Slab with Latin text mixed with Greek letters

Photogallery

Slab with Latin text mixed with Greek letters
Slab with Latin text mixed with Greek letters
Section XVI. Christian inscriptions, II

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.