Probably the original epitaph for *Hyacinthus (companion of Protus, martyr of Rome, S00464), recording the day of his burial as 11 September. Fixed on his intact tomb in the Catacombs of Basilissa ad Sanctum Hermetem on the via Salaria vetus, Rome. Probably 303 or soon after.
Evidence ID
E07620
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions
Archaeological and architectural - Internal cult fixtures (crypts, ciboria, etc.)
Archaeological and architectural - Extant reliquaries and related fixtures
d(e)p(ositus) III idus septebr(es) (leaf)
Yacinthus
martyr
'Buried on the 3rd day before the ides of September. (leaf) Hyacinthus, the martyr.'
Text: ICVR, n.s., X, no. 26662.
FestivalsBurial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics
Non Liturgical ActivityCeremonies at burial of a saint
RelicsBodily relic - bones and teeth
Cult Related Objects
Saint’s feast
Cult PlacesBurial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Burial site of a saint - cemetery/catacomb
Non Liturgical ActivityCeremonies at burial of a saint
Visiting graves and shrines
Pilgrimage
RelicsBodily relic - bones and teeth
Contact relic - saint’s possession and clothes
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Cult Related ObjectsInscription
Source
Complete marble plaque with carved letters painted red. Deep and large, though poorly aligned lettering. H. 0.464 m; W. 1.082 m; Th. 0.028 m. Letter height 0.037-0.063 m.After its discovery (see below) lifted and offered to the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (now The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples).
Giuseppe Marchi was the first person who gave a print account of the circumstances of the discovery and the text of the inscription in his Monumenti delle arti cristiane primitive (curiously published under the date 1844, although he places the discovery of the inscription in March 1845; de Rossi gives 1844 as the date of the discovery in ICVR 2.1, pp. 30–31, but he also credits Marchi, not Zinobili with the find, so his account may be biased). For a selection of later editions and commentaries, see our bibliography.
Discussion
This important inscription was found in the Catacombs of Basilissa ad Sanctum Hermetem on the via Salaria vetus (now via Bertolini), on its first level. The find was immediately reported on 21 March 1845 (that year's Wednesday before Easter) to Giuseppe Marchi by Giovanni Zinobili, the stone’s finder, commissioned with the exploration of the suburban cemeteries by the head of the commission for the care of the relics of martyrs, Giusppe Maria Castellani, bishop of Porfirio. Marchi notes that Zinobili, an 'illiterate man', handed him a transcription of the text. Having realized the importance of the find, that the inscription may mark an authentic tomb of a martyr, Marchi hastened the site himself where he encountered a closed, intact cubiculum. Due to the impending celebrations of the Easter, Marchi ordered the opening of the grave to be postponed. Accordingly, he entered the tomb, assisted by Zinobili, the architect Fontana, and the painter Bossi, at the dawn of the Easter Monday.The exploration of the grave revealed some burned bones and ashes, carefully packed in a linen cloth interlaced with golden threads. Marchi came to the conclusion that this was the original tomb of two brothers and martyrs reportedly buried in this cemetery, *Protus and Hyacinthus (see our evidence listed under S00464). According to many archaeologists and historians this is in fact the tomb of at least the martyr Hyacinthus, and the only intact martyr's tomb, that has been unearthed in the Roman catacombs so far (see Testini 262 and Lapidge 2018, 231). This was possible because over the centuries the tomb has been protected by the accumulation of sediments on the floor of the crypt.
Lapidge suggests that as the bones were carbonized, Hyacinthus was presumably burned to death. However, the body could be burnt later, in a burial ceremony.
The stone is often discussed together with other inscriptions recording the embellishment of the tomb of the two martyrs (the poem by Pope Damasus: E07203; the dedicatory text by the presbyter Leopardus: $EXXXXXX).
So far, the tomb of Protus has not been revealed, but the same crypt contained fragments of a monumental inscription to the saint ($EXXXXX). The tomb, as a burial place of the two martyrs, also features in pilgrims' reports (E00636; E06999). It has been suggested that the relics of Protus had been removed by Pope Leo IV (847–855), seeking to secure the remains of the saints in the rapidly deteriorating catacombs, already damaged during the sieges of Rome during the 6th c. wars.
Dating: According to Antonio Ferrua, Danilo Mazzoleni, and Carlo Carletti, the epitaph dates from the early 4th c. persecutions of Diocletian as it contains the date of the deposition which is absent from epitaphs of 3rd c. martyrs (especially Pope Pontanius, E04740, and Pope Fabianus, E04743). The editors of the Epigraphic Database Bari date the text more broadly, to the first half of the 4th c. (AD 300–349).
The importance of the material evidence: The date of the deposition, 11 September, is coherent with the primary feasts of the two martyrs given by the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (E04948) – its place, the cemetery of Basilia, also matches the findspot of our inscription (as the two martyrs are described as teachers of Eugenia and Basilla, Lapidge argues that this entry was drafted when the Martyrdom had already been in circulation). The same date, 11 September, is included in the Depositio martyrum in the Chronogaphy of 354 (E01052). In the manuscripts of the MH, Protus is also mentioned alone on the following day, 12 September, but this entry has been corrected to a common feast of the two martyrs by Delehaye (E04949). On 4 August we also find there a feast of an enigmatic martyr Sachintus on the via Labicana, and Delehaye, likewise, identified him with our Hyacinthus, without any reasonable background, and in spite of the obvious inconsistency regarding the tomb’s location (E04907).
When confronted with the literary sources, the inscription and the tomb, provide us with many details on the way of composing hagiographical accounts. In literary sources, Hyacinthus and Protus are depicted as eunuchs and slaves owned by the father of the martyr *Eugenia (S00401), then of Eugenia herself, and subsequently of her friend and fellow martyr *Basilla (S00684). The plot of the Martyrdom of Eugenia is anachronistically set in the 2nd c. (E02490), whereas, as we have seen above, the inscription suggests that the martyrdom of Hyacinthus and Protus much more likely happened in the early 4th c. The two martyrs are put to death by the sword (the same can be presumed from the Damasan poem, E07203), while the evidence inside the tomb implies that they may have died on the stake.
Bibliography
Edition:Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB18286.
see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/18286
Carletti, C., Epigrafia dei cristiani in Occidente dal III al VII secolo. Ideologia e prassi (Bari: Edipuglia, 2008), no. 171.
De Rossi, G.B., Mazzoleni, D., Carletti C., (eds.) Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores, n.s., vol. 10: Coemeteria viae Salariae veteris et viae Flaminiae (Vatican: Pont. Institutum Archaeologiae Christianae, 1992), no. 26662 (with further bibliography).
Diehl, E., Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres (Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1925-1927), vol. 1, no. 1985 adn.
AASS nov. II,1, p. 501 (ed. H. Delehaye).
Armellini, M., Gli antichi cimeteri cristiani di Roma e d'Italia (Rome: Tipografia poliglotta, 1893), 186.
Marchi, G., Monumenti delle arti cristiane primitive nella metropoli del cristianesimo: Architettura (Rome: Tip. di C. Puccinelli, 1844), 238-272 and Tab. XLVIIIa.
Further reading:
Lapidge, M., The Roman Martyrs: Introduction, Translations, and Commentary (Oxford, 2018), 228-249 (230-231 for the inscription and tomb).
De Santis, P., Sanctorum Monumenta: "Aree sacre" del suburbio di Roma nella documentazione epigrafica (IV-VII secolo) (Bari: Edipuglia, 2010), 28, note 50.
Testini, P., Archeologia cristiana: nozioni generali dalle origini alla fine del sec. VI.; propedeutica, topografia cimiteriale, epigrafia, edifici di culto (Bari: Edipuglia, 1980), 262 (for a description of the tomb).
Ferrua, A. (ed.), Epigrammata Damasiana (Sussidi allo studio delle antichità cristiane 2, Rome: , 1942), no. 47.
Ihm, M., Damasi Epigrammata: accedunt Pseudodamasiana aliaque ad Damasiana inlustranda idonea (Lipsiae: in aedibus B. G. Teubneri, 1895), 53, comments to no. 49.
De Rossi, G. B., Inscriptiones christianae Urbis Romae septimo saeculo antiquiores 2.1 (Rome: Ex Officina Libraria Pontificia, 1857-1888), 30-31, comments to no. 73.
Images
)
From: Epigraphic Database Bari, EDB18286 (© Free Access – no reuse).
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
11/06/2019
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00464 | Protus and Hyacinthus, eunuchs and martyrs of Rome | Yacinthus | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E07620 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07620