CVRRENTIO SERVO DEI DEP. D. XVI. KAL NOVEM.
To Currentius, the servant of God, laid in
the grave on the sixteenth of the Kalends of
November.
MAXIMINVS QVI VIXIT ANNOS XXIII AMICVS OMNIVM
Maximin, who lived twenty-three years, the
friend of all.
SEPTIMVS MARCIANE IN PACE QUE BICSIT MECV ANNOS XVII. DORMIT IN PACE
Septimus to Marciana in peace. Who lived
with me seventeen years. She sleeps in peace.
GAVDENTIA PAVSAT DVLCIS SPIRITVS ANNORVM II MENSORVM TRES.
Gaudentia rests. Sweet spirit of two years
and three months.
Here is a gravestone with the single word VIATOR; here one that tells only that Mary placed it for her daughter; here one that tells of the light of the house,—[Greek: To phos thaes Oikias].
Nor is it only in these domestic and intimate inscriptions that the habitual temper and feeling of the Christians is shown, but even still more in those that were placed over the graves of such members of the household of faith as had made public profession of their belief, and shared in the sufferings of their Lord. There is no parade of words on the gravestones of the martyrs. Their death needed no other record than the little jar of blood placed in the mortar, and the fewest words were enough where this was present. Here is an inscription in the rudest letters from a martyr's grave:—