The Last Words of Avercius

Several sources have aided author Laurence Kant in piecing together and translating Avercius’s entire poem. The lines shown in red are copied from the extant remains of Avercius’s funerary monument; lines 1–3 and 20–22 match the few lines quoted a few years later in the funerary monument of a Christian man named Alexander. The bulk of the Greek poem is based heavily on versions recorded in medieval manuscripts of the bishop’s Life.

¹As a citizen of a favored city I have had this monument made
while alive in order that I might here have a prominent place for my body.
My name is Avercius, a disciple of a holy shepherd,
who pastures flocks of sheep on mountains and on plains,
⁵(and) who possesses huge eyes, which he casts down everywhere.

For he has taught me faithful writings [ - - - ],
he who has sent me to Rome to gaze upon a kingdom
and to see a golden-robed and golden-sandalled queen.

There I saw a people who had a radiant seal,
¹⁰and I saw the soil of Syria and many cities, including Nisibis,
after I crossed over the Euphrates. Everywhere I had brethren
while I had Paul in my carriage. Faith led me everywhere
and everywhere served a fish from a spring as nourishment,
(a fish) which was enormous and pure, (and) which a holy virgin grasped.

¹⁵And she (Faith) bestowed it among friends so that they could always eat it,
as they had excellent wine and as they gave it in its mixed form with bread.

While present I, Avercius, said that these (words) were to be written here,
when I was in fact in my seventy-second year.

Let everyone, who understands these (words) and who is in unison (with them), pray on his behalf.