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]

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

[- - -] 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

Related Saint Records

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions

Language

Latin

Evidence not before

300

Evidence not after

500

Activity not before

300

Activity not after

500

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

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).