Slab with Latin text mixed with Greek letters
Photogallery
Slab with Latin text mixed with Greek letters
The epitaph of a 10 year-old child, buried by his mother Irene and defined filiolus, “little son”, is engraved on cipollino marble or “onion-stone” (so named for its appearance that recalls the layers of an onion), a precious Greek marble whose use is however not a sign of wealth but rather of poverty: it is an example of the phenomenon of the re-use of materials obtained as a result of the abandonment or collapse of private and public buildings, which worsened in late antiquity due to the economic crisis. The presence of Greek letters in the Latin words - φiliolus (filiolus), posουet (posuit), biξit (for vixit) - or words only partially transliterated from greek - Irηnη (Irene) – reflect, furthermore, the multilingual aspect of ancient society and, in particular, of the less educated social strata within the Judeo-Christian community of Rome who spoke and wrote in Greek and Latin (and occasionally Hebrew), until Latin finally prevailed in the fourth century.