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Old Stones
in the Porch of S. Sabina

[image ALT: A plaster wall in which a number of fragmentary stone inscriptions can be seen and against which a strigil sarcophagus has been placed. It is part of the porch of the church of S. Sabina, in Rome, to the left of the door; the inscriptions are mostly late Roman tombstones, usually Christian, of the 4th century and later.]

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.

[image ALT: A somewhat damaged Roman strigil sarcophagus in the porch of the church of S. Sabina, in Rome.]

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Old Stones in the Porch of S. Sabina

Old Stones
in the Porch of S. Sabina