Fragmentary Latin epitaph with a tentatively restored formula invoking the 'peace with (unnamed) saints' to the deceased. Found in a small cemetery 'ad Vibiam' on the via Appia, Rome. Late antique.
Evidence ID
E05163
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions
Archaeological and architectural - Internal cult fixtures (crypts, ciboria, etc.)
- - -] C [- - -
Sterco[riu]s qui vi[xit - - -]
bene[me]renti
alumn[o su]o Nice
'[- - -] Stercorius who lived [- - -] to his well-deserved nurseling Nice[- - -].'
The missing line 1 was hypothetically restored by Antonio Ferrua as [p(ax) t(ibi)] c(um) [s(anctis)]/'peace be to you with saints!'
Text: ICVR, n.s., V, no. 15307 = EDB1619.
Cult PlacesBurial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics
Non Liturgical ActivityBurial ad sanctos
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesChildren
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 ActivityBurial ad sanctos
Prayer/supplication/invocation
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesChildren
Other lay individuals/ people
Source
Four fragments of a marble plaque, forming two non-conjoining parts. Dimensions: H. 0.125 m; W. 0.235 m; Th. 0.015 m (left-hand part); H. 0.25 m; W. 0.17 m; Th. 0.015 m (right-hand part). Letter height c. 0.04 m.First recorded by Antonio Ferrua in 1952 in area A5 of the burial complex called Cemeteries 'ad Vibiam', a common name for 'three or four' smaller cemeteries on the via Appia. Now probably still in its find-spot. First published by Ferrua in 1971.
Discussion
Ferrua's restoration of the text is entirely hypothetical, based on similar formulas used in Christian epitaphs of the city of Rome. Even it is correct, it would be difficult to say whether the author of the epitaph meant that the deceased was buried ad sanctos, in a way that he would profit from this fact in the afterlife, or simply expressed a wish that the deceased would join the saints in heaven.Bibliography
Edition:Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB1619, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/1619
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. 15307.
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 | S00518 | Saints, unnamed | 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, E05163 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E05163