E04191: Prudentius, in his Latin Crowns of the Martyrs (Peristephanon), written c. 400 in Calahorra (northern Spain), addresses his poem on *Hippolytus (martyr of Rome, S00509), to Valerianus, bishop of Calahorra who asked him to record the names of the martyrs in Rome and the inscriptions on their tombs. Prudentius explains that he cannot do this, because there are either too many martyrs, or they lie in anonymous mass tombs. But among the inscriptions, he did find Hippolytus, and he will tell his story.

Liber Peristephanon, Poem XI.1-22

AD VALERIANVM EPISCOPVM DE PASSIONE HIPPOLYTI BEATISSIMI MARTYRIS

Innumeros cineres sanctorum Romula in urbe
uidimus, o Christi Valeriane sacer.
Incisos tumulis titulos et singula quaeris
nomina; difficile est ut replicare queam.
5 Tantos iustorum populos furor inpius hausit,
cum coleret patrios Troia Roma deos.
Plurima litterulis signata sepulcra loquuntur
martyris aut nomen aut epigramma aliquod,
sunt et muta tamen tacitas claudentia tumbas
10 marmora, quae solum significant numerum.
Quanta uirum iaceant congestis corpora aceruis
nosse licet, quorum nomina nulla legas.
Sexaginta illic defossas mole sub una
reliquias memini me didicisse hominum,
15 quorum solus habet conperta uocabula Christus,
utpote quos propriae iunxit amicitiae.
Haec dum lustro oculis et sicubi forte latentes
rerum apices ueterum per monumenta sequor,
inuenio Hippolytum, qui quondam scisma Nouati
20 presbyter attigerat nostra sequenda negans,
usque ad martyrii prouectum insigne tulisse
lucida sanguinei praemia supplicii.


'To Bishop Valerian on the Passion of the Most Blessed Martyr Hippolytus.

Countless are the graves of saints I have seen in the city of Romulus, Valerian, Christ's dedicated servant. You ask for the inscriptions cut on their tombs, and their individual names, but it is hard for me to be able to repeat them. Such great multitudes of the righteous did ungodly rage devour while Trojan Rome still worshipped the gods of her fathers. Many a grave is lettered and tells the martyr's name or bears some epitaph, but there are mute marbles too, which shut up the tombs in silence and only indicate the number; you may learn what masses of men's bodies lie gathered together in heaps, but read the name of none of them. I remember finding that the remains of sixty persons were buried there under one massive stone, whose names Christ alone knows, since He has added them to the company of His friends. In surveying these memorials and hunting over them for any letters telling of the deeds of old, that might escape the eye, I found that Hippolytus, who had at one time as a presbyter attached himself to the schism of Novatus, saying that our way was not to be followed, had been advanced to the crown of martyrdom and won the shining reward for suffering bloodshed.'

Text: Cunningham 1966, 370. Translation: Thomson 1953, 305-307.