magistrates of Rome were naturally lenient and
forbearing in religious matters, except in time of persecution. The
partiality shown by early Christians for underground cemeteries is due
to two causes: the influence which Eastern customs and the example of
the burial of Christ must necessarily have exercised on them, and the
security and freedom which they enjoyed in the darkness and solitude
of their crypts. Catacombs, however, could not be excavated
everywhere, the presence of veins or beds of soft volcanic stone being
a condition _sine qua non_ of their existence. Cities and villages
built on alluvial or marshy soil, or on hills of limestone and lava,
were obliged to resort to open-air cemeteries. In Rome itself these
were not uncommon. Certainly there was no reason why Christians should
object to the authority of the pontiffs in hygienic and civic matters.
This authority was so deeply rooted and respected, that the emperor
Constans (346-350), although a stanch Christian and anxious to abolish
idolatry, left the pontiffs full jurisdiction over Christian and pagan
cemeteries, by a constitution issued in 349.[142]

From apostolic times to the persecution of Domitian, the faithful were
buried, separately or collectively, in private tombs which did not
have the character of a Church institution. These early tombs, whether
above or below ground, display a sense of perfect security, and an
absence of all fear or solicitude. This feeling arose from two facts:
the small extent of the cemeteries, which secured to them the rights
of private property, and the protection and freedom which the Jewish
colony in Rome enjoyed from time immemorial. The Romans of the first
century, populace as well as government officials, made no distinction
between the proselytes of the Old Testament and those of the New.

Julius Caesar and Augustus treated the Jews with kindness, and when S.
Paul arrived in Rome the colony was living in peace and prosperity,
practising religion openly in its Transtiberine synagogues.[143] The
same state of things prevailed throughout the peninsula. Thus the
rabbi or archon of the synagogue at Pompeii called the _Synagoga
Libertinorum_ (the existence of which was discovered in September,
1764), could take, in virtue of his office, an active part in city
politics and petty municipal quarrels, and in his official capacity
could sign a document recommending the election of a candidate for
political honors, as is shown