Evidence ID
E05355Saint Name
Hippolytus, martyr of Rome : S00509Saint Name in Source
HippolytusType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Archaeological and architectural - Internal cult fixtures (crypts, ciboria, etc.)Language
LatinEvidence not before
350Evidence not after
600Activity not before
350Activity not after
600Place 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
RhōmēCult activities - Places
Burial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relicsCult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Prayer/supplication/invocationSource
Fragment of a marble plaque. Preserved dimensions: H. 0.15 m; W. 0.12 m; Th. 0.022 m. Letter height 0.032 m.
Found in 1968 in a crypt sited near the subterranean basilica in the cemetery of Hippolytus on the via Tiburtina. First published by Antonio Ferrua in 1980. The completions we follow here were suggested by Domenico Schiraldi in the Epigraphic Database Bari.Discussion
Scarcely anything can be read in such a small fragment. Therefore, the interpretation is very hypothetical. The inscription may mention saint Hippolytus the eponym of the cemetery, possibly described as beatus, a 'blessed' person (a martyr?); it but may also be the epitaph for an homonymous ordinary deceased person.Bibliography
Edition:
Epigraphic Database Bari, nos. EDB20465, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/20465
De Rossi, G.B., Ferrua, A. (eds.), Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores, n.s., vol. 7: Coemeteria via Tiburtinae (Vatican: Pont. Institutum Archaeologiae Christianae, 1980), no. 20086b.