Fragmentary Latin inscription, probably of Pope Damasus, commemorating *Faustinus and Viatrix (Beatrix); originally probably also Simplicius (martyrs of Rome, S00886). Found in the basilica of the cemetery of Generosa (ad Sextum Philippi), on the via Portuensis outside Rome. Written in Rome, 366/384.
Evidence ID
E07151
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Inscribed architectural elements
Literary - Poems
Major author/Major anonymous work
Damasan and pseudo-Damasan poems
Damasus, Epigrammata 6 (ICVR II, 4747)
[Fau]STINO · VIATRICI ·
‘[... to Fau]stinus · [to] Viatrix · [...]’
Text: Ferrua 1942, 97.
Translation: Trout 2015, 90, modified.
Cult PlacesPrayer/supplication/invocation
Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Cult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Construction of cult buildings
Renovation 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
Original location: Cemetery of Generosa, via Portuensis, also known as the cemetery ad sextum Philippi. This was located at the sixth milestone on the road from Rome to Portus, in present-day Magliana; it is the furthest from Rome of the suburban sites where Damasus was active (Trout 2015, 91). The cemetery was identified and excavated only in 1868, when this inscription was discovered.Physical remains: Two conjoining fragments of an inscription in Philocalian script on a marble architrave. The fragments join between the I and N of [Fau]stino (see images). Measurements: height about 20 cm; surviving width 130 cm; height of letters approximately 7 cm (Ferrua 1942, 97). The fragments were found in the ruins of the basilica of the cemetery (Ferrua 1942, 97; Trout 2015, 91; Lapidge 2018, 599). The fragments are currently on display in the catacomb of Generosa. Images by de Rossi and Ferrua are reproduced here; a photograph can be found in the inscription's EDB entry.
Manuscript transmission: none.
The inscribed architrave was found in the remains of a basilica constructed in the 4th century above an existing catacomb in which the martyrs' shrine was located. The basilica was 20.4 m long, and had three naves, of 3.4 m, 5.9 m, and 5 m width (Pergola and Loreti 1987, 503). The floor of the basilica was heavily used for burials (Pergola and Loreti 1987, 504; Loreti and Martorelli 2003, 384-6); a funerary inscription dated 382 provides a terminus ante quem for its construction (Loreti and Martorelli 2003, 386). Damasus' responsibility for the building is not directly attested, but is an inference from the use of Philocalian lettering in the inscription; however, it is generally accepted (Pergola 1986, 224; Trout 2015, 90). In 682 the remains of the martyrs buried there were translated to an intramural church (see E01678), and the site was abandoned and eventually forgotten, until its rediscovery in the 19th century. It was first excavated by de Rossi in the late 1860s, and most recently in the 1980s by a team led by Philippe Pergola. For a brief account see Trout 2015, 91 (with further references); in more detail, Pergola 1986, 218-24; Pergola and Loreti 1987; Loreti and Martorelli 2003, 381-89; Loreti and Martorelli 2008.
This inscription is the earliest surviving reference to Faustinus and Viatrix. They were part of a group of martyrs whose cult is attested from the 4th century onwards, but for whom there are some inconsistencies as to their names and the precise membership of the group. Most sources refer to three martyrs, named Simplicius, Faustinus, and Beatrix (see E01678, E04897, E06587, E06988). According to their passio (E04650) they were siblings martyred during the persecution of Diocletian: Simplicius and Faustinus by being drowned in the Tiber and Beatrix by being strangled. It is unclear whether any genuine tradition lies behind this account, which dates only from the 6th or 7th century and is clearly intended primarily to provide a backstory for the shrine in the cemetery ad sextum Philippi. In all these sources, the names of the male martyrs are Simplicius and Faustinus, although there is considerable inconsistency in the spelling of the woman's name. Matters are complicated somewhat by a 6th-century fresco in the catacomb of Generosa (E08594), which depicts the three martyrs (with Faustinus called Faustinianus) together with another, named Rufinianus. No surviving written source about Simplicius, Faustinus and Beatrix mentions Rufinianus, so his relationship to their cult remains mysterious (nor is he easily identified with any other known martyr – see discussion in E08594).
In the inscription, the lack of a conjunction between Faustinus and Viatrix implies that at least one other person was named, presumably Simplicius. The text can therefore be reconstructed as something like: sanctis [or beatis] martyribus Simplicio Faustino Viatrici ('to the holy [or blessed] martyrs Simplicius, Faustinus, Viatrix' – de Rossi 1869, 6). Whether the inscription also included Rufinianus (or some variant of his name), as in the reconstructions offered by Ferrua 1942, 98, and Trout 2015, 91, is a possibility that must remain uncertain.
Apart from demonstrating that the cult of these martyrs existed by Damasus' time, the inscription is important because it shows that the female member of the group, whose name is transmitted in most manuscript-based sources as Beatrix, was actually called Viatrix (a rare but not unparalleled name, the feminine form of the man's name Viator). In early medieval spoken Latin -b- was often pronounced as -v-, so there would have been little difference in the pronunciation of the two names, and it is easy to see how the form Beatrix, with its resemblance to beatus ('blessed'), gained ground and eventually replaced the correct form. This was one of the conclusions emphasised by de Rossi in his original publication of the inscription (de Rossi 1869, 3-4), and has been endorsed by subsequent editors (Ihm 1895, 10; Ferrua 1942, 98; Trout 2015, 91). A dissenter on this point is Lapidge, in his translation of the acts of the Roman martyrs, who argues that Beatrix is the correct form and that Viatrici was an error caused by the engraver spelling the name according to its pronunciation in colloquial Latin (Lapidge 2018, 600, n. 12; 639, n. 12). However, it is hard to account for an error of this kind in such a prominent, high-prestige inscription.
Bibliography
Editions and translations:Ihm, M., Damasi epigrammata (Anthologiae Latinae Supplementa 1; Leipzig: Teubner, 1895), 10, no. 6.
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), no. 4747.
Ferrua, A., Epigrammata damasiana (Rome: Pontificio Istituto di archeologia cristiana, 1942), 97-98, no. 6.
Trout, D., Damasus of Rome: The Epigraphic Poetry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 90-91, no. 6.
Epigraphic Database Bari, EDB13469
https://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/13469
Further reading:
de Rossi, G.B., "Il cristiano sepolcreto scoperto presso il quinto miglio della via portuense è il cimitero di Generosa," Bullettino di Archeologia Cristiana, serie 1/anno 7 (1869), 1-16.
de Rossi, G.B., La Roma sotterranea cristiana, vol. III (Rome, 1877), with separate volume of tavole.
Lapidge, M., The Roman Martyrs: Introduction, Translations and Commentary (Oxford: OUP, 2018).
Loreti, E.M., and Martorelli, R., "La via Portuense dall’epoca tardoantica all’eta di Gregorio Magno: Continuità e trasformazioni," in: P. Pergola, R. Santangeli Valenzani, and R. Volpe (eds.), Suburbium: Il suburbio di Roma dalla crisi del sistema delle ville a Gregorio Magno (Rome: École Française de Rome, 2003), 367-97.
Loreti, E.M., and Martorelli, R., "Sextum Philippi (ad), coemeterium," in: A. La Regina (ed.), Lexicon topographicum urbis Romae – Suburbium, vol. 5 (Rome: Quasar, 2008), 72-81.
Pergola, P., "Nereus et Achilleus martyres: L'intervention de Damase à Domitille (avec un appendice sur les résultats des fouilles récentes de la Basilique de Damase à Generosa)," in: Saecularia Damasiana. Atti del convegno internazilonale per il XVI centenario della morte di Papa Damaso I (11-12-384–10/12-12-1984) (Vatican: Pontificio Istituto di archeologia cristiana, 1986), 203-224.
Pergola, P., and Loreti, E.M., "La Magliana. Basilique cimétériale de Generosa," Mélanges de l'École française de Rome. Antiquité 99:1 (1987), 501-505.
Images
)
The surviving fragments of the inscription (from Ferrua 1942, 97).
)
The surviving fragments of the inscription (from de Rossi 1877, tavola LII).
)
The fragments in their original findspot (de Rossi 1877, tavola LII)
Record Created By
David Lambert, Katarzyna Wojtalik
Date of Entry
10/12/2018; revised 02/07/2025
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00886 | Simplicius, Faustinus, Viatrix/Beatrix, martyrs of Rome | Faustinus, Viatrix | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
David Lambert, Katarzyna Wojtalik, Cult of Saints, E07151 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07151