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E05162: Very fragmentary inscription possibly referring to the 'holy spirits'/spirita sancta, or to a female saint whose name is lost. Found in the Cemetery of Praetextatus, via Appia, Rome. Late antique.

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posted on 2018-03-06, 00:00 authored by pnowakowski

[- - - sa]ncta II[- - -]
[- - - vix]it ann[is - - -]
[- - -]PD[- - -]

1. [- - - sa]ncta +[- - -] Carletti in EDB || II = lower parts of one or two letters are visible in the drawing || 3. upper parts of two letters, probably D, P, or B are visible in the drawing, [- - -]++[- - -] Carletti in EDB

'[- - -] saint [- - -] lived [- - -] years [- - -].'

Text: ICVR, n.s., V, no. 14927l = EDB8328.

History

Evidence ID

E05162

Saint Name

Martyrs, unnamed or name lost : S00060 Saints, name lost or very partially preserved : S01744 Saints, unnamed : S00518

Related Saint Records

Type of Evidence

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

Language

Latin

Evidence not before

350

Evidence not after

700

Activity not before

350

Activity not after

700

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 - Places

Burial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Prayer/supplication/invocation

Source

Fragment of a marble plaque broken and lost on all sides. Preserved dimensions: H. 0.17 m; W. 0.19 m; Th. 0.045 m. Letter height 0.045 m. Found in 1909 in the Cemetery of Praetextatus. First published by Antonio Ferrua in 1971, in a drawing with no transcription. When examined by Ferrua the stone was in area H3. A transcription was offered by Carlo Carletti in the Epigraphic Database Bari. Carletti uses crosses (+) to mark damaged letters. Here we give our own transcription based on the drawing published by Ferrua.

Discussion

The fragment certainly comes from an ordinary epitaph. It is very possible that line 1 contained a reference to 'holy spirits'/spirita sancta, of martyrs or simply other deceased, which often occurs in epitaphs in Roman catacombs. Another possibility is that line 1 mentions a female saint, or addressed the deceased for whom the epitaph was composed as 'saint' (that is 'redeemed', not 'saint' as an object of veneration). Dating: The inscription, as others from the Cemetery of Praetextatus, dates from the late antique period.

Bibliography

Edition: Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB8328, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/8328 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. 14927l.

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Keywords

S00060 S01744 S00518 History

Licence

CC0

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