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 The Via Tiburtina

The Via Tiburtina leads to Tivoli. It quits Rome by the Porta S. Lorenzo, which stands on the site of the ancient Porta Tiburtina. On this road are two large cemeteries, that of S. Cyriaca and that of S. Hippolytus. S. Cyriaca was a Christian widow. The importance, however, of this catacomb is mainly derived from its possessing the tomb of S. Laurence. S. Laurence suffered martyrdom 258, three days after the death of Pope Sixtus, to whom he was attached as deacon. A very general tradition relates that Laurence suffered on a gridiron. An extraordinary popularity is attached to his memory. Marucchi, one of the latest scholars who has written on the catacombs, does not hesitate to say that the veneration paid to him was almost equal that accorded to the apostles. There is scarcely a city in Western Christendom which does not possess a church bearing his honoured name. In Rome itself there are six of these.

Over the crypt containing the tomb of S. Laurence, Constantine the Great built a little oratory or memoria, which soon became too small for the crowds of pilgrims. A second church was erected by Pope Sixtus, 432, by the side of Constantine's Memoria which was ever known as "Basilica ad Corpus." The second church was termed the "Basilica Major." Three of the fifth century Popes of Rome were buried in the "Basilica ad Corpus." In the thirteenth century the two churches were made into one by Honorius , 1218.

The Itineraries mention several well-known martyrs buried in the cemetery which was excavated round the martyr's sacred tomb, notably SS. Justus, Cyriaca, Simferosa, etc., "cum multis martyribus." The catacomb in comparatively modern times has been ruthlessly damaged by the works in connection with a very large modern cemetery. Only since 1894 has more care been taken in the preservation of the precious remains of this once important catacomb.

Cemetery of S. Hippolytus.—On the same great road,