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:--
SABATIVS BENEMERENTI QVI VIXIT ANNOS XL
To the well-deserving Sabatias, who lived
forty years.
And here another:--
PROSPERO INNOCENTI ANIMAE IN PACE.
To Prosperus, innocent soul, in peace.
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