Evidence ID
E04734Saint Name
Saints, name lost or very partially preserved : S01744
Martyrs, unnamed or name lost : S00060Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptionsEvidence not before
350Evidence not after
400Activity not before
350Activity not after
400Place of Evidence - Region
Rome and regionPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Suburban catacombs and cemeteriesPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Suburban catacombs and cemeteries
Rome
Rome
Roma
Ῥώμη
RhōmēCult activities - Places
Burial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relicsCult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Burial ad sanctosCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Women
Children
Other lay individuals/ peopleSource
Left-hand fragment of a marble plaque, broken into three conjoining parts. H. 0.34 m; W. 0.34 m; Th. 0.022 m. Letter height 0.033 m. The upper and left-hand margins are preserved. Decorated with a carving of a dove and a palm branch.
First recorded by Giovanni Battista de Rossi in staircase LI at the Cemetery of Callistus. Now in area L, near the crypt of Saint Cornelius. The fragment from the left-hand corner, visible in de Rossi's drawings, was lost when Antonio Ferrua revisited the stone. Republished by Ferrua in 1964. Included in the collection of Roman inscription referring to the cult of saints by Paola de Santis (2010).Discussion
The inscription records a burial close the tomb of a saint whose name is lost. For a similar, better preserved epitaph, see E04729 (a woman buried ad domnum Gaium, i.e. *Gaius, pope and martyr of Rome, S00145). In our case, we are unable to identify the saint or martyr mentioned in the epitaph. De Rossi rightly noted that a group of martyrs could also be referred to, as line 3 can be alternatively restored ad dom[inos - - -]/'next to lords/masters'. It is also not clear whether the expression ad dominum/ad dominos was understood by the author of the epitaph as a reference to a burial ad sanctos, or was a topographical description of the location of the tomb.
Dating: Antonio Felle dates the inscription to the second half of the 4th c.Bibliography
Edition:
Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB20228, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/20228
De Santis, P., Sanctorum monumenta. 'Aree sacre' del suburbio di Roma nella documentazione epigrafica (IV-VII secolo) (Bari: Edipuglia, 2010), 213, no. 63.
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. 9698.
Diehl, E., Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres, vol. 1 (Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1925), comments to no. 2132.
de Rossi, G.B., La Roma sotterranea cristiana, vol. 3 (Rome: Cromo-litografia pontificia, 1877), 224, and Tav. XXXI.
de Rossi, G.B., "Roma: Scavi nel cimitero di Callisto", Bullettino di archeologia cristiana (1875), 136.
?Giornale degli scavi I, p. 149, n. 6.
