Evidence ID
E05082Saint Name
Eutychianus, bishop of Rome, ob. c. 282 : S00662Saint Name in Source
ΕὐτυχιανόςType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions
Archaeological and architectural - Internal cult fixtures (crypts, ciboria, etc.)Evidence not before
283Evidence not after
283Activity not before
283Activity not after
283Place 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
Ceremonies at burial of a saintCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Ecclesiastics - bishopsCult Activities - Cult Related Objects
InscriptionSource
Multiple conjoining fragments of a marble plaque. Dimensions: H. 0.435 m; W. 0.91 m. Letter height 0.06 m.
Recorded in cubiculum Aa, in the area of the so-called Crypt of the Popes at the Cemetery of Callistus, and first published in 1854 by Giovanni Battista de Rossi. His edition was used by Adolf Kirchhoff who included the inscription in his Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum. Republished by de Rossi in 1867, and by other scholars (e.g. Wilpert 1910, Diehl 1925). More insignificant fragments were reportedly found by Josef Wilpert. Revisited and republished in 1964 by Antonio Ferrua. A quality photograph is offered by Antonio Felle in the Epigraphic Database Bari.
Now in cubiculum Aa.Discussion
The inscription is considered the original epitaph for pope Eutychianus. Our main source for his life and death is the mid-6th c. Liber pontificalis which says that he died a martyr's death in 283 (E00364). The preserved part of the present epitaph does not call him a martyr, although de Rossi speculated that the epithet could have been on a now lost fragment.
The date of the deposition of Eutychianus at the Cemetery of Callistus is, probably wrongly, recorded by the Liber Pontficalis as 25 July. According to the Martyrologium Hieronymianum Eutychianus was commemorated on 8 December (E05045). He also appears on the list of the depositions of bishops of Rome in the Chronography of 354 where the date is again given as 8 December (E01051). His name was probably also included on a now lost plaque with a list of martyrs and confessors, erected by pope Sixtus III, 432-440 (E04721).
Dating: If this is the original epitaph for Eutychianus, not a later monument, it must date to 283 or shortly thereafter.Bibliography
Edition:
Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB4681, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/4681
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. 10616.
Diehl, E., Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres, vol. 1 (Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1925), no. 960.
Marucchi, O., Epigrafia cristiana. Trattato elementare con una silloge di antiche iscrizioni cristiane principalmente di Roma (Milan: U. Hoepli, 1910), 191, no. 195.
Wilpert, J., La Cripta dei Papi e la cappella di Sainta Cecilia ne cimetero di Callisto (Rome: Desclée & C., 1910), 20 fig. 14, and 28.
de Rossi, G.B., La Roma sotterranea cristiana, vol. 2 (Rome: Cromo-litografia pontificia, 1867), 70-72, and Tav. 3.
Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, no. 9674.
Civiltà cattolica 1854, vol. 3, 127 (ed. de Rossi)
Further reading:
Carletti, C., Epigrafia dei cristiani in Occidente dal III al VII secolo. Ideologia e prassi (Bari: Edipuglia, 2008), 36.
