DEPOSITIO-DEPOSITUS. – Depono, in literary texts as early as the 3rd century, acquired the meaning “to lay in the tomb, to bury,” but always in connection with the place where the burial took place; used absolutely, it begins to appear only in the 4th century.
At that time the term depositio also arose in popular usage. This usage is occasionally found among pagans as well, and later in literary as well as epigraphic texts, especially poetic ones, e.g., depositus p(edibus) XII in vascello (CIL, VI, 3428).
In Christian epigraphy the two terms (it is difficult to distinguish which of the two, since they are generally used in abbreviated form as DP. DEP. and the like) already frequently appear used absolutely in the second half of the 3rd century, e.g., in the epitaph of St. Giacinto. Thereafter, in the 4th and 5th centuries, they became extremely frequent in Rome, while remaining rather rare in the rest of Italy and the West.
In the context of the few pagan examples, the meaning seems to be that of depono = “I put down, I lay to rest.” In Christian usage, one may suppose that the particular sense of depono was felt instead: “I set aside, I put in reserve, in deposit,” as of something that is to be taken up again. The fact is that these two terms, used absolutely, are characteristic of Christian epigraphy. In general, it is difficult to determine whether they indicate the specific act of burial or rather what one would more naturally expect, namely, death. It seems that, since ordinarily the day of death and that of burial were the same, the use arose of indicating the date of death with the term depositio.
The use of depositio is noteworthy, especially in Africa, when it refers to the placing of relics in an altar, as in the celebrated example from Mactar: depositio cruoris sanctorum martyrum qui sunt passi sub preside Floro in civitate Milevitana (CIL, VIII, 6700 e 19353).
The corresponding Greek terms are κατάσιδῃμι and κατάδεσις, of which the same should be said as of the Latin terms.