Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 2209
Inscription on sarcophagus mentioning Flavia Vitalia, presbytera or a presbyter `s wife, who has sold the sarcophagus to Theodosius, Salona (Dalmatia), AD 425.
D(ominis) n(ostris) Thaeodosio(!) co(n)s(ule) XI et Valentiniano
viro nobelissimo(!) Caes(are) ego T<h>aeodo
sius emi a Fl(avia) Vita[li]a pr(es)b(yteri) sanc(ta) matro
na auri sol(idis) III sub d(ie)
 
(the text after Brigitte Gräf, Epigraphische Datenbank Heidelberg, HD025117)
In the consulship of our lords, Theodosius for the eleventh time and Valentinian, the most noble Ceasar, I, Theodosius, bought [this sarcophagus] from Flavia Vitalia, the presbyter's wife [or the presbytera], holy matron, for three solids of gold on the day ...
 
(trans. M. Szada)

Discussion:

It is uncertain how the abbreviation prb should be resolved in this case. Gräf offers "presbyteri" (Gen. sg.) and in that case it is natural to translate "the holy matron [i.e. wife] of the presbyter". "prb" could be also understood as the abbreviation of "presbytera" (which could be then interpreted as the title of the presbyter's wife or a woman holding an office of presbyterate). Ute Eise (2000: 132) interprets "prb" as the abbreviation of the male form presbyter and translates the relevant passage "the matrona Flavia Vitalia, the holy presbyter". She then argues that Flavia Vitalia held a rank of the presbyter in the local clergy and in that official capacity sold the sarcophagus to Theodosius. See a careful assessment of Eisen's theses in Sanader 2014: 264-65.

Place of event:

Region
  • Danubian provinces and Illyricum
City
  • Salona

About the source:

Origin: Salona (Danubian provinces and Illyricum)
The inscription was put on the limestone sarcophagus which was later used to build an oil container. The precise day date is missing, it is possible that it was painted and did not survive. The inscription is dated to the year 425 and it was certainly made before 23 October 425 when Valentianian III was proclaimed Augustus (McEvoy 2013: 231-32).
Edition:
Brigitte Gräf, Epigraphische Datenbank Heidelberg, HD025117 (last update: 13 May 2011)
Année Epigraphique 1922 (1922), no. 42
F. Bulić, "Iscrizione inedita. (Siculi, Bihaći di Castelnuovo di Traù)", Bulletin d'archéologie et d'histoire dalmates 37 (1914), 107-111
E. Diehl, Inscriptiones latinae christianae veteres, Berlin 1925, no. 3791C
A. and J. Šašel, Inscriptiones Latinae quae in Iugoslavia inter annos MCMII et MCMXL repertae et editae sunt, Ljulblana 1986, no. 2789
E. Marin et al., Salona 4. Inscriptions de Salone chrétienne, IVe-VIIe siècles, Rome and Split 2010, 452-454, no. 194
Trismegistos 182075
Epigraphische Datenbank Clauss Sllaby ,a href="http://db.edcs.eu/epigr/edcs_id_en.php?p_edcs_id=EDCS-10101818">EDCS-10101818
Bibliography:
U. E. Eisen, Women Officeholders in Early Christianity: Epigraphical and Literary Studies, Collegeville 2000.
M. Sanader, "Flavia Vitalia, eine Presbyterin oder die Frau eines Presbyters?”, ARCHÆOPlus: Schriften zur Archäologie und Archäometrie an der Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg 7 (2014), 261–69.

Categories:

Family life - Marriage
Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
Female ministry
Ecclesiastical administration - Selling tombs/Administering graveyards
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2209, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2209