E05163: Fragmentary Latin epitaph with a tentatively restored formula invoking the 'peace with (unnamed) saints' to the deceased. Found in a small cemetery 'ad Vibiam' on the via Appia, Rome. Late antique.
online resource
posted on 2018-03-06, 00:00authored bypnowakowski
- - -] C [- - - Sterco[riu]s qui vi[xit - - -] bene[me]renti alumn[o su]o Nice
'[- - -] Stercorius who lived [- - -] to his well-deserved nurseling Nice[- - -].'
The missing line 1 was hypothetically restored by Antonio Ferrua as [p(ax) t(ibi)] c(um) [s(anctis)]/'peace be to you with saints!'
Text: ICVR, n.s., V, no. 15307 = EDB1619.
History
Evidence ID
E05163
Saint Name
Saints, unnamed : S00518
Saints, unnamed : S00518
Martyrs, unnamed or name lost : S00060
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
Burial ad sanctos
Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Children
Other lay individuals/ people
Source
Four fragments of a marble plaque, forming two non-conjoining parts. Dimensions: H. 0.125 m; W. 0.235 m; Th. 0.015 m (left-hand part); H. 0.25 m; W. 0.17 m; Th. 0.015 m (right-hand part). Letter height c. 0.04 m.
First recorded by Antonio Ferrua in 1952 in area A5 of the burial complex called Cemeteries 'ad Vibiam', a common name for 'three or four' smaller cemeteries on the via Appia. Now probably still in its find-spot. First published by Ferrua in 1971.
Discussion
Ferrua's restoration of the text is entirely hypothetical, based on similar formulas used in Christian epitaphs of the city of Rome. Even it is correct, it would be difficult to say whether the author of the epitaph meant that the deceased was buried ad sanctos, in a way that he would profit from this fact in the afterlife, or simply expressed a wish that the deceased would join the saints in heaven.
Bibliography
Edition:
Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB1619, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/1619
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. 15307.