Infant mortality must have been extremely high in ancient Rome. In one
gallery of the Panfilo cemetery, for instance, there were 111 graves, of which
83 were for children, only five of whom had epitaphs. The inscriptions
regarding the death of children are often among the most revealing of personal
hope and loss. The grave of Iunius Acutianus, aged about ten, says: ‘in this
tomb which you see, rests someone witty (facetus), though a boy in age,
a lamb snatched into heaven and given to Christ’. (ICUR [Inscriptiones
Christianae Urbis Romae septimo saeculo antiquiores, nova series] IV, 11328) A
boy of seven, Dalmatinus, was described by his grieving father as a ‘very sweet
son, full of genius and common sense’ who was a quick learner of Greek as well
as Latin but who died after an illness of three days. (ICUR I, 1978) A boy
called Augustine who died aged 15 years and three months, was mourned by his
mother for his singular piety, the innocence of his life and his marvellous
wisdom. His parents must have been of different faiths and he had chosen his
mother’s religion; it was she who constructed the tomb. (ICUR IV, 11823) One
grave simply recorded the names and the dates of death of the baby Felicitas
and the boy, Secundio, who died in the same month and were buried together. (ICUR
VII, 20417) (Bernard Green, Christianity in Ancient Rome: The
First Three Centuries [London: T&T Clark International, 2010], 204)
