Cemetery of PONZIANO. — It is situated on the right side of the Via Portuense, with an entrance from the hill of Monteverde, at 57 Via Alessandro Poerio.
It is mentioned, from the mid-4th century, by the Depositio Martyrum, which on «tertio Kalendas Augustas» (July 30) notes the commemoration of the martyrs Abdon and Sennen «in Pontiani, quod est ad ursum pileatum»; by the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, p. 402; and by the Liber Pontificalis, in the biographies of the popes Anastasius I (399–401) and Innocent I (401–417), buried in this cemetery. The church is referred to as the «ecclesia magna». Pope Adrian I (772–95) restored the basilica built above ground over the tomb of SS. Abdon and Sennen (Lib. Pont., I, p. 509), which Nicholas I (858–67) brought back to its former splendor (ibid., II, p. 161). In 1907, remains of the «ecclesia magna» mentioned in the Notitia Ecclesiarum were brought to light, built over the tomb of the martyrs Abdon and Sennen; at that time, two fragments of the marble decoration placed there by Damasus in their honor were discovered, bearing two hexameters in Philocalian script (A. Ferrua, Epigrammata Damasiana, Vatican City 1942, pp. 96–97).
Uncertain are the details regarding the eponym of this cemetery: P. against Panvinio’s hypothesis, who believed it to be the pope of that name, who died in Sardinia and was later transferred to Rome in the Cemetery of Callistus, other archaeologists, such as Bozio, considered it more likely to identify him with the Roman nobleman indicated by the Acta Callixii as the owner of this region beyond the Tiber. The indication «ad ursum pileatum» is connected with some image of that kind existing in the area.
The relics of the martyrs Abdon and Sennen were translated under Gregory IV to the urban basilica of S. Marco. Other martyrs MANILIO (v.), Pumenius, Pollio, Vincent and Candida, about whom no certain information is available. Antonio Bosio explored it