Fragments of a Latin inscription, probably of a poem by Pope Damasus, which may refer to *Abdon and Sennes (Persian martyrs in Rome, buried on the via Portuensis, S00573), found in the cemetery of Pontianus, on the via Portuensis outside Rome. Written in Rome, 366/384.
Evidence ID
E07150
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Inscribed architectural elements
Literary - Poems
Major author/Major anonymous work
Damasan and pseudo-Damasan poems
Damasus of Rome, Epigrammata 5 (ICVR II, 4529-30)
Three fragments (a, b and c) of an inscription that cannot be reconstructed, but may refer to the martyrs Abdon and Sennes:
(a) (b) (c)
[pres]BYTER HOS ORUS R HONOR[i/em]
Text: Trout 2015, 90.
Cult Places
Burial site of a saint - cemetery/catacomb
Non Liturgical ActivityRenovation and embellishment of cult buildings
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - Popes
Cult Related ObjectsInscription
Source
The poems of DamasusThe poetry of Damasus is the first substantial corpus of texts devoted specifically to the cult of saints. All but a handful of his surviving poems were written to be inscribed on stone and displayed at the tombs of the martyrs. The installation of these inscriptions formed part of a programme of monumentalisation of the sites of martyr cult, most of which originated as ordinary tombs in the cemeteries and catacombs around the city of Rome, and it was often accompanied by major remodelling and rebuilding of the tombs and their physical surroundings (see Trout 2015, 42-47). The poems were inscribed on marble plaques with distinctive lettering ('Philocalian script') by the calligrapher Furius Dionysius Filocalus (Trout 2015, 47-52). This characteristic script makes it possible to identify fragments of inscribed text as Damasan even when the surviving remains are too small and fragmentary for the content of the inscription to be reconstructed.
Damasus' poems are of great importance for the history of saints' cult at Rome because, aside from what their content tells us, they are securely datable to his papacy (366-384). If a martyr is the subject of a poem by Damasus, it means that their cult was established and formally recognised at Rome no later than the early 380s; the only comparable, but much briefer, material is that in the Chronography of 354 (E01052). By contrast, the surviving Roman saints' lives are of very uncertain date and in most cases much later than Damasus' poems (which they sometimes used as a source: Lapidge 2018, 637-8).
It is certain that most material in the Damasan corpus is by Damasus himself, either because the inscribed text (or fragments of it) survives, or because Damasus refers to himself in the poem (which he does frequently). In other cases his authorship has been assigned on stylistic grounds. Since Damasus' style is quite distinctive (see Trout 2015, 16-26), this can usually be done reasonably securely, but there are a few instances where there is disagreement among editors as to whether poems are genuinely by Damasus (see E07149; E01790; E07503)
Survival of the poems
Only two of Damasus' inscriptions on the martyrs have survived more or less intact, those to Eutychius (E07169) and Agnes (E07189); a few others exist in fragments substantial enough to piece together most or all of the text, including the inscription from the crypt of the popes in the catacomb of St Sebastian (E01866), and the poem to Felicissimus and Agapitus (E07170). But most of his poems either do not survive at all in their inscribed form, or do so only in small fragments of a few words or letters. Their survival is the result of their inclusion in syllogae – collections of inscriptions from the martyr shrines and churches of Rome, which were transcribed by pilgrims and then circulated in manuscript. The earliest syllogae seem to have been compiled in the 7th century, at the same time as the earliest pilgrim itineraries, and like the itineraries they were organised geographically, following the routes used by pilgrims around the city and its suburbs. Poems by Damasus therefore appear scattered through the collections according to their location.
No sylloge survives in its original form: those now extant were compiled from earlier manuscript collections (whose traces are sometimes evident in their structure). They were edited by de Rossi in vol. 2.1 of the first edition of ICUR (1888), which remains the only modern edition of the syllogae as such (as opposed to the individual poems they contain). For a descriptive account of the syllogae containing Damasus’ poems, see Trout 2015, 63-65; more briefly, Lapidge 2018, 638.
The most important syllogae for the transmission of Damasus' poems are as follows:
The Sylloge Laureshamensis. A manuscript produced at the monastery of Lorsch in the 9th/10th c., now in the Vatican Library (Vatican, Pal. Lat. 833; digitised: digi.vatlib.it/view/bav_pal_lat_833). De Rossi believed it was a compilation of four existing collections, which he denoted as follows: Laureshamensis I (de Rossi 1888, 144-153), dating from the 9th c. (ibid. 142); Laureshamensis II (de Rossi 1888, 126-130), from the 7th c. (ibid. 124); Laureshamensis III (de Rossi 1888, 161-173), a collection of inscriptions from northern Italy, dating from the late 8th c. (ibid. 160); and Laureshamensis IV (de Rossi 1888, 98-118), dating from the 7th c. (ibid. 97), and the one that contains most of the Damasan material
The Sylloge Centulensis (de Rossi 1888, 78-94). Produced in the monastery of St. Riquier in the 9th/10th century, held for most of its existence in Corbie, and now in the Russian National Library at St. Petersburg (Codex Petropolitanus F XIV 1).
The Sylloge Turonensis (de Rossi 1888, 62-71). Produced at Tours in the 7th century, but surviving only in two manuscripts from 11th/12th-century Austria (Klosterneuburg Stiftsbibliothek Cod. 723; Göttweig Stiftsbibliothek Cod. 64 (78), digitised: manuscripta.at/diglit/AT2000-64).
The Sylloge Virdunensis (de Rossi 1888, 134-141). Produced at Verdun in the 10th century (Bibliothèque de Verdun, ms. 45; digitised: www1.arkhenum.fr/bm_verdun_ms/_app/index.php?type_recherche=cote&choix_secondaire=Ms. 45).
The Sylloge Einsidelnensis (de Rossi 1888, 18-33). Produced at the monastery of Einsiedeln in the 9th century (Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek 326, digitised: www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/one/sbe/0326).
Discussion
Location: Cemetery of Pontianus (via Portuensis)Physical remains: Three marble fragments, found in 1917 in the cemetery of Pontianus. One fragment (b) was lost by the time Ferrua produced his edition in the early 1940s. The letters are in Philocalian script, which suggests that they form part of a text written by Damasus. They seem to come from a balustrade (Trout 2015, 90). Measurements: fragment a – height 25 cm, width 37 cm; fragment c – height 46 cm, width 42 cm; thickness 6 cm; height of letters 3.3 cm (Ferrua 1942, 96). See Images for Ferrua's illustration; there are also photographs in the relevant EDB entries.
Manuscript transmission: none.
The identification of Abdon and Sennes as the saints honoured in this inscription is based on its findspot in the cemetery of Pontianus, and on the use of the word hos ('them') in the text (assuming that it refers to the martyrs), since they are the only pair of martyrs whose shrine was located there (Ferrua 1942, 97).
According to their martyrdom account (BHL 6; E02504), Abdon and Sennes were Persians who were martyred at Rome under the emperor Decius. Having been secretly buried in a house at the time of their martyrdom, they were reburied during the reign of Constantine in the Cemetery of Pontianus. While there is no reason to believe that this account has any historical basis, their cult was established at an early date, since their tomb in the cemetery of Pontianus is included in the Depositio martirum of 354 (E01052). Their shrine is regularly mentioned in pilgrim itineraries (E00688, E06912, E06988, E07895). For the cemetery of Pontianus, see Ricciardi 2006, and the further references given by Trout 2015, 90.
Neither Ferrua nor Trout attempt to reconstruct the original text of the fragments, but the EDB offers:
[---? pres]byter hos [Theod]orus d[onat propte]r honore[m ---]
'Theodorus the presbyter donated for the honour .... them'
However, a similar reconstruction was rejected by Ferrua on the grounds of there being insufficient space for the necessary letters (Ferrua 1942, 97).
Bibliography
Editions and translations:de Rossi, G.B., and Silvagni, A., Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores [ICVR], n.s., vol. 2: Coemeteria in viis Cornelia Aurelia Portuensi et Ostiensi et tabulae Nr. 1-34 (Vatican: Pont. Institutum Archaeologiae Christianae, 1935), nos. 4529-4530.
Ferrua, A., Epigrammata damasiana (Rome: Pontificio Istituto di archeologia cristiana, 1942), 96-97, no. 5.
Trout, D., Damasus of Rome: The Epigraphic Poetry: Introduction, Texts, Translations, and Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 90, no. 5.
Epigraphic Database Bari, EDB20922-3:
http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/20922
http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/20923
Further reading:
Lapidge, M., The Roman Martyrs: Introduction, Translations, and Commentary (Oxford: OUP, 2018).
Ricciardi, M., "Pontiani coemeterium," in: A. La Regina (ed.), Lexicon topographicum urbis Romae – Suburbium, vol. 4 (Rome: Quasar, 2006), 213-219.
Images
)
The surviving fragments (a and c) of the inscription (reproduced from Ferrua 1942, 96).
Record Created By
David Lambert; Katarzyna Wojtalik
Date of Entry
09/12/2018; revised 16/06/2025
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00573 | Abdos and Semnes, Persian martyrs of Rome | Uncertain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
David Lambert; Katarzyna Wojtalik, Cult of Saints, E07150 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07150