ISic000093: Honorific for Titianus on the occasion of his assumption of the toga virilis

I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana; photo J. Prag 08-07-2022
ID
ISic000093
Language
Latin
Text type
honorific
Object type
stele
Status
No data
Links
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Apparatus criticus

  • Text from autopsy ;
  • 2: Contra Mommsen, no interpunct on stone after 'et' on line 2
  • 5: Contra Mommsen, No interpunct on stone after 'ob' on line 5
  • 6: Contra Mommsen, no interpunct on stone after '-rem' on line 6,
  • 7-8: Against the standard reading, autopsy reveals Rusus on stone, rather than Rufus. Contra Mommsen, no interpuncts on stone after every word, except for oddly shaped interpunct between 'suo' and 'incomparabile' in line 8 ;
  • Detailed palaeographic study and comparison across the Fs and Ss in the inscription reveal that the name is definitely Rufus.
  • 8: Against the standard reading, autopsy reveals incomparabile rather than incomparabili

Physical description

Support

Description
Large rectangular stele, of local grey limestone, well-squared but with abrasions and wear on sides, and damage to top as top edge abraded. Rear is relatively smooth. Small decorative band at bottom.
Object type
stele
Material
limestone
Condition
damaged
Dimensions
height: 77 cm, width: 47 (52 with bottom band) cm, depth: 29 (32 with bottom band) cm

Inscription

Layout
Eight lines of continuous Latin text. Text fills most of stone, with stone-carver attempting to centre text onto stone. Upright hedera in line 4, with right-facing tail. Two final lines smaller. Occasional use of interpuncts, in lines 1, 2, 5 and 6: tick-shaped in line 1, and more Y-shaped in subsequent lines. Some sort of interpunct/squiggle in line 8. Representing a pointed tilde (~)
Text condition
complete
Lettering

Letter heights
Line 1: 87-92mm
Line 2: 81-89mm
Line 3: 82-89mm
Line 4: 79-93mm
Line 5: 89-90mm
Line 6: 78-85mm
Line 7: 19-23mm
Line 8: 19-22mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin
Thermae Himeraeae
Provenance found
The stone was already walled into the townhall of Termini Imerese when recorded by Gualtherus in 1624

Current location

Place
Termini Imerese, Italy
Repository
Museo Civico Baldassare Romano , 109
Autopsy
Antoniou, 2022-07-08. On display in the courtyard portico of Museo Civico Baldassare Romano
Map

Date

3rd century CE on prosopographical grounds (but difficult to pin down more tightly) - so too Barbieri (AD 201 – AD 300)
Evidence
prosopography

Text type

honorific

commentary

As Dessau (ILS) emphasises, c(larissimo) f(ilio) in line 1 is unusual, as c(larissimo) i(uveni) is more standard. Dessau also notes that it is rare for someone to be explicitly qualified as belonging to the patrician class, unless they were adlected into that class. As Bivona (1994, 122) summarises, it is possible that the father of the dedicatee, Gaius Maesius Titianus, is the consul ordinarius of 245 CE, who held the office alongside the emperor M. Iulius Philippus, and who was himself possibly the son of the Maesius Fabius Titianus, c(larissimus) p(uer) of ISic000091, a dedication which was securely made between December 197-December 198 CE based on imperial titulature. The mother is likely a descendant of D. Fonteius Frontinianus (L. Stertinius Rufus) the legate of Numidia from 160-162 CE. As Bivona (1994, 122-123) stresses, the title of consularis (the Latin equivalent of the Greek ὑπατική) attested for women is extremely rare, and is epigraphically attested from only the period between 211-250 CE. Another Gaius Maesius is attested at Thermae Himeraeae, see ISic000092. While Salinas (NSA 1884, 163) identified the dedicator as P. Clodius Rufus Latro, who dedicated an honorific to Tiberius found in the area of Capo d'Orlando, see ISic003339, the autopsied reading of the cognomen Rusus makes this less certain (although not impossible). Members of the gens Clodia are attested elsewhere in Sicily.

Bibliography

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Discussion

Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
6/10/2025