Catacombs

In the afternoon, I thought I'd head out to the Catacombs outside of Rome as I'd never seen any (my only reference point being the catacombs in Indian Jones and the Last Crusade). The guidebook had about a paragraph on it so I was amazed at the scope of things in this area! Bit disappointed that I found this area towards the end of my time in Rome, guess now I have something to come back for.

The catacombs were somewhere christians could practice their faith as up until 417AD, if you were a christian you could be cruxified. Around this time two popes were competeting for power. One pope decided to make christainity the official religion of the empire as this would get all these 'sleeper cell' christians on his side. The pope was Constantine and I'm sure you've heard the name, as he successfully vied for power.

It was a really interesting space to be in and I went to the Saint Sebastian one (guy was shot with arrows from being a christain but didn't die 'because of his faith', thus he was whipped to death).