VITALIANO ALVMNO KARO
  EVTROPIVS FECIT.

  Eutropius made this for the dear foster-child
  Vitalian.

  ANTONIVS DISCOLIVS FILIVS ET BIBIVS
  FELLICISSIMVS ALVMNVS VALERIE CRESTENI
  MATRI BIDVE ANORVM XVIII INTET SANCTOS

Antonius Discolius her son, and Bibius Felicissimus her foster-child, to Valeria Crestina their mother, a widow for eighteen years. [Her grave is] among the holy.[2]

[Footnote 2:  This inscription is not of earlier date than the fourth century, as is shown by the words, Inter sancios,—­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:—­