Evidence ID
E05159Saint Name
Saints, name lost or very partially preserved : S01744
Saints, unnamed : S00518
Martyrs, unnamed or name lost : S00060Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions
Archaeological and architectural - Internal cult fixtures (crypts, ciboria, etc.)Evidence not before
350Evidence not after
700Activity not before
350Activity not after
700Place 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
Prayer/supplication/invocationCult Activities - Miracles
Miraculous protection - of people and their property
Miraculous protection - of communities, towns, armiesCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Other lay individuals/ peopleSource
Left-hand part of a marble plaque, assembled from seven conjoining fragments. H. 0.54 m; W. 1.13 m; Th. 0.06 m. Letter height 0.035-0.045 m. Wide margins.
First recorded in 1931 on the surface level of the Cemetery of Praetextatus. Now probably on a wall at the cemetery's museum. First published by Antonio Ferrua in 1971. A high quality photograph is offered in the Epigraphic Database Bari.Discussion
The inscription records a prayer, or a kind of acclamation of (probably unnamed) holy martyrs. Ferrua does not comment on the form of the verb used in line 3, which clearly reads ERVAMUR. This is probably the 1st person plural subjunctive of eruo/'to throw out, root up, take'. It is, however, also possible that the author of the inscription intended to write eruamur/'we are saved'. In either case, the inscription expresses a wish that all Christians be saved from evil through the intercession of martyrs.
Ferrua pointed out that such an inscription could have been displayed not only at a tomb in the cemetery, but also in a house.
Dating: The inscription, as others from the Cemetery of Praetextatus, dates from the late antique period.Bibliography
Edition:
Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB10219, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/10219
De Rossi, G.B., Ferrua, A. (eds.) Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores, n.s., vol. 5: Coemeteria reliqua Viae Appiae (Vatican: Pont. Institutum Archaeologiae Christianae, 1971), no. 14803.
