PRETESTATO, CEMETERY OF. – Located at the 2nd milestone on the left side of the Via Appia (currently the entrance is on Via Appia Pignatelli 1). The name appears in the Depositio martyrum for the tombs of the martyrs Januarius on July 10 and Felicissimus and Agapitus on August 6, all three recorded in the same cemetery by the Sacramentarium Leonianum and the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, which always indicates in P. Pope Urban (May 25) and the martyrs Quirinus (April 30), Valerian, Tiburtius and Maximus (April 14) and Major (May 10).
Damasus embellished the tomb of the martyr Januarius (A. Ferrara, Epigrammata Damasiana, Vatican City 1942, Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, p. 151 ff.).
He also composed a poem in honor of the deacons Felicissimus and Agapitus (ibid., pp. 152–56), probably the remains of an epigram in honor of St. Quirinus (ibid., pp. 157–60). There is also another fragment of an unknown Damasian poem in Philocalian letters (ibid., pp. 156–57). A marble fragment found in the aforementioned cemetery mentions Januarius, Felicissimus, Quirinus, and Major (R. Kanzler, Scavi ora fatti nel c. di P., in N. Bull. arch. crist., 15 [1909], pp. 45, 121 and pl. 1, 2). The 7th-century itineraries add a martyr Zeno above ground (R. Valentini – G. Zucchetti, Codice topografico della città di Roma, II, Rome 1942, pp. 85–96, 111, 149). The last restorations to the shrines of the cemetery were carried out by Hadrian I (772–95). The cemetery was visited in the 15th century by Pomponio Leto and his followers; A. Bosio descended into it; it was devastated by M. Boldetti; the excavations from 1847 to 1857 were directed by G. B. De Rossi, who conceived the idea of Roma Sotterranea and, together with Fr. G. Marchi, reported on the excavations in Civ. catt., 1st series, V (1851, 11), pp. 621–24.
The cemetery consists of an open burial area, originally used for pagan burials due to the large number of sarcophagi found there, which were later broken by peasants and used to close lucernaria and landslides (M. Gätschow, Das Museum der Prättextat-Katakombe, in Atti della Pont. accademia rom. di arch., 3rd series, Mem., 4 [1938, 2]). In the Christian burial area, the tombs of the martyrs Valerian, Tiburtius and Maximus are indicated, in an oratory or a transformed mausoleum near which Pope John III (561–74; cf. Lib. pont., I, pp. 305–306) once lived. The underground cemetery consists of various nuclei of hypogea, originally separate from each other, later enlarged and connected together. The oldest region (2nd century) originally consisted of a staircase descending to a gallery and a large cubicle frescoed with the Good Shepherd on the vault and a large mensa tomb on the back wall, with side walls decorated with scenes of the Raising of Lazarus, the Lord in conversation with the Samaritan Woman, the Haemorrhoissa, and the Crowning with Thorns, which some interpret instead as the Lord after the Baptism in the Jordan. The entire region was then deepened and extended; at a third stage, formellae were made in the floor, one of which belonged to a Urania, daughter of Herod, and sarcophagi were placed in the cubicle, now in the Lateran Museum.
A second region (3rd century) to the east of the first is formed by its own staircase and an extensive network of galleries, also deepened and with some polyandria; a third of the same century consists of a large gallery (later called the spelunca magna) opening onto rich cubicles with entrances characterized by architecture similar to that of above-ground mausolea. One of these had a vault and walls containing marble-lined niches for sarcophagi, with frescoes depicting the seasons and their symbols, Jonah cast into the sea, the Miracle of the Fountain, and the Good Shepherd, cut by a rear loculus where the inscription was scratched: (Maxi)mi refrigeri (for refrigerat) Ianuarius, Agatopus (for Agapitus) Felicissimus martyres, i.e., that the martyrs Januarius, Agapitus and Felicissimus may give refreshment to the soul of Maximus (G. B. De Rossi, Scoperta d'una cripta storica nel cemetero di P., in Bull. arch. crist., 1 [1863], p. 15 ff.). In this cubicle, G. B. De Rossi believed he could recognize the tomb of the martyr Januarius, having found fragments of the large dedicatory inscription of Damasus nearby (G. B. De Rossi, Iscrizione damasiana scoperta dinnanzi la cripta quadrata nel cemetero di P., in Bull. arch. crist., 1 [1863], pp. 17–22). Another cubicle also features the same external architectural decoration, while the interior was lined with marble and mosaics. M. Armellini, G. B. De Rossi and P. Styger believed that the two martyrs Felicissimus and Agapitus, deacons of Sixtus II, were deposited in two loculi in the large gallery, later decorated and protected by a marble transenna; the opposite wall was cut to build an apse. There is also a second very regular level with its own staircases; an intermediate level with graffiti inscriptions from the year 384; a region of a first level notable for the arcosolium where, after the middle of the 4th century, a Celerina was buried; there Susanna is depicted as a lamb between two wolves identified as the elders (seniores).
The inscriptions with consular dates range from 273 to 475. Some epitaphs have revealed the names of priests: Aphrodisius, Lucentius, Antipater, Innocent; two fragments indicate acolytes, one a fossor; a Quintus Laterius belonged to the household of a Lateran; not a few nobles were buried there. In a graffito the invocation reads: Deus Christus Omnipotens refrigeret spiritum tuum (May almighty God Christ refresh your spirit).
PRETESTATO – PRETI MATTIA
An inscription from 405 mentions a certain Superbus, so named only by name, whom the blessed saints knew to be innocent and gentle. An Aurelia Marula begs her buriers: massa calcetur; if they do so, the Lord will hear their prayers. – See plate CXXXVI.