Fragmentary Latin inscription expressing the hope that Christians will be saved from evil 'through the holy martyrs'. Found in the Cemetery of Praetextatus, via Appia, Rome. Probably late antique.
Evidence ID
E05159
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions
Archaeological and architectural - Internal cult fixtures (crypts, ciboria, etc.)
deo aeterno favente a[b omni malo]
fratres et sorores per sa[nctos martyres]
eruamur
3. possibly <s>eruamur
'God willing, O brethren and sisters, may we be carried away [from all evil] through the holy (?) [martyrs]!'
Text: ICVR, n.s., V, no. 14803 = EDB10219.
Cult PlacesBurial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
MiraclesMiraculous protection - of people and their property
Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Burial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Burial site of a saint - cemetery/catacomb
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Saint as patron - of a community
Saint as patron - of an individual
MiraclesMiraculous protection - of people and their property
Miraculous protection - of communities, towns, armies
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesOther lay individuals/ people
Source
Left-hand part of a marble plaque, assembled from seven conjoining fragments. H. 0.54 m; W. 1.13 m; Th. 0.06 m. Letter height 0.035-0.045 m. Wide margins.First recorded in 1931 on the surface level of the Cemetery of Praetextatus. Now probably on a wall at the cemetery's museum. First published by Antonio Ferrua in 1971. A high quality photograph is offered in the Epigraphic Database Bari.
Discussion
The inscription records a prayer, or a kind of acclamation of (probably unnamed) holy martyrs. Ferrua does not comment on the form of the verb used in line 3, which clearly reads ERVAMUR. This is probably the 1st person plural subjunctive of eruo/'to throw out, root up, take'. It is, however, also possible that the author of the inscription intended to write <s>eruamur/'we are saved'. In either case, the inscription expresses a wish that all Christians be saved from evil through the intercession of martyrs.Ferrua pointed out that such an inscription could have been displayed not only at a tomb in the cemetery, but also in a house.
Dating: The inscription, as others from the Cemetery of Praetextatus, dates from the late antique period.
Bibliography
Edition:Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB10219, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/10219
De Rossi, G.B., Ferrua, A. (eds.) Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores, n.s., vol. 5: Coemeteria reliqua Viae Appiae (Vatican: Pont. Institutum Archaeologiae Christianae, 1971), no. 14803.
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
06/03/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00060 | Martyrs, unnamed or name lost | Uncertain | S00518 | Saints, unnamed | Uncertain | S01744 | Saints, name lost or very partially preserved | Uncertain |
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Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E05159 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E05159