Christian symbols on roman soldier\'s tombstones?

[Marcus Mummius]

Salvete,

Are there any tombstones from roman soldiers (from any period) that have some kind of christian symbols or iconography on them?

Kind regards,

[Marius_Ursus]

Salvete,

Are there any tombstones from roman soldiers (from any period) that have some kind of christian symbols or iconography on them?

Kind regards,

Bear in mind (Ursus...bear...get it? Huh huh...) this is off the top of my head, but I think if there are any, they'd have to be rather late Roman. I don't think there was any recorded iconography associated with Christianity until the third century AD.

[Marcus Mummius]

Hi Tom,

You are right, if such tombstones exist they will probably be from the late 3rd century and onward. There are earlier examples of early christian iconography but they are very rare.

Now where are those tombstone experts? My professor in early christian archaeology told me he did not know of such tombstones but he also said it is well possible they do exist, especialy if the soldiers came from an eastern province.

Kind regards,

[Comerus Gallus]

After Jesus went to the Father, there were Roman of all class that become Christians, if you study the holy scriptures, in the book of Act's is good to start, but also the 4 gospel up to Revelation.

I quickly recall a Centurion called Cornelius of the Italian band (Act 10.
In Act 11:19-26 is the first time they are called Christian in Antioch.

The Catacombs have all kind of class of people, may soldiers & who knows! :wink:

I hope this help you!

http://www.thornyweb.com/imagesermon.htm

Archaeology often provides historical clues about the lives of the people in a particular area. In the 1930s archeologists started investigating the city of Antioch. A number of beautiful mosaics have been uncovered, but not many details about the Christian community of the first three centuries. Since there are so many layers to get through it may be quite some time before the relics of the first Christians are discovered.

The catacombs contain areas where there is room for a funeral service. This was new to the Romans who had typically used cremation. The Christians of the day followed the Jewish tradition of burying bodies. Additionally the Christians preferred to respect the bodies that one day would rise from the dead. Considering the periods of persecution by the Romans, it seems remarkable to me that the Christians burial places were not destroyed by the Romans, but the Roman laws forbade disturbing burial sights. Logically enough, it was the live ones that the Romans were more worried about.





Originally many of the burial spaces would have been covered by a stone slap with some inscription. Most of these are now missing, but even so there have been more 30,000 inscriptions discovered so far. Some of these inscriptions indicate that Christians were not the only ones to be buried there. Other inscriptions tell the diversity of the people who called themselves Christians. There are epitaphs indicating senatorial rank, all the way through to people of the servant class. A couple of specific examples are a man who worked in the baths, and a cavalryman of the imperial army.

[tlclark]

I am not aware of any Christian epigraphy earlier than the 4th C. that can be definitively associated with a soldier.

Just to be sure I went through my references on early Christian epigraphy and early Christian art.

Basically, no Christian epigraphy or art can be definitively dated to the 2nd C. and there is a huge debate if there was any Christian art earlier than the 3rd C.

The best you could do is see if a given catacomb painting had a series of themes that would indicate a military context, but it would be only based on circumstantial evidence.

There obviously were Christian soldiers, the literary evidence is full of references to them, and many early saints, Menas, Makarios, George, Theodore Stratelates, and Theodore Theron, Demetrios etc, etc, etc, are all Roman soldiers. But I can find no evidence for any early christian epigraphy or art specifically connected to a soldier.

My bet is that if it existed, it would be fairly well known.

Now 4th C. and later is a different matter.

Sorry.

Travis

[Salvianus]

Sorry, I don't know of early symbols, but I was interested in this article:

[url:1bidkhpb]http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Cadoux0358/ChristianWar/HTMLs/0305_Pt05_Part3.html[/url]

It is veeery old & mostly cites literary sources, but states that an inscription "about the middle of the third century, found at Hodjalar in Phrygia, gives us the epitaph on the family tomb of two Christian soldiers.", referenced
Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, ii. 717.

Hope that is of some help