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E04695: Epitaph for a woman, possibly denoting a burial ad sanctos. Found in the lower part of the cemetery of Callistus, via Appia, Rome. Probably 4th c.

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posted on 2018-01-25, 00:00 authored by pnowakowski

Agatemeris spi-
ritum tuum inter
sanctos

'Agatameris, your spirit (is) among saints!'

Text: ICVR, n.s., IV, no. 9613.

History

Evidence ID

E04695

Saint Name

Saints, unnamed : S00518 Martyrs, unnamed or name lost : S00060

Saint Name in Source

sancti sancti

Related Saint Records

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions Archaeological and architectural - Internal cult fixtures (crypts, ciboria, etc.)

Language

Latin

Evidence not before

300

Evidence not after

400

Activity not before

300

Activity not after

400

Place of Evidence - Region

Rome and region

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Suburban catacombs and cemeteries

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Suburban catacombs and cemeteries Rome Rome Roma Ῥώμη Rhōmē

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Prayer/supplication/invocation

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Other lay individuals/ people Women

Source

The inscription is on a large marble plaque, broken into three conjoining parts. H. 0.28 m; W. 1.54 m; Th. 0.03 m. Letter height 0.035-0.04 m. First recorded by Giovanni Battista de Rossi in area B10 of the lower part of the cemetery of Callistus, and published by him in 1867. Revisited by Antonio Ferrua, and republished by him in 1964. Now probably in area B8.

Discussion

De Rossi suggested that the words spiritum tuum are in the accusative case, according to the rules of standardised Latin grammar, and, therefore, that the text should be completed by an understood clause, for example: spiritum tuum inter sanctos /' your spirit among the saints'. Ferrua argues, however, that we have here a corrupted form of the noun spiritus which takes the nominative case spiritum (neuter), and that the inscription needs no completions. It reads simply 'your spirit is among saints.' If so, the inscription may record a burial ad sanctos, in the cemetery famous for tombs of martyrs and popes, rather than referring to the heavenly company of saints desired by the soul of Agatemeris. Dating: Antonio Felle (in EDB) dates the inscription to the 4th c.

Bibliography

Edition: Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB21028, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/21028 De Rossi, G.B., Ferrua, A. (eds.) Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores, n.s., vol. 4: Coemeteria inter Vias Appiam et Ardeatinam (Vatican: Pont. Institutum Archaeologiae Christianae, 1964), no. 9613. Diehl, E., Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres, vol. 2 (Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1927), no. 3356. Marucchi, O., Epigrafia cristiana. Trattato elementare con una silloge di antiche iscrizioni cristiane principalmente di Roma (Milan: U. Hoepli, 1910), 155, no. 122. de Rossi, G.B., La Roma sotterranea cristiana, vol. 2 (Rome: Cromo-litografia pontificia, 1867), 104*, 257, and Tav. XLV.