There are several Christian tombstones have been discovered in late Roman Worms. This one is generally dated to around AD 450 to 550.
Ever since the Constantine's Tolerance Edict and his Edict of Milan, Christianity was not only tolerated, but became the state religion of the Roman empire by the end of the 4th century AD. Here in Worms, the first bishop is attested for AD 346, and then a few years later Martin (i.e. St Martin, the later bishop of Tours) having a major life-changing experience in Worms. Despite Germanic settlements, like the Burgundi as Roman foederati and then the Frankish invasion, we can clearly a continuity of Christian beliefs in Worms in Late Antiquity, like in this - and other tombstones - discovered in Worms as well as other material evidence from the 4th-5th centuries... We can only presume where these early churces were located, probably near the former Roman necropoleis that surrounded the Roman city. |
für dt. Text, bitte weiter nach unten 'scrollen'.
THE LATIN INSCRIPTION | DIE LATEINISCHE INSCHRIFT
Hic requiescet in pa|ce Aigttheus qui vi|xit annos XXI. Aso | et Alhi titulum po|suerunt pro caritatem. This can be translated as: "Here rests in peace Aigttheus who lived 21 years. Aso and Alhi set up this inscription out of love." In Deutsch: "Hier ruht in Frieden Aigttheus, der 21 Jahre lebte. Aso und Alhi haben diese Inschrift aus Liebe aufgestellt." This tombstone of a certain Aigttheus was found in the Remeyer Hof Straße in the city centre (Roman-Late Antique north necropolis) (nearby there were some archaeological "excavations" in summer 2020). The tombstone is decorated with a Chi-Rho, alpha & omega. The Latin inscription shows very similar Roman-style formulae like those from the 1st-3rd centuries AD. All three personal names are extremely rare.
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