Section XV. Christian inscriptions in Greek

As the caption “Greek monuments of ancient Christians” informs us, this second group of walls, relating to inscriptions from the Christian cemeteries of Rome (see Sections XIV, XVI and XVII), displays epigraphs written in Greek, the official language of the Church of origins used by the faithful alongside Latin, the official language of the Roman State which became dominant from the second century onwards. They offer further information on the family, the origins of the deceased, sepulchral formulae (such as, en Theò “in God” or en Kyrío “in the Lord”, either alone or united with the verb “to live”), personal names (such as Petros), symbols (for example, Christological monograms) and decorative elements (such as ivy).