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E07480: Latin verse inscription praising pope Siricius (384-399) as a generous restorer of tombs of unnamed martyrs. Now lost, but probably displayed in the Cemetery of Priscilla, or elsewhere on the via Salaria, Rome. [provisional entry]

online resource

posted on 2019-03-24, 00:00 authored by pnowakowski

Siricius pia nunc persolvit munera sancti,
gratia quo maior sit bona martyribus.
Omnipotens deus hunc conservet tempore multo,
moenia sanctorum qui nova restituit.

1. sancti Gruter, sancti codices

'Siricius does not fail to the pious duties to the saints, so that the good grace to the martyrs would aggrandize. Him the allmighty God may save, and for a long time, him who restored the new strongholds of the saints.'

Text: ICVR, n.s., VIII, no. 23056 = EDB34542. Trans. P. Nowakowski.

History

Evidence ID

E07480

Saint Name

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

Saint Name in Source

sancti, martyres sancti, martyres

Related Saint Records

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.) Literary - Poems

Language

Latin

Evidence not before

384

Evidence not after

399

Activity not before

384

Activity not after

399

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 - tomb/grave

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Bequests, donations, gifts and offerings

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - bishops Ecclesiastics - Popes

Source

The poem is composed in two elegiac couplets. The text survived only in the codex Vaticanus Palatinus 833 f. 63v of the Sylloge Laureshamensis. First published by Jan Gruter in 1602. The Sylloge does not specify the inscription's location, but as we find it among the inscriptions from the via Salaria, Antonio Ferrua tentatively ascribed it to the Cemetery of Priscilla. He notes, however, that Baronius and Bianchi conjectured that the poem came from the urban church of Pudentiana, known to have been an object of a lavish donation by Siricius.

Discussion

The poem dates to the pontificate of Siricius.

Bibliography

Edition: Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB34542. see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/34542 De Rossi, G.B., Ferrua, A. (eds.) Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores, n.s., vol. 8: Coemeteria viarum Nomentanae et Salariae (Vatican: Pont. Institutum Archaeologiae Christianae, 1983), no. 23056 (with further bibliography). Diehl, E., Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres, vol. 1 (Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1925), no. 971. Bücheler, F., Anthologia Latina sive poesis Latinae supplementum, pars posterior: Carmina epigraphica, vol. 1 (Leipzig: In aedibus B.G. Tebneri, 1895), no. 905. De Rossi, G. B., Inscriptiones christianae Urbis Romae septimo saeculo antiquiores 2.1 (Rome: Ex Officina Libraria Pontificia, 1857-1888), 104, no. 39.