ISic000117: Funerary inscription for Popillius of Pollentia
- ID
- ISic000117
- Language
- Latin
- Text type
- funerary
- Object type
- plaque
- Status
- No data
- Links
- View in current site
Edition
Apparatus criticus
- Text from autopsy;
- 1: Although it is extremely likely that the first and third letters on the stone are both Ps, Bivona does not record that this identification is not uncertain due to damage to the stone.;
- Bivona does not acknowledge that the final P on line 1 is possible, but not certain, given damage to the stone. Bivona asserts an O at the end of line 1 which is not necessarily apparent on the stone, but is potentially just a by-product of the curved the shape of the abrasion on the right edge.
- 1-2: Bivona does not acknowledge the possibility of missing text to the left of the text in both lines 1-2, but for the missing praenomen in line 1
Physical description
Support
- Description
- Rectangular plaque of grey limestone. Significant abrasions on top, bottom and right edges, with break on left side. Rear appears flat.
- Object type
- plaque
- Material
- limestone
- Condition
- No data
- Dimensions
- height: 35.5 cm, width: 48 (at widest) cm, depth: 12 (at deepest) cm
Inscription
- Layout
- Two lines of Latin text. Use of triangular interpuncts between each word, although final visible interpunct on line 1 is shaped more like a tick or a sideways T
- Text condition
- No data
- Lettering
-
- Letter heights
- Line 1: 49-62mm
- Line 2: 53-57mm
- Interlinear heights
- Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm
Provenance
- Place of origin
- Thermae Himeraeae
- Provenance found
- The place, date, and circumstances of the discovery are unknown, but the piece is assumed to come from Termini Imerese
Current location
- Place
- Termini Imerese, Italy
- Repository
- Museo Civico Baldassare Romano , 113
- Autopsy
- Antoniou, 2022-07-06. On display in Museo Civico Baldassare Romano
- Map
Date
Imperial (AD 1 – AD 300)- Evidence
- No data
Text type
commentary
The praenomen is obscured at the beginning of line 1. Bivona is right to doubt whether, after the patronymic at the end of line 1, there was an indication of tribe and cognomen. Bivona is also correct to doubt whether there is room on the right side of the stone for the three letters usually used for a tribal abbreviation. Whilst the vertical stroke at the end of line 1 is possibly a P, this is uncertain given damage. Thus, Bivona's tentative suggestion that Popillius is enrolled in the Pollia tribe is possible, but uncertain. As Bivona correctly emphasises, this cannot be the same Popillius as the Gaius Popillius Priscus, of tribe Maecia, attested in ISic000099 also from Thermae Himeraeae. Bivona is correct to suggest that it is impossible that our Popillius belonged to tribe Maecia instead, as comparison with the M in line 2 excludes M as a possibility for the unclear letter at the end of line 1. Bivona suggests that Popillius' city of Pollentia, identified in line 2, must be that in Liguria (Italy) as Pollentia in Picenum and Pollentia on the island of Majorca were both registered in tribe Velina, and it is impossible to see a V for the unidentified letter at the end of line 1.
Bibliography
- Digital editions
- TM: 285309
- EDR: 127538
- EDH: -
- EDCS: 22100067
- PHI: -
- Printed editions
- T. Mommsen, Inscriptiones Bruttiorum Lucaniae Campaniae Siciliae Sardiniae Latinae. Pars posterior. Inscriptiones Siciliae et Sardiniae, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, consilio et auctoritate Academiae Litterarum Regiae Borussicae editum, 10.2 (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1883), at 10.7366
- Giacomo Manganaro, «La Sicilia da Sesto Pompeo a Diocleziano», Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt 2.11.1 (1988): 3–89, at 49
- Livia Bivona, Iscrizioni latine lapidarie del museo civico di Termini Imerese, vol. 9/8, Kokalos Supplementi / Sikelika serie storica (Palermo / Rome, 1994), at 35
Citation and editorial status
- Editor
- Jonathan Prag
- Principal contributor
- Jonathan Prag
- Contributors
- Last revision
- 8/23/2023