr. Dickinson explained that. At the end of the Third Punic War, Rome totally annihilated the Carthaginians. Razed the city to the ground and sold the inhabitants into slavery. Kind of like what we were talking about the other day with respect to Jerusalem. There’s peace because the enemy has been totally wiped out,” Damon replied.
“You got it. Compromise was not exactly a Roman strong point. They tended to overdo things. So, while I can admire some aspects of the Roman character, I really don’t care much for some others,” Bryce concluded.
“Got you. Let’s go visit Augustus again next door,” Damon suggested.
However, they found that they could not enter the Mausoleum of Augustus, but only view it from the outside. Caesar Augustus began work on his tomb shortly after defeating Mark Antony and Cleopatra and achieving supremacy in the Roman world. Today, his monument to himself is a not-so-imposing ruin. As a family mausoleum, it housed the ashes of most members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and also the unrelated emperor Nerva.
Disappointed at not being able to see more, the pair moved on, across the Via del Corso, to the Via Condotti, which ran from the Via del Corso to the Piazza di Spagna. Along it were some of the leading shops in Rome. At Via Condotti 65, Damon found what his heart craved. There was the Salvatore Ferragamo men’s store, with high quality leather products, including the most comfortable shoes in the world. Damon swallowed his pride, and allowed his boyfriend to treat him. That was a gift to Bryce as well as to Damon, as it was not often that Damon asked for something. In fact, it was almost unprecedented, and Bryce loved to give things to those close to him. They were there for almost an hour, with Damon getting a pair of shoes which fit him like a second skin. He was carefully measured, with the shoes being specially made. They would be shipped to him back in Clifton, as they were leaving Rome in two days.
They continued to ogle the shops, admiring suits, shirts, ties, and accessories, but bought nothing else in the haberdashery line. They did stop at one of the many restaurants for lunch after they had been shopping for a while, and topped off lunch with a delicious ice cream dessert. There’s nothing quite like Italian gelato, especially on a hot July afternoon. Feeling totally sated and dissolute, they wandered out at the Piazza di Spagna end of the street.
There they remembered their dinner companion of several evenings before, and his comment about “the English poet,” and decided to check out the Keats house.
Located immediately next to the Spanish Steps, the museum was housed in the building where John Keats died of tuberculosis in 1821. Bryce noted that his younger brother George emigrated to America, where he lived in Louisville, Kentucky, and was a friend of John James Audubon. After the poet’s death, his friend Charles Brown carried on a campaign to vilify George, evidently believing that a poet deserved to be supported by his family. In the museum, Bryce and Damon were able to view the extensive collection of letters, manuscripts, and paintings, as well as lesser memorabilia, related not only to Keats, but also to Shelley, Wordsworth, Byron, both Brownings, and Oscar Wilde.
“Is this the same Wilde we encountered in that cemetery in Paris?” Damon asked.
“Yep,” Bryce laconically replied.
“And he was gay?”
“Yep.”
“We’re everywhere,” Damon grinned.
“Yep,” Bryce grinned back.