referring, as we
heretofore stated, to the grave being made near that of some person
esteemed a saint.]

These inscriptions lead us by a natural transition to such as contain some
reference to the habits of life or to the domestic occupations and
feelings of the early Christians. Unfortunately for the gratification of
the desire to learn of these things, this class of inscriptions is far
from numerous,--and the common conciseness is rarely, in the first
centuries, amplified by details. But here is one that tells a little story
in itself:--

DOMNINAE
INNOCENTISSINAE ET DVLCISSIMAE COIVGI
QVAE VIXIT ANN XVI M. IIII ET FVIT
IMARITATA ANN. DVOBVS M. IIII D. VIIII
CVM QVA SON LICVIT FVISSE PROPTER
CAVSAS PEREGRINATIONIS
NISI MENEIE VI
QVO TEMPORE VT EGO SENSI ET EXHBVI
AMOREM MEVM
NVLLI SV ALII SIC DILEXERVNT
DEPOSIT XV KAL. IVN.

To Domnina, my most innocent and sweetest
wife; who lived sixteen years and four
months, and was married two years, four
months, and nine days; with whom, on account
of my journeys, I was permitted to be
only six months; in which time, as I felt, so
I showed my love. No others have so loved
one another. Placed in the grave the 15th
of the Kalends of June.

Who was this husband whose far-off journeys had so separated him from his
lately married wife? Who were they who so loved as no others had loved?
The tombstone gives only the name of Domnina. But in naming her, and in
the expression of her husband's love, it gives evidence, which is
confirmed by many other tokens in the catacombs, of the change introduced
by Christianity in the position of women, and in the regard paid to them.
Marriage was invested with a sanctity which redeemed it from sensuality,
and Christianity became the means of uniting man and woman in the bonds of
an immortal love.

Here is an inscription which, spite of the rudeness of its style,
preserves the pleasant memory of a Roman child:--

ISPIRITO SANTO BONO
FLORENTIO QVI VIXIT ANIS XIII
QVAM SI FILIVM SVVM ET COTDEVS
MATER FILIO BENEMERETI FECERVNT.

To the good and holy spirit Florentius, who
lived thirteen years, Coritus, his master, who
loved him more than if he were his own son,
and Cotdeus, his mother, have made this for
her well-deserving son.[3]

[Footnote 3: Compare an inscription from a heathen tomb:--

C. JVLIVS MAXIMVS
ANN. II. M. V.

ATROX