Search

Esch, Arnold [German version] I. History and Interpretation (CT) Esch, Arnold [German version] A. Main Features of Rome's Urban History (CT) After the end of the Roman Empire and the dissolution of government structures, it increasingly fell to the Church as the only institution still intact, and also the largest landowner, to take on secular tasks: political negotiations, organization of the grain distribution, repair of the city's fortifications and aqueducts and many more. Since the Byzantine emperor ruled Rome i…

[German version] A. Function, architecture, development Derived from the ancient local name of the underground Christian burial complex S. Sebastiano ( coemeterium catacumbas from Greek katà kýmbas, ‘near the hollows’) by the via Appia near Rome, the underground  necropoleis, rediscovered in Rome since the 16th cent., were also called catacombs instead of coemeterium or crypta. As differentiated from smaller, private   hypogaea , catacombs in modern research are understood to be larger community cemeteries using suitable geological l…