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E07499: Latin inscription recording the purchase of a tomb situated near *Felicitas (martyr of Rome, S00525), probably a burial ad sanctos. Found in the cemetery of Feilicitas/Cemetery of Maximus on the via Salaria, Rome. Probably mid-4th c. [provisional entry]

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posted on 2019-03-30, 00:00 authored by pnowakowski

[- - - Ian]uarius et S[- - -]
[- - - loc]um besom[um sibi - - -]
[- - -]nt at sancta Fel[icitatem - - -]

'[- - -] Ianuarius and S[- - -] tomb apt for two bodies [for themselves - - -] near Saint Felicitas [- - -]'

Text: ICVR, n.s., VIII, no. 23546 = EDB21738.

History

Evidence ID

E07499

Saint Name

Felicitas, martyr of Rome with her seven sons : S00525

Saint Name in Source

Felicitas

Related Saint Records

https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/Felicitas_martyr_of_Rome_with_her_sons_buried_on_the_via_Salaria/13730527

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions

Language

Latin

Evidence not before

325

Evidence not after

375

Activity not before

325

Activity not after

375

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

Prayer/supplication/invocation

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Other lay individuals/ people

Source

Fragmentary marble plaque, broken and lost at both ends. H. 0.295 m; W. 0.40 m. Letter height 0.035 m. Found in 1856 in an unspecified crypt under the basilica of the Cemetery of Felicitas/Cemetery of Maximus. After the discovery it was reportedly displaced (seen by Tongiorgi in a vineyard in 1862), and eventually lost, but later recovered. Orazio Marucchi placed it back in the basilica. First published by Giovanni Battista de Rossi in 1863.

Discussion

It would be interesting to see the names of the owners of the tomb, apparently given in line 1, as Ianuarius and Sil(v)anus, i.e. identical with those of two of the seven sons of Felicitas (and likewise martyrs venerated in this cemetery). This would point out that the owners were driven by the desire to be buried close to their holy namesakes. The other face of the plaque bears an earlier Greek inscription (ICVR, n.s., VIII, no. 23744: [- - -] Τειμόλαος [- - -] | Σαβεινια[νῇ? - - -]/’[- - -] Timolaos [- - -] to Sabiniana [- - -]’). Dating: The editors of the Epigraphic Database Bari date the inscription to the mid-4th c.

Bibliography

Edition: Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB21738. see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/21738 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. 23546 (with further bibliography).