Evidence ID
E05218Saint Name
Castulus, martyr of Rome : S01405Saint Name in Source
CastulusType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Literary - PoemsEvidence not before
375Evidence not after
400Activity not before
375Activity not after
400Place 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
RhōmēMajor author/Major anonymous work
Damasan and pseudo-Damasan poemsCult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Bequests, donations, gifts and offeringsCult Activities - Miracles
Miraculous protection - of people and their propertyCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Other lay individuals/ peopleSource
The inscription is known only through the manuscript tradition. The text is preserved in two slightly different versions in two codices of the Sylloge Turonensis. The version from the codex Closterneoburgensis 723 first appeared in print in 1831, in Scriptorum veterum nova collectio by Angelo Mai, based on the transcription of Giuseppe Garampi, transmitted by Luigi Gaetano Marini. An edition using both codices (Closterneoburgensis 723 and Goettweihensis 64) was first published by Giovanni Battista de Rossi in 1888, in the old series of the Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae. Further comments and corrections to the text as preserved by the manuscripts were offered by Maximilian Ihm (1895) and Antonio Ferrua (1975).
The manuscripts do not give the location of the inscription. It is, however, widely accepted that it was displayed in the cemetery of Castulus on the via Labicana, Rome. This is because line 3 contains a clear invocation of the martyr Castulus, and the inscription is presented in the manuscripts between the texts from the cemetery inter duas lauros on the Via Labicana, and the texts from the via Latina.
Marini wondered if the poem could have been a work of Pope Damasus. This was questioned by later editors. Ihm included the inscription among pseudo-Damasan poems, while Ferrua dropped it entirely from his edition of the Damasan epigrams.Discussion
The inscription, composed in four hexameters, commemorates an offering to the martyr Castulus, by a certain Venerius who personally experienced the protection of the saint in his life. Sadly, we know no details of the circumstances that led Venerius to set up this inscription, and he is not known from other sources; but from the wording, he was perhaps a military man, granted success in battle by Castulus (unless 'the enemy' is a metaphor for the Devil).
Castulus is a supporting figure in the Martyrdom of Sebastianus and Companions (see E02512 and Lapidge 2018, ch. III), after whom a cemetery on the via Labicana was named. According to the Martyrdom, Castulus was a house-steward of the imperial palace (zetarius palatii) in Rome, martyred under the emperor Diocletian. In the Martyrologium Hieronymianum his feast (natale) is recorded as celebrated in the cemetery named after him on the via Labicana on 26 March (E04750).
Dating: The inscription is difficult to date. Carlo Carletti dates it to the late 4th c., probably as a work inspired by the Damasan programme of monumental dedications to the Roman saints.Bibliography
Edition:
Epigraphic Database Bari, nos. EDB6068, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/6068
De Rossi, G.B., Ferrua, A. (eds.), Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores, n.s., vol. 6: Coemeteria viis Latina, Labicana et Praenestina (Vatican: Pont. Institutum Archaeologiae Christianae, 1975), no. 15894.
Ihm, M., Damasi Epigrammata: accedunt Pseudodamasiana aliaque ad Damasiana inlustranda idonea (Lipsiae: in aedibus B. G. Teubneri, 1895), no. 81.
De Rossi, G. B., Inscriptiones christianae Urbis Romae septimo saeculo antiquiores, vol. 2.1 (Rome: Ex Officina Libraria Pontificia, 1888), 64, no. 14 (from the codex Closterneoburgensis 723, and the codex Goettweihensis 64).
Luigi Gaetano Marini through a copy by Giuseppe Garampi in: Angelo Mai, Scriptorum veterum nova collectio e Vaticanis codicibus edita, vol. 5 (Rome: Typis Vaticanis, 1831), 195, no. 4 (from the codex Closterneoburgensis 723).
Further reading:
Amore, A., I martiri di Roma (Ricerche di archeologia e antichità cristiane 4, Todi: Antonianum, 2013, 2nd ed. revised by A. Bonfiglio), 113–114.
Lapidge, M., The Roman Martyrs: Introduction, Translations, and Commentary (Oxford: OUP, 2018), chapter III (St Sebastian and Companions).
Pergola, P., Barbini, P.M., Le catacombe romane. Storia e topografia (Rome: Carocci, 1997), 160–161.
