1981). As part of this interest, church leaders – and, indeed, those
seeking to challenge their authority (Cooper 1999) – sponsored
efforts to recover physical remains connected with these early
Christian heroes. One of the most concerted efforts occurred at
Rome under the guidance of bishops like Damasus I (366–84),
who oversaw the widespread refurbishment of Christian burial
chambers in the Roman catacombs, particularly those associated
with the burial of earlier bishops of Rome (Stevenson 1978:
24–44). As Damasus’ contemporary and friend Jerome recorded,
such burial places became popular attractions for Christians to
visit on Sundays (Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel40.5). Much
as had been the case with the narratives of Eusebius and his suc-
cessors, this material record of earliest Christianity was used to
validate the practices and beliefs of later generations of Christians.
Most famously, the bishops of Rome fostered the cult of martyrs
and the veneration of their relics as a means to buttress the
spiritual authority of the Roman church (Humphries 1999: 53–6).
Other Christian leaders used similar tactics. During his struggle
with the imperial court in 386, for example, bishop Ambrose of
Milan (bishop from 374 to 397) saw the miraculous discovery
of relics of the martyrs Gervasius and Protasius as a sign from
heaven that his cause was right (McLynn 1994: 209–19).
In archaeology as in history, then, the attitudes of the age
of Constantine and Eusebius continued to flourish throughout the
fourth century and into the fifth. Yet there soon occurred an event
that threatened to undermine fatally this optimistic vision of
Christian history championed by Eusebius and his successors. On
24 August 410, the city of Rome was sacked by those same Gothic
warriors whose appearance in Italy had prompted Rufinus’ Latin
edition of the Ecclesiastical History. It was the first time that the
Eternal City had been captured by a foreign enemy in 800 years,
and the event sent a seismic wave of shock and horror throughout
the Roman empire: ‘if Rome can perish’, wrote Jerome soon after-
wards, ‘then what can be safe?’ (Jerome, Letter123.16). Worse
than this, however, the Gothic sack seemed to add grist to the
mill of pagans who had long argued that abandonment of Rome’s
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