16 CHRISTIAN EPITAPHS OP 



VIII. Miscellaneous. 



(a) The most ancient dated epitaph : — 89. 



(See Plate IV, 3.) 



(In Mus. Lateran. ; De Rossi, n. 1.) 



[^A]itg(iistas) Vespasiano III Consule. — Jan(iiarias.') 



" before tlie Calends (?) of August, in the tliircl Consulship of Vespa^ 



sian" (i. e. 11 a.d.) " before the Calends of January." 



This fragment has been received as a part of a Christian epitaph by 

 Reggi, Marinij and De Rossi. It is the most ancient of all such that 

 bear dates. The chief grounds on which it has been regarded as Christian 

 are that the slab is of the same kind as those used to close the tombs 

 in the Catacombs, and that it had adhering to it the mortar by which 

 such slabs were fixed in their places. To these grounds De Rossi has 

 made an important addition, by his reading IAN as Januarias, thus 

 showing that the stone closed a locus htsomus, containing the bodies 

 of one who had died — before the Calends [?] of August, and of another 

 who had died — before the Calends of January. 



Iq the year 71 Vespasian was Consul for the third time, with Cocceius 

 Nerva as his colleague. On the 1st of March or April he resigned the 

 office, and, on the 1st of July, L. Flavins Fimbria and Attilius Bar- 

 barus were made consides suffecti. The year then is marked here, as 

 in other Christian epitaphs, not by the names of the suffecti, but by 

 that of one of the ordinarii. 



(h) Unexplained numerals : — 90. 



NXXX- SVRA ET SENEC • COSS- 



(E coemet. Lucince; De Rossi, n. 2.) 



N-XXX- Sura et Senecione Consulibus. 



" In the Consulship of Sura and Senecio," i. e. 107 a. d. 



The numeral III is omitted after SVRA and II after SENEC. See 

 De Rossi's note. 



I have not attempted to translate " N -XXX-," as their meaning 

 is unknown. The interpretation that has been generally received is 

 that they stand for nwnero XXX, indicating that martyrs were 

 buried there in number thirty. This view hr.s been taken by Visconti, 

 Cavedoni, Raoul Rochette, and Wiseman. Roestel also assents, but 

 regards the inscription as commemorative of a past age. De Rossi 



