Epitaph for a woman, possibly denoting a burial ad sanctos. Found in the lower part of the cemetery of Callixtus, via Appia, Rome. Probably 4th c.
Evidence ID
E04695
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions
Archaeological and architectural - Internal cult fixtures (crypts, ciboria, etc.)
Agatemeris spi-
ritum tuum inter
sanctos
'Agatameris, your spirit (is) among saints!'
Text: ICVR, n.s., IV, no. 9613.
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesOther lay individuals/ people
Prayer/supplication/invocation
Burial ad sanctos
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesOther lay individuals/ people
Women
Source
The inscription is on a large marble plaque, broken into three conjoining parts. H. 0.28 m; W. 1.54 m; Th. 0.03 m. Letter height 0.035-0.04 m.First recorded by Giovanni Battista de Rossi in area B10 of the lower part of the cemetery of Callixtus, and published by him in 1867. Revisited by Antonio Ferrua, and republished by him in 1964. Now probably in area B8.
Discussion
De Rossi suggested that the words spiritum tuum are in the accusative case, according to the rules of standardised Latin grammar, and, therefore, that the text should be completed by an understood clause, for example: spiritum tuum inter sanctos <deus suscipiat>/'<may God raise> your spirit among the saints'. Ferrua argues, however, that we have here a corrupted form of the noun spiritus which takes the nominative case spiritum (neuter), and that the inscription needs no completions. It reads simply 'your spirit is among saints.' If so, the inscription may record a burial ad sanctos, in the cemetery famous for tombs of martyrs and popes, rather than referring to the heavenly company of saints desired by the soul of Agatemeris.Dating: Antonio Felle (in EDB) dates the inscription to the 4th c.
Bibliography
Edition:Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB21028, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/21028
De Rossi, G.B., Ferrua, A. (eds.) Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores, n.s., vol. 4: Coemeteria inter Vias Appiam et Ardeatinam (Vatican: Pont. Institutum Archaeologiae Christianae, 1964), no. 9613.
Diehl, E., Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres, vol. 2 (Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1927), no. 3356.
Marucchi, O., Epigrafia cristiana. Trattato elementare con una silloge di antiche iscrizioni cristiane principalmente di Roma (Milan: U. Hoepli, 1910), 155, no. 122.
de Rossi, G.B., La Roma sotterranea cristiana, vol. 2 (Rome: Cromo-litografia pontificia, 1867), 104*, 257, and Tav. XLV.
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
25/01/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00060 | Martyrs, unnamed or name lost | sancti | Certain | S00518 | Saints, unnamed | sancti | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E04695 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E04695