IL MEDIUM EPIGRAFICO NEGLI SPAZI DEVOZIONALI E CULTUALI DEI CRISTIANI DI ROMA (III-VII SECOLO)

Abstract

The focus of the paper is the sacrum growing role in the inscriptions by Christians in Rome, starting from
their very first examples in the third century till to their relevant action into the transformation processes
in using the epigraphic medium in Late Antiquity -until the seventh century. Some examples and cases of
study show a phenomenon of an increasing ‘permeability’ between sacrum and the other spheres of using
the epigraphic medium. The ‘pervasiveness’ of the sacred sphere, first related only to the funerary epigraphs,
gradually spread to the cultic buildings equipment, where the inscriptions by Christians – essentially by
their leaders, as the bishops of Rome are – transform these spaces in the new actual ‘public spaces’ of the late
antique and medieval Roma christiana.