E07500: Very fragmentary Latin inscription containing an imperative clause, just possibly a request for the intercession addressed to a saint whose name is lost. Found in the cemetery of Feilicitas/Cemetery of Maximus on the via Salaria, Rome. Probably 4th or 5th c. [provisional entry]
online resource
posted on 2019-03-30, 00:00authored bypnowakowski
[- - -] pete (palm) [- - -] [- - -]IṚ.[- - -]
'[- - -] intercede (?) [- - -]'
Text: ICVR, n.s., VIII, no. 23656c = EDB21896.
History
Evidence ID
E07500
Saint Name
Saints, name lost or very partially preserved : S01744
Felicitas, martyr of Rome with her seven sons : S00525
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
Source
Fragment of a marble plaque. Broken and lost at both ends, and on bottom. The upper margin is preserved. Preserved dimensions: H. 0.15 m; W. 0.12 m; Th. 0.02 m. Letter height 0.043 m.
First published by Antonio Ferrua in 1983. Ferrua notes that a squeeze is kept in the records of the cemetery's supervisors, but the whereabouts of the discovery of this fragment are obscure. Now in a crypt under the basilica of Saint Felicitas.
Discussion
The imperative 'pete' may refer to Saint Felicitas, martyr of Rome (S00525) or one of her seven sons, venerated in this cemetery. Alternatively it may be a request addressed to an ordinary deceased, a habit which was also practized in Roman suburban cemeteries.
Bibliography
Edition:
Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB21896.
see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/21896
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. 23656c (with further bibliography).