Actually, its being in the Catacomb of Praetextatus pretty well precludes a funeral according to the
Christian rite for anything in it. Thank you for sending me to the OCD for Praetextatus (320-384) a senator who was a resolute opponent to Christianity, though he and
his wife were deeply involved in other religions and in philosophies. All told, he is one of the interesting characters of 4th-century
Rome. The point is, which in general I did know, not all catacombs are
Christian. I also
had learned from "
Roma e dintorni" that (as of 1977) the Praetextatus catacomb was not open to the public but only to serious students (and that doesn't mean term papers) who
had applied formally in advance to the Pontifici Commissione di
Archeologia Sacra, via Napoleone III, 1. It did seem obvious that guided tours to this particular catacomb were not of interest to those who control it.
I
still don't know why this sarcophagus, which I think surely is of
Balbinus (he holds Imperial attributes, and it resembles
his coins, and the
style and technique are just right for 238, and it can hardly be less than Imperial), ended up in the catacomb of Praetextatus. I didn't find any hint of its being appropriated for Praetextatus or of their families being related.
Recently some post-Constantinian sets of small statuettes of
standard non-Christian deities have been found (in a
thread here
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11809 posted 12 June by LordBest) and there are comparable Aesclepieian ones in the National Museum in
Athens, and about 3-5 years ago a whole set was found in a house (as I recall) in the excavations at
Corinth. From such occurrences it seems likely that between
Constantine and
Theodosius a whole class of high-ranking persons tried to maintain their own heritage. Praetextatus, in fact, at the time of
his death in 384 was Praetorian Prefect of
Italy and
Consul Designate.
Pat L.
P.S. R. Bianchi Bandinelli,
Rome:
The Late Empire (Brazilier, 1971) in
his caption to a detail of the sarcophagus, p. 24, fig. 19, says it's in the "Museum of Pretestato Catacombs". I wish I
had the original language edition. But that might explain why in the last generation this beautiful sarcophagus has begun to be illustrated in books. Bianchi Bandinelli would certainly know where to see it, if anyone would.