ISic000003: Epitaph for Culucuitas

I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana; courtesy Museo Archeologico Regionale Antonino Salinas; photo J.Prag 23.05.22
ID
ISic000003
Language
Latin
Text type
funerary
Object type
No data
Status
No data
Links
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Edition

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Apparatus criticus

  • Text controlled against photograph ;
  • line.3: Mommsen (after Alessi): IYCHE·FHER·M·FE; Ferrua: Tyche et Herm(es) fec(erunt); Bivona: Tyche et Her(mes) fe(cerunt); Manganaro: Tyche et HermÌ‚a fec(erunt).

Physical description

Support

Description
Rectangular marble plaque, somewhat uneven along the upper edge. Borken in two down the middle, but rejoined. Slight chipping to the lower edge.
Object type
No data
Material
marble
Condition
complete, broken
Dimensions
height: 14 cm, width: 31 cm, depth: 2-3 cm

Inscription

Layout
Horizontal guidelines between lines, but almost no interlineation. The text maintains left and right margins (with guideline indicating an outer right margin), with words broken across lines or abbreviated to maintain the margins. Interpuncts mark the ends of lines 2 and 3.
Text condition
complete
Lettering

Letter heights
Line 1: 28mm
Line 2-3: 30mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Catina
Provenance found
Found in area of Piazza Stesicoro (area of a Roman necropolis), Catania
Map

Current location

Place
Palermo, Italy
Repository
Museo Archeologico Regionale Antonino Salinas , 3503
Autopsy
None
Map

Date

second or third century CE (AD 101 – AD 300)
Evidence
lettering

Text type

funerary

commentary

Despite the good preservation of the stone, not one editor has so far correctly reported the final line. Mommsen did not see the stone and was only able to report the garbled reading of Alessi, in Giornale del gab. lett. dell' Acc. Gioenia 3 (1834), p.18 (non vidi). Ferrua and Manganaro both mistakenly reported the presence of a final C on the line; Bivona mistakenly reported the final name as only HER on the stone; Manganaro argued that the final M of Herm(es) in fact is MA in ligature and so Herma, but the supposed trace of a possible cross-bar on the second half of the M, to give A, appears to be part of adjacent damage on the stone, besides the implausibility of the female name in context, and the original reading of Herm(es) seems far preferable.

Bibliography

Digital editions
Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
5/1/2025