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A Bisomus is a tomb large enough to contain two bodies. The ordinary tombs (loci) in the galleries of the Roman catacombs contained one body. It sometimes happened, however, that a space large enough to contain two bodies was excavated. Such a double grave is referred to in inscriptions as ''locus bisomus''. An inscription from the catacomb of St. Calixtus, for instance, informs us that a certain Boniface, who died at the age of twenty-three years and two months, was interred in a double grave which had been prepared for himself and for his father (''Bonifacius, qui vixit annix XXII et II (mens) es, positus in bisomum in pace, sibi et patr. suo''). A 4th century inscription tells of two ladies who had purchased for their future interment, a bisomus in a "new crypt" which contained the body of a Saint: :IN CRYPTA NOBA RETRO SAN :CTUS EMERVM VIVAS BALER :RA ET SABINA MERUM LOC :V BISOM AB APRONE ET A :BIATORE Like so many pious but rather superstitious persons of that age, "Balerra" and "Sabina" wished to be buried in the closest proximity to a martyr, ''retro sanctos'', a privilege which, as we learn from another inscription, "many desire but few receive" (''quod multi cupiunt et rari accipiunt''). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bisomus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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