E05219: Latin epitaph for a girl buried 'with saints'. Found in the Cemetery of Castulus, via Labicana, Rome. Probably 4th c.

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posted on 2018-03-19, 00:00 authored by pnowakowski

Cleme(n)tianeti benemerenti parentes fecerunt
que vixit annus n(umero) VI mesis VI dies VIIII in pace cum santus

1. Clementia(n)eti = Clementianae: Fabretti || 2. meses VIII dies VIII: Fabretti

'(Her) parents made it to Clementianetis (?), well-deserved one, who lived 6 years, 6 months, 9 days. (Buried) in peace, with saints.'

Text: ICVR, n.s., VI, no. 15900 = EDB6074.

History

Evidence ID

E05219

Saint Name

Saints, unnamed : S00518 Martyrs, unnamed or name lost : S00060

Saint Name in Source

santi santi

Related Saint Records

Image Caption 1

From: ICVR, n.s., VI, 79 (after a drawing by de Rossi).

Image Caption 2

From: Fabretti 1699, 557.

Image Caption 3

From: Iozzi 1904, 50.

Type of Evidence

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

Language

Latin

Evidence not before

325

Evidence not after

400

Activity not before

325

Activity not after

400

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

Burial ad sanctos

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Children Women Other lay individuals/ people

Source

Marble plaque. H. 0.25 m; W. 0.79 m; Th. 0.015 m. Letter height 0.02 m. Decorated with carvings of a tree flanked by a bird and a bunch of grapes, over the text. Lining between the lines of letters. The inscription was first published in 1699 by Rafaelle Fabretti who wrote that the stone was retrieved from the cemetery of Castulus on the via Labicana, Rome, and added to his family's collection of antiquities in Urbino. Handwritten records of the inscription are also preserved in the archives of Luigi Gaetano Marini and Giovanni Battista de Rossi. Marini noted that when he saw it the stone was housed in the lapidarium of the Palazzo Ducale of Urbino. De Rossi offered a drawing, later reproduced by Antonio Ferrua. A drawing of very poor quality was also offered in 1904 by Oliviero Iozzi. He notes, based on Fabretti’s manuscripts, that the stone was reportedly located ‘in atrio, sub aquaeductu’. In 1927 Ernst Diehl included the inscription in his collection of Christian Latin inscriptions, after the edition by Fabretti. In 1975 Antonio Ferrua offered a corrected text, and noted that the stone was still on display in the Palazzo Ducale of Urbino. Good quality photographs are now offered in the Epigraphic Database Bari.

Discussion

The inscription is the epitaph for a girl (Clementianetis?) who lived for six years-and-a-half years. Her parents record that they buried her 'in peace, with saints'. It is not clear whether they meant an intentional burial ad sanctos, meant to help the girl in the afterlife or on the day of the resurrection, or just recorded that she lay in a cemetery where tombs of saints were located, or perhaps referred to the heavenly community of saints. Dating: Carlo Carletti in EDB dates the inscription to the 4th c.

Bibliography

Edition: Epigraphic Database Bari, nos. EDB6074, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/6074 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. 15900. Diehl, E., Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres, vol. 2 (Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1927), no. 3358. Iozzi, O., Il cimitero di S. Castolo M. : sulla via Labicana a un miglio da Porta maggiore (Rome: Tipografia Agostiniana, 1904), 50, no. XVIII, ad Tav. XVIII. Fabretti, R., Inscriptionum antiquarum quae in aedibus paternis asseruantur explicatio et additamentum (Rome: Ex officina Dominici Antonii Herculis, 1699), 557, no. XXVIII.