E05277: Latin epitaph with a poem praising the virtues of a certain reader Paulus, and possibly declaring him a descendant of martyrs (termed proceres). Found in the cemetery Ad Sanctos Marcellinum et Petrum /inter duas lauros, via Labicana, Rome. Probably late 4th - early 5th c.

hic sanctum corpus lectoris Pauli quiescit,
caelo tamen animam cum iustis credo receptam.
Integer ut infans maior sic creverat aetas,
mundus ab omni labe [tamen] fide purior esset;
nobis a proavis procerum de stirpe creatus,
ducere qui nihilum voluit mundi huius honores.

2. celo, anima, recepta: codices || 3. etas: codices || 4. [tamen]: de Rossi, accepted by Ferrua || 6. in nihilum: Sylloge Centulensis

'Here rests the holy body of the reader Paulus,
But I believe that his soul (anima) was received in heaven, with the righteous ones.
Untouched as a child, later age saw him the same,
Clean from all fault, [but] purer in faith;
To us from his ancestors, he arose from a stem of martyrs (or: bishops, proceres),
He wanted to consider the honours of this world as mere nothing.'

Text: ICVR, n.s., VI, no. 17106 = EDB10459. Translation: P. Nowakowski