Latin verse inscription praising pope Siricius (384-399) as a generous restorer of tombs of unnamed martyrs. Now lost, but probably displayed in the Cemetery of Priscilla, or elsewhere on the via Salaria, Rome. [provisional entry]
Evidence ID
E07480
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Literary - Poems
Siricius pia nunc persolvit munera sancti<s>,
gratia quo maior sit bona martyribus.
Omnipotens deus hunc conservet tempore multo,
moenia sanctorum qui nova restituit.
1. sancti<s> Gruter, sancti codices
'Siricius does not fail to the pious duties to the saints, so that the good grace to the martyrs would aggrandize. Him the allmighty God may save, and for a long time, him who restored the new strongholds of the saints.'
Text: ICVR, n.s., VIII, no. 23056 = EDB34542. Trans. P. Nowakowski.
Cult PlacesBurial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Non Liturgical ActivityBequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Burial site of a saint - cemetery/catacomb
Burial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics
Non Liturgical ActivityBequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Renovation and embellishment of cult buildings
Composing and translating saint-related texts
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - Popes
Source
The poem is composed in two elegiac couplets. The text survived only in the codex Vaticanus Palatinus 833 f. 63v of the Sylloge Laureshamensis. First published by Jan Gruter in 1602.The Sylloge does not specify the inscription's location, but as we find it among the inscriptions from the via Salaria, Antonio Ferrua tentatively ascribed it to the Cemetery of Priscilla. He notes, however, that Baronius and Bianchi conjectured that the poem came from the urban church of Pudentiana, known to have been an object of a lavish donation by Siricius.
Discussion
The poem dates to the pontificate of Siricius.Bibliography
Edition:Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB34542.
see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/34542
De Rossi, G.B., Ferrua, A. (eds.) Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores, n.s., vol. 8: Coemeteria viarum Nomentanae et Salariae (Vatican: Pont. Institutum Archaeologiae Christianae, 1983), no. 23056 (with further bibliography).
Diehl, E., Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres, vol. 1 (Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1925), no. 971.
Bücheler, F., Anthologia Latina sive poesis Latinae supplementum, pars posterior: Carmina epigraphica, vol. 1 (Leipzig: In aedibus B.G. Tebneri, 1895), no. 905.
De Rossi, G. B., Inscriptiones christianae Urbis Romae septimo saeculo antiquiores 2.1 (Rome: Ex Officina Libraria Pontificia, 1857-1888), 104, no. 39.
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
24/03/2019
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00060 | Martyrs, unnamed or name lost | sancti, martyres | Certain | S00518 | Saints, unnamed | sancti, martyres | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E07480 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07480