The left-hand side of the plaque is occupied by a framed carving, showing the busts of two bearded men. The man on the left-hand side has a short beard and is labelled Petrus. The man on the right-hand side has a longer beard and is labelled Paulus. Between the two busts there is a carving of a christogram.
The inscription reads as follows:
Asellu benem{b}ere-
nti qui vicxit annu
sex mesis octo dies
XXVIII
'To Asellus, well-deserved one, who lived six years, eight months, 28 days.'
Text: ICVR, n.s., VII, no. 20018 = EDB20065 and EDB35400.
Evidence ID
E05375Saint Name
Paul, the Apostle : S00008
Peter the Apostle : S00036Saint Name in Source
Paulus
PetrusType of Evidence
Images and objects - Sculpture/reliefs
Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptionsEvidence 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
RhōmēCult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
MagicCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
ChildrenSource
Marble plaque broken into two conjoining fragments H. 0.185 m; W. 0.86 m; Th. 0.03 m. Letter height 0.03-0.035 m.
The plaque was found in the cemetery of Hippolytus on the via Tiburtina in the early 18th c. and first published by Marco Antonio Boldetti in 1720. Described by subsequent editors as housed in the museum of cardinal Albani, and the Vatican Library (a gift to Pope Clement XI). In the second half of the 19th c. the stone was moved to the Lateran Museum. Now in the Vatican Museums, Lapidario Cristiano ex Lateranense. Since the plaque bears a depiction, exceptional on epitaphs, of the Apostles Peter and Paul, it has been reprinted in a number of works. For a list of the most important epigraphic editions up to 1980, see the lemma by Antonio Ferrua in the seventh volume of the Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae.Discussion
The inscription is the epitaph for a six-year-old boy. In the text there is no explanation why the busts of the Apostles were placed next to it. The image itself is also very general and does not suggest we are dealing here with a cultic context, for example a request for their intercession on behalf of the deceased boy, or an attempt to protect his soul/body by the display of their busts (apotropaic use).
For a similar image, see E06032 from the cemetery of Sant'Agnese on the via Nomentana.
Dating: Filippo Piazzolla and Domenico Schiraldi (in EDB) date the inscription to the late 4th c.Bibliography
Edition:
Epigraphic Database Bari, nos. EDB20065, EDB35400
http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/20065
http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/35400
Di Stefano Manzella, I., Le iscrizioni dei cristiani in Vaticano (Città del Vaticano: Monumenti, Musei e gallerie pontificie; Rome: Distribuzione esclusiva, Edizioni Quasar, 1997), 304, no. 3.8.5 (with a photograph).
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. 20018 (with further bibliography).
Diehl, E., Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres, vol. 1 (Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1925), no. 1970.
Silvagni, A. (ed.), Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores, n.s., vol. 1, (Rome: , 1922), no. 1513.
Garucci, R., Storia della arte cristiana nei primi otto secoli della chiesa: corredata della Collezione di tutti i monumenti di pittura e scultura (Prato: Gaetano Guasti, 1881), Tav. 484 no. 11.
Perret, L., Catacombes de Rome, vol. 5 (Paris:, 1851), Tab. XI no. 1, and vol. 6 (Paris:, 1856), p. 149.
Muratori, L.A., Novus Thesaurus Veterum Inscriptionum in Praecipuis Earumdem Collectionibus Hactenus Praetermissarum, vol. 4 (Milan, Ex Aedibus Palatinis, 1742), 1832, no. 1.
Boldetti, M.A., Osservazioni sopra i cimiteri de' santi martiri, ed antichi cristiani di Roma: aggiuntavi la serie di tutti quelli, che sino al presente si sono scoperti, e di altri simili, che in varie parti del mondo si trovano, con alcune riflessioni pratiche sopra il culto delle sagre reliquie (Rome: Presso Gio, Maria Salvioni Stampatore Vaticano, 1720), 193.
Further reading:
Carletti, C., Epigrafia dei cristiani in Occidente dal III al VII secolo. Ideologia e prassi (Bari: Edipuglia, 2008), 70.
Ferrua, A., Corona di osservazioni alle iscrizioni cristiane di Roma incertae originis (Memorie PARA III serie in 8° 3, Rome: Tipografia poliglotta vaticana, 1979), 41.
Lega, C., Le iscrizioni cristiane di Roma conservate nei Musei Vaticani. Indice dei vocaboli (Città del Vaticano: , 2000).
