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The Epitaphs of Damasus and the Transferable Value of Persecution for the Christian Community at Rome in the Fourth-Century AD

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The Epitaphs of Damasus and the Transferable Value of Persecution for the Christian Community at Rome in the Fourth-Century AD The epitaphs of Damasus and the transferable value of persecution for the Christian community at Rome in the fourth-century AD by Rebecca Leigh Littlechilds B.A., University of Saskatchewan, 2008 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of Greek and Roman Studies © Rebecca Leigh Littlechilds University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ii The epitaphs of Damasus and the transferable value of persecution for the Christian community at Rome in the fourth-century AD by Rebecca Leigh Littlechilds B.A., University of Saskatchewan, 2008 Supervisory Committee Dr. Gregory Rowe, Supervisor (Department of Greek and Roman Studies) Dr. Geoffrey Kron, Departmental Member (Department of Greek and Roman Studies) iii Supervisory Committee Dr. Gregory Rowe, Supervisor (Department of Greek and Roman Studies) Dr. Geoffrey Kron, Departmental Member (Department of Greek and Roman Studies) ABSTRACT The epitaphs carved in marble and set up around the city of Rome by Damasus I (366- 384) have long been understood as important in the political and ecclesiastic history of the city and as crucial in the development of its Christian martyr-cult. I have applied principles of collective memory and material culture theories in order to discuss the role of the epitaphs as physical vehicles of cultural value and self-conception for the post- Constantinian Christian community at Rome. iv Table of Contents Supervisory Committee.......................................................................................................ii Abstract...............................................................................................................................iii Table of Contents................................................................................................................iv Prefatory Note.....................................................................................................................vi Acknowledgements............................................................................................................vii Dedication.........................................................................................................................viii Introduction to Section I......................................................................................................1 What I intend to do in this thesis.............................................................................3 Historical context: Damasus as man and as bishop, and his Rome........................6 Chapter 1: commemorative epigraphy at Rome...............................................................12 The general features of Roman commemorative epigraphy..................................13 The role and importance of topography in Roman commemoration.....................19 Chapter 2: monument and memory at Rome....................................................................25 A brief overview of Roman monuments................................................................26 The role of collective memory...............................................................................29 Collective memory and the idealized past: nostalgia............................................33 Chapter 3: how the epitaphs worked.................................................................................37 Writing as the preservation of the absent...............................................................40 Writing and the implications of speech-act theory................................................42 Writing and the role of the reading audience.........................................................44 Introduction to Section II...................................................................................................49 Chapter 4: Christian martyr-cult at Rome.........................................................................52 Martyr-cult at Rome: the third and early fourth centuries....................................53 v Martyr-cult at Rome: the Constantinian period....................................................58 Martyr-cult at Rome: Damasus and the latter fourth century...............................62 The prevalence of martyr discourse in late antiquity.............................................63 Chapter 5: The epitaphs....................................................................................................72 Felicissimus and Agapatis: thematic motifs and their pagan precedents..............72 Cornelius: Damasus’ concern with accessibility..................................................76 Crypt of the Popes: the sancta turba.....................................................................77 Peter and Paul: romanitas, and a question of sources...........................................80 Marcellinus and Peter: the reality of martyrdom..................................................85 Agnes and the transferable value of martyrdom....................................................88 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................97 Bibliography....................................................................................................................104 Map..................................................................................................................................113 Table of epitaphs..............................................................................................................114 vi Prefatory note Several months ago, in the course of reading and researching for this thesis, I became aware of a new book on Damasus’ epitaphs that had been very recently published. It is M.G. Schmidt’s Epigrammata Damasiana. Propaganda z rzymskich podziemi (2007). I was naturally very excited to learn of it and requested it at once through interlibrary loan. Several weeks later I was informed that no North American libraries had the title in stock (both regretful and rather dismal, I thought) and that the two (international) locations that had been found were “not currently lending partners”. I mention this here to note, first, that I am aware of the book’s existence and will continue to attempt to get my hands on a copy, since any recent scholarship on the epitaphs is both noteworthy and exciting. Second, in order to point out that I have not been able to make use of it in the preparation of this thesis. Any resultant discrepancies with the most recent scholarship are therefore, of course, entirely my own. vii Acknowledgements I would like to begin by thanking those of my undergraduate professors who set the course for my interests and inclinations to this day. I single out especially Dr. Peter Burnell, who first taught me Latin and made me feel that it was both a demanding and a thrilling subject; Dr. Robert Sider, who was kind enough to come out of retirement in order to supervise a lowly undergraduate thesis; and Dr. Angela Kalinowski, to whose influence I can hardly give enough credit. Because of her I first found out that I loved Rome--and, then, first went there. More recently: I am grateful to the entire Department of Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Victoria for its support throughout the two years of my degree here. Thanks to Sonja Bermingham for her help with administrative crises of various kinds; to each of the faculty with whom I had dealings, either as a student or as a teacher’s assistant; to my secondary reader, Dr. Geof Kron, whose conversation and inestimable advice has made this paper much stronger and more carefully thought out than it would otherwise have been; and especially to my supervisor Dr. Greg Rowe, whose unflagging confidence in this thesis has not wavered (even when mine has) and whose advice and support has been much relied upon and always helpful. Finally I thank Travis, and my parents and siblings. viii This is for my dad, with whom I first watched Spartacus and The Robe, and whom I think of every day. I hope that he would have liked it. Introduction to Section I Around the beginning of the seventh century AD a small but striking basilica was erected along the Via Ardeatina, embedded up to its high-set windows in the earth. This was in order that the main altar of a new basilica could be built directly over the in situ bones of its eponymous martyrs, Nereus and Achilleus, buried in the early fourth century in a cubiculum within the third level of the catacombs lacing the site.1 The cubiculum was subsequently enlarged into a crypt by Damasus I, bishop of Rome from 366 to 3842, to allow for easier access to the martyrs’ tomb. Today, as then, a visitor to the site descends to the level of the basilica floor via a stair case opening into the southeast wall of the narthex. The eye is carried at once to the left, towards the length of the nave and the altar at its end. But the monumental heart of the basilica is towards the right, centered high on the rear wall of the narthex. It is a marble plaque, truly larger than life (about 8 feet by 4), and once glimpsed it dominates not just the narthex but the entirety of the basilica’s interior space. It was erected by Damasus as a mark of his activity at the site and is inscribed with palm-sized, deeply-grooved letters which read, Nereus and Achilleus, martyrs. They had given their name for the
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