As I look at the posts I've made thus far, I realize they've been almost completely historical and linguistic. That's fine, but I don't want to lose sight of the fact that these inscriptions, which are overwhemlingly taken from the catacombs and cemetaries of Rome before Constantine, testify to the faith of people who expereinced something that, God willing, we never will: imprisonment, torture, and death for acknowledging our faith.  They had no idea how long the persecutions would last - they might have gone on forever - but these our ancestors kept their families in the Faith, and besides the Church and our Traditions, these monuments and inscriptions are tangible evidence of that.

And to add one linguistic note, the word 'marytr' comes from a Greek word which means 'to testify to'; 'to bear witness to'.  It's an ordinary legal term which was appropriated to dignify what the Martyrs were doing with their very lives.

Spelling 'vixit'

I mentioned the fluidity of spelling and pronunciation yesterday reagarding 'sebete'.  In my very first post (Hic requiescit..), the normal word for "she lived", "Vixit", is spelled "viscit".

There are several possible reasons for this, but the first thing to be aware of is that 'x' is a double consonant.  Even in English, it's a combination of 'k' and 's', so the Romans could, and did, sometimes spell 'vixit' as 'vicsit'. The first possible explanation for 'viscit', then, is simple error:  the person making the inscription transposed the 'c' and the 's'.  Much the same thing happens today when native speakers of English say "I want to aks you a question", or when they refer to the 'little star' as an 'asteriks'.

Another possiblilty is that the pronunciation of the 'x' in 'vixit' had started to change.  We will soon see that the 'v' is spelled as both 'v' and 'b' in inscriptions (sometimes both in the same inscription).  So perhaps the 'ks' sound is already starting to morph into its Spanish, French, and Italian descendants.

Alexamenos worships God

This graffito was discovered in 1857 during excavations of the Palatine Hill. It has become justly famous as one of the earliest depictions (and caricatures) of a Christian worshipping Christ crucified.  For details, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexamenos_graffito

The Greek text printed above has caused some discussion, with some scholars debating how the imperative plural (sebete) could be used for the third person singular indicative (sebetai).  D'oh!!  I can think of two off the top of my head:  spelling and pronunciation were fluid (as we will see in further inscriptions to come);  whoever did this was mocking Christians, so he might have been mocking their language skills at the same time.

In more familiar text....

the previous inscription would appear thus

Anatolius filio bene merenti fecit
qui vixit annis VI mensis VII diebus XXI.
Spiritus tuus bene requiescat in Deo.
Petas pro sorore tua.

Anatolius for his son

ANATOLIVS FILIO BENEMERENTI FECIT

QVI VIXIT ANNIS VI MENSIS VII DIEBVS

XXI. SPIRITVS TVVS BENE REQVIES

CAT IN DEO. PETAS PRO SORORE TVA.

Anatolius made this (monument) for his well-deserving son

who lived for 6 years 7 months 21 days.

May your spirit rest well in God.

Pray for your sister.

Latin notes

First of all, the most obvious thing that someone with knowledge of Latin will notice is that all the instances of the letter "u" are written as "V".  That's because there was only one letter that filled both the niche of a consonant sounding like "w" and as a vowel sounding like our modern vowel "u" (pronounced "oo" as in "moon").  The consonantal "u" later changed to the sound of our English "v", but during the Classical Period of Latin, "Veni, vidi, vici" was pronounced "waynee, weedy, wicky".  So "V" was used to write both letters, especially in inscriptions, for many centuries after the Birth of Christ.

Some Linguistic Notes

After posting an inscription and its translation, I will add some notes regarding the language of the inscription.  There are many Latin, Greek, and mixed language inscriptions, and because many of these were written by people who were not the best educated of the time, idiosyncrasies creep in.  Also, those who study the classical languages today focus on the literature which has come down to us, and is normally used as an exemplar of grammar and style.  Many of these early Christians may never have heard of, much less read, the Orations of Cicero.  They wrote as they spoke, and that in itself is an invaluable piece of evidence.

Hic Requiescit.......

The name of the blog is taken from an inscription which reads:

HIC REQVIESCIT IN SOPNO PACIS
AGEL PERGA ANCILLA CHRISTI
QUAE VISCIT AN.PL. M. XVIII
CREDO DEVM PATREM
CREDO DEVM FILIVM
CREDO DM SPIRITUM
SANTV CREDO Q. NOBISSIMO
DIE RESVRGAM.

Here rests in the sleep of peace
Agel Perga, Servant of Christ
Who lived almost 18 years
I believe in God the Father
I believe in God the Son
I believe in God the Holy Spirit
I believe that I will rise again
on the latest day.