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E07492: 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]

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posted on 2019-03-30, 00:00 authored by pnowakowski
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.

History

Evidence ID

E07492

Saint Name

Saints, unnamed : S00518

Saint Name in Source

sancti

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions Literary - Poems

Language

  • Latin

Evidence not before

300

Evidence not after

400

Activity not before

300

Activity not after

400

Place of Evidence - Region

Rome and region

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Suburban catacombs and cemeteries

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Suburban catacombs and cemeteries Rome Rome Roma Ῥώμη Rhōmē

Cult activities - Places

Burial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Prayer/supplication/invocation

Cult Activities - Miracles

Miraculous protection - other

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Women 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.

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    Evidence -  The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity

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