E04798: Latin epitaph for a woman with labelled paintings of the Apostles *Peter (S00036) and *Paul (S00008). Found in a cemetery on the via Ardeatina, Rome. Probably late 4th c.
online resource
posted on 2018-01-31, 00:00authored bypnowakowski
The epitaph is written to the left and to the right of a painting showing a praying woman. This image is flanked by the paintings of the Apostles Peter and Paul, shown next to their respective labels.
[Eus]- tocia
Pau[lus] [P]etrus
'Eustocia. Paul. Peter.'
Text: ICVR, n.s., IV, no. 12287 = EDB9003.
History
Evidence ID
E04798
Saint Name
Peter the Apostle : S00036
Paul, the Apostle : S00008
Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions
Archaeological and architectural - Internal cult fixtures (crypts, ciboria, etc.)
Images and objects - Wall paintings and mosaics
Language
Latin
Evidence not before
375
Evidence not after
400
Activity not before
375
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 - Use of Images
Private ownership of an image
Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Women
Source
The epitaph with the paintings was briefly discussed by de Rossi in 1867. The first proper publication was, however, offered by Josef Wilpert in 1903.
The paintings are believed to be now lost; Antonio Ferrua did not manage to find them, and there is a disagreement regarding their location. De Rossi placed them in a cemetery on the via Adreatina, whilst Wilpert ascribed them to the nearby cemetery of *Marcus and Marcellianus, see E04761.
The cemetery was recorded by Giovanni Battista de Rossi, already in 1867, and later explored by Henry Stevenson in 1880-1881. Between 1958 and 1961 it was excavated by Antonio Ferrua.
Discussion
Dating: De Rossi stylistically dated the painting to the Constantinian, or a not much later, period. Marida Pierno (EDB) places the epitaph and the paintings in the late 4th c.
Bibliography
Edition:
Epigraphic Database Bari, nos. EDB9003, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/9003
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. 12287.
Wilpert, J., Le pitture delle catacombe Romane (Rome, Desclee, Lefebvre & C., 1903), 431, Tav. 249, 1.
Further reading:
Papi, C., "L'apostolo Paolo nelle iscrizioni cristiane antiche di Roma", in: O. Buccarelli, M.M., Morales (eds.), Paulo apostolo martyri: l'apostolo San Paolo nella storia, nell'arte e nell'archeologia (atti della giornata di studi ... Pontificia Università Gregoriana, il 19 gennaio 2009) (Miscellanea historiae pontificae, Rome: , 2001), 196 (mentioned after ICVR, as located in the cemetery of Marcus and Marcellianus).
de Rossi, G.B., "Ritrovamento del cemetero di Balbina contiguo a quello di Callisto", Bulletino di Archeologia Cristiana 5 (1867), 5.