Catacombs are underground cemeteries that were used by the Christians form the second to the fifth century to bury their dead.
The word catacomb is Greek, the ancient Christians did not use the word. The Romans used it to describe a place where there were caves that they used for the removal of tuff blocks of rock. It is near this place that the catacombs were dug for Saint Sebastian. By the ninth century the term was used to describe all cemeteries that went under the ground.
Roman law forbids the dead to be buried inside the city. Open spaces were not as available, so the Christians looked for another way to bury their dead. …
