Latin epitaph in verse praising a deceased woman and her unnamed husband, and naming 'faith' a 'friend of the saints', and the most sure way to Heavens. Now lost, but probably displayed in the Cemetery of Priscilla, or elsewhere on the via Salaria, Rome. Probably 4th c. [provisional entry]
Evidence ID
E07492
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions
Literary - Poems
Hic quoque Liciniae tumulus totidemque mariti est
miscet et alternus viscera cara cinis.
Ambo pudicitiae domini pacisque magistri,
quos trahit ad caelum sanctis amica fides
1. licinie Cent. || hic quoque licinia Laur. || est omisit Harl. || 2. ignescit et Cent., miscit et Laur. || 4. celum Cent., coelum Harl.
'Not Licinia’s alone, but also her husband's is the hither tomb, and each of them mixes the beloved bodies with ashes. Modesty both mastered, and were mentors of peace, both brings swiftly to Heaven the faith, a friend of the saints.'
Text: ICVR, n.s., VIII, no. 23221 = EDB35016. Transl. P. Nowakowski.
Cult PlacesBurial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
MiraclesWomen
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 ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Composing and translating saint-related texts
MiraclesMiraculous protection - other
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Other lay individuals/ people
Source
The poem is composed in two elegiac couplets. The text survived through the codex Petropolitanus F. XIV 1 f. 128v of the Sylloge Centulensis, and the codex Vaticanus Palatinus 833 f. 77 and the codex Londinus Harleianus 3685 f. 3v of the Sylloge Laureshamensis. First published by Jan Gruter in 1602 from the codex Palatinus. The first edition based on all the extant manuscript copies was offered by Giovanni Battista de Rossi.The sylloges do 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.
Discussion
Admittedly, it is possible that the saints mentioned here are the ordinary Christians, not the 'proper' saints.The name of Licinia's husband is, remarkably, not mentioned.
Bibliography
Edition:Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB35016.
see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/35016
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. 23221 (with further bibliography).
De Rossi, G. B., Inscriptiones christianae Urbis Romae septimo saeculo antiquiores 2.1 (Rome: Ex Officina Libraria Pontificia, 1857-1888), 88, no. 38; 114, no. 84; 121, no. 2.
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
30/03/2019
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00518 | Saints, unnamed | sancti | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E07492 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07492