Soriano al Cimino, Cemetery of

SORIANO AL CIMINO, CIMITERO di. – The medieval Surrianum at the foothills of the Monti Cimini (province of Viterbo) derives from the Etruscan Surrius vetus, destroyed by the Romans.

S. preserves the fortress, one of the most important in Lazio, built in 1278 by Pope Niccolò III of the Orsini family, which held possession of the town, later passing to the Colonna, to G. Vitelleschi, and to the Church. S. is also famous for the “sasso menicante” (also mentioned by Roman writers), a mass of trachyte weighing approximately 170 tons, in oscillating equilibrium above a vertical cliff.

The town had its own bishops until the 7th century, when it was united with the see of Bomarzo. A short distance from S. Ferentum (v.), where a martyr Eutizio is venerated on 15 May. There is a legendary Passio of this Saint (BHL, 2779–80); it has been thought possible to identify him with the Eutizio venerated in a church of the diocese of Ferentino, mentioned by Gregory the Great (Dialoghi, III, 28: PL 77, 316); an inscription, believed to be from Tarquinia, records “an Euticius confessor depositus viii Kalendas septembris in pace Christi” (CIL, XI, 3516); G. B. De Rossi proposed recognizing the martyr in the presbyter Eutizio of the acts of the martyrs Valentino and Ilario (Bull. di arch. crist., 2nd series, 5 [1874], pp. 101–18); there is also an Eutizio in the Passio of the martyrs Nereo and Achilleo (BHL, 6060, 19–20); but no identification can be established. On the side of the hill a Christian cemetery was discovered, part of which was destroyed in order to erect a basilica in which Eutizio is venerated. The cemetery was constructed around a central nucleus, from which several galleries branched out, with the characteristic that the tombs, unlike those in the Roman cemeteries, are closed with lime and stones used as masonry; moreover, they are not excavated in the walls, but built against the walls themselves and covered with lime, on which the inscriptions were scratched or painted. Among these, the inscription of Apra, from the year 359, is noteworthy: “Eusebio et Ypatio cons(ulibus)”. The cemetery was seen by G. Marangoni and M. Boldetti, who drew a plan of the basilica and the galleries. Of the ancient basilica, an inscription (8th–9th centuries) recalls the decoration of polished marble slabs placed above the tomb of the martyr Eutizio by Bishop Stefano: “Stephanus vates tibi mar/tur Eutici speclatae marmoris dedi”.

those of the Roman cemeteries, are closed with lime and stones used as masonry; moreover, they are not excavated in the walls, but built against the walls themselves and covered with lime, on which the inscriptions were scratched or painted. Among these, the inscription of Apra, from the year 359, is noteworthy: “Eusebio et Ypatio cons(ulibus)”. The cemetery was seen by G. Marangoni and M. Boldetti, who drew a plan of the basilica and the galleries. Of the ancient basilica, an inscription (8th–9th centuries) recalls the decoration of polished marble slabs placed above the tomb of the martyr Eutizio by Bishop Stefano: “Stephanus vates tibi mar/tur Eutici speclatae marmoris dedi”.