Latin graffito with an invocation, probably of unnamed saints or martyrs, on behalf of a deceased man. Found in the cemetery of Cyriaca ad Sanctum Laurentium, via Tiburtina, Rome. Probably second half of the 4th c.
Evidence ID
E05310
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Graffiti
Archaeological and architectural - Internal cult fixtures (crypts, ciboria, etc.)
Leonti-
nus vi- Ienar[i]
vas ⳩ [vi]vas
⳩
Senium in
mente abete ⳩
Seni vi-
vas
in [- - -]
[Ar]senius: Stevenson, Senius = Xenios or Xenias: Ferrua
'Leontinus, may you live (in Christ)!’
'Have Senius (= Xenios) in mind! O Senius (Xenios), may you live in [(Christ)]!’
'Ienarius, may you live!’
Text: ICVR, n.s., VII, no. 19018b = EDB36976.
Cult PlacesBurial site of a saint - cemetery/catacomb
Non Liturgical Activity
Burial site of a saint - cemetery/catacomb
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Burial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesOther lay individuals/ people
Source
This group of graffiti was executed with a stylus on a plastered pilaster in a cubiculum in the cemetery of Cyriaca. The walls, and the other pilaster in this cubiculum also bear other, similar graffiti (see ICVR, n.s., VII, no. 18839). Letter height 1.5 - 2.6 cm.The cubiculum, and the present group of graffiti were first recorded by Enrico Stevenson. The texts were first mentioned in an oral report of Stevenson's work in 1876, which appeared in print in 1877. It contains majuscule transcriptions of the texts. Drawings were offered by Stevenson in 1895, and by Antonio Ferrua in 1980 (from an unpublished drawing by Giovanni Battista de Rossi).
Discussion
Ferrua supposes that the graffiti were authored by at least two different people, one responsible for lines 1-5, and the other for 6-8. Stevenson and Ferrua also presume that all the invocations are on behalf of people buried in the cubiculum, and that the graffiti were authored by their relatives while visiting their tomb.To us the most interesting is the invocation of unnamed figures, asking them to have in mind a certain Senius. In Christian graffiti from the suburban catacombs of the city of Rome, this formula was normally referred to martyrs, 'holy spirits', but also specific figures, for example the Apostles *Peter and *Paul, and the deceased popes. Here we can safely assume that unnamed martyrs, or just other deceased buried in the same cemetery are invoked.
The name of the deceased man is given as Senius, a name otherwise unattested. Stevenson supposed that it was a damaged name Arsenius, but Ferrua prefers to consider it as a Latin transliteration of the Greek name Ξένιος or Ξενίας.
Dating: The editors of the Epigraphic Database Bari date the graffiti to the second half of the 4th c.
Bibliography
Edition:Epigraphic Database Bari, nos. EDB36976, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/36976
De Rossi, G.B., Ferrua, A. (eds.), Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores, n.s., vol. 7: Coemeteria via Tiburtinae (Vatican: Pont. Institutum Archaeologiae Christianae, 1980), no. 19018.
Diehl, E., Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres, vol. 1 (Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1925), comments to no. 2329.
Armellini, M., Gli antichi cimeteri cristiani di Roma e d'Italia (Rome: Tipografia poliglotta, 1893), 296.
Stevenson, E., "Cubicolo con graffiti storici nel cimitero di Ciriaca" Nuovo bullettino di archeologia cristiana 1 (1895), 80.
Further reading:
Stevenson, E., "[Report, 5 March 1876]" in: O. Marucchi, "Conferenze della società di cultori della cristiana archeologia in Roma [1]", Bullettino di archeologia cristiana 3 Ser. 2 (1877), 61-62 (mentioned).
Images
)
Drawing published by Ferrua from de Rossi's files. From: ICVR, n.s., VII, 271.
)
From: Stevenson 1895, 80.
)
Plan of the cubiculum with the pilaster bearing the graffiti marked 'B'. From: Stevenson 1895, 78.
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
11/04/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00060 | Martyrs, unnamed or name lost | Uncertain | S00518 | Saints, unnamed | Uncertain |
|---|
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