Frequently the phrase IN PACE, or DORMIT IN PACE, is added, in attestation of the Christian faith of the deceased, (see [Figs. 122]-[124];) or, more briefly still, the word LOCVS is prefixed, as LOCVS PRIMI—“The place of Primus,”[676] as if descriptive of the last long home, the house appointed for all living.
The later inscriptions are frequently far removed from this naive simplicity, being inflated in style and elaborate in execution, attesting the increased wealth and growing pride of the Christian community. Of these we shall hereafter have frequent examples. One very remarkable series is that executed, under the direction
of Pope Damasus, in the latter part of the fourth century. He composed numerous metrical epitaphs in honour of the martyrs, which were engraved in marble in a singularly elegant decorated character, designed by his secretary, Furius Dionysius Filocalus, who was also an accomplished artist. Hence the letters of these Damasine inscriptions are as distinct a characteristic in early Christian epigraphy as the celebrated Aldine type in the bibliography of the revival of learning. There are few of the Catacombs where these inscriptions have not been found; and De Rossi has been enabled thereby to reconstruct some valuable historical monuments from a few fragments, just as a skilful anatomist will reconstruct a skeleton from a portion of the vertebræ. Some of the most important of these have already been given; others will hereafter occur. The Latinity is often of a school-boy mediocrity; but they are of great value as determining the identity and elucidating the history of many important Christian tombs.
Most of the epitaphs, as we might naturally expect, were written in Latin. Nevertheless, a considerable proportion are in Greek, to which circumstance several causes conduced. Although Latin was the language of the mass of the Roman population, yet Greek was also spoken largely by the educated classes. We know, too, from the pages of Juvenal[677] and contemporary writers, that Rome swarmed with numbers of slaves and others from Greece and Asia Minor, who, although they might be able to speak Latin, would find it very difficult to write it. Moreover, Greek seems to have been in the early centuries a sort of ecclesiastical language at Rome, just as Latin is now throughout Roman Catholic
Christendom. It was in this language that the glad tidings of the new evangel were first declared, and in it St. Paul wrote his epistle to the Roman church. The new wine of the gospel flowed from that classic chalice which so long had poured libations to the gods. Probably a religious sentiment led to the adoption, even by those to whom it was unfamiliar, of the language in which their holiest teachings and highest hopes had been originally conveyed, and in which the Apostolic Fathers and the greatest apologists, theologians, and historians of the early church had fought the battles of the faith. The responses of the Roman liturgy long continued to be uttered in this tongue, and traces of this practice still remain in the Kyrie, eleeson! Christe, eleeson! of the Order of the Mass. This primitive Greek influence has also left its indelible impression on our language in such words as church, bishop, presbyter, eucharist, baptism, catechism, liturgy, psalm, and hymn.
Sometimes the humble mourner had to be content with recording the Latin words in Greek characters, as in the following examples: ΛΕΙΒΕΡΕ ΜΑΞΙΜΙΛΛΕ ΚΟΙΟΥΓΕ ΑΜΑΝΤΙϹϹΙΜΑΕ ΦΙΚΙΤ ΕΝ ΠΑΚΕ. Read: Liberæ Maximillæ conjugi amantissimæ, vixit in pace—“To Libera Maximilla, a most loving wife. She lived in peace.” ΒΕΝΕ ΜΕΡΕΝΤΙ ΦΙΛΙΕ ΘΕΟΔΩΡΕ ΚΥΕ ΒΙΞΙΤ ΜΗϹΙϹ ΧΙ ΔΙΕΣ ΧVΙΙΙ. Read: Bene merenti filiæ Theodoræ, qui vixit menses XI, dies XVIII—“To our well-deserving daughter Theodora, who lived eleven months and eighteen days.”[678]
In copying Latin inscriptions many errors arose from
the mason mistaking the Roman characters for similar Greek ones, as A for Λ, T for Γ, and the Latin H and P for the Greek Eta and Rho. The Greek influence is also seen in the altered inflexion of Latin words, as maritous for maritos, filies for filias, and the like. The proportion of Greek inscriptions among those before the time of Constantine is estimated at one eighth.[679] After that period it is less, indicating the gradual decline of Greek influence. In Gaul and the western provinces the proportion is not so great. At Autun there is only one Greek epitaph.
Of the eleven thousand extant inscriptions only thirteen hundred and seventy-four bear dates. The period of the others can be only approximately determined by a comparison with those whose ages are known; by a careful examination of the execution, language, and general sentiment, those of earlier date being less florid and more classical in style; by the presence or absence of certain symbols, as the sacred monogram, of which no example is known before the period of Constantine; and by the position in the Catacombs, those in the lower piani being of later date.
Judging by these criteria, De Rossi has arrived at the following conclusions: About six thousand of the epitaphs belong to the first four centuries, and are from the Catacombs; the rest were found above ground. Of these six thousand, about four thousand are before the year 324 A. D., when Constantine became sole emperor.