On a Subject of the Titulus of Equites − Sylvester − Martin

Abstract

The oldest known sources of the titulus of Rome date back to the pontificate of Sylvester (314-335). In his biography Liber Pontificalis mentions the construction of Equites’s titulus nearby Domitian’s hot baths, and in another place it says about Sylvester’s titulus founded there. The acts of a council held in Rome in 499 contain the signatures of presbyters from Equites’s titulus, and below the texts of the acts of the council of 595 there were signatures of presbyters of the titulus of Sylvester. Despite their incongruity, the interpretation of the mentioned texts permits to assume that they concern one building erected at Sylvester’s suggestion on the ground which belonged to Equites. On the same sitz, at the beginning of the 6th century, the pope Symmachus (498-514) erected a church dedicated to St Martin. According to the author, the so-called Fragmentum Laurentianum containing the biography of the pope Symmachus and dated back to the beginning of the 6th century, entitle one to such a conclusion. We read there that: „Hic beati Martini ecclesiam iuxta sanctum Silvestrem... dedicavit”. If, as it is suggested by the author, we translate the preposition „iuxta” not as „beside” which has hitherto been proposed by all who dealt with this text, but as „together with” (or „by”, „in relation with”), then the text can be understood as follows: Symmachus erected a church dedicated to St Martin on the site connected with the person of St Sylvester. This kind of interpretation cannot be excluded by the findings of archeological research carried out on the premises of the contemporary church S. Martino ai Monti in which the cult of St Sylvester has been present since ages.