Slab with epitaph of a Sicilian

Photogallery

Slab with epitaph of a Sicilian
Slab with epitaph of a Sicilian
Section XV. Christian inscriptions in Greek

Μάρις Σικελὸς “Maris, Sicilian”, died in Rome, where he had arrived from an unknown town in Sicily. His epitaph is written in the language that was perhaps more familiar to him and to the dedicants, possibly from the same region, like that of the Palermitan Sýmphoros (20,7). Máris and Sýmphoros are two of the many inhabitants of the provinces who passed through Rome, which like today was a multi-ethnic city, or who transferred to Rome and ended their days there. They came from near and far, for commercial reasons or, as demonstrated by many late-ancient inscriptions commissioned by Christians, for religious reasons, such as pilgrimages to the “holy places”, especially the tombs of the martyrs. Neither Máris nor Sýmphoros specify the reason for their presence in Rome. At the bottom there is an engraving of a dove holding a vine in its beak, interpreted as a messenger of salvation with reference to the story of Noah.