Old Stones
in the Porch of S. Sabina

The older Roman churches often have a front porch in which we often find a collection of inscriptions. S. Sabina is typical in this respect. There are more inscriptions inside the church, but they are of a later period.

The two inscriptions that get their own pages so far:

• the early Christian tombstone of Decentius, a five-year old boy;

• the fragmentary marker of a very poor person — unfortunately, their name has been lost — who generously arranged for an even more indigent friend to share his burial-place.

For scale, the strigil sarcophagus (pagan; 3c?) a close-up of which is given below, is 2.39 m long: fully large enough for a tall person. The square brick supports are of course modern.